It's all definitely shop and tech dependent. I always go to a local tire chain shop and never had a problem. Wheel is always straight and when I ask for something out of the norm, for instance keeping my front camber out of spec so that my tires don't rub, they do it. The techs are younger but in my experience the ones that I've dealt with are pretty knowledgable considering they work on pretty much every make and model.

And regarding the weights while aligning a car its all individual if you really want to be anal about it. If you weigh 350 lbs and drive alone most of the time and your car was aligned with 150 lb weights distributed evenly throughout the car your alignment is going to be off when it really counts. When you are driving alone. Since most of the weight will be on the front drivers seat and not anywhere else.

 

I installed everything with the wheels off the ground. After installation, I jacked up one of the rotors with the car on stands still and the bushings and ball joint were moving freely.

 

I found a reputable local shop that is going to do the alignment today with weights for the amazing sum of 65 bucks. So, I am going to see what happens after I get it back today.

I got everything apart last night and found that the bolts that attach the bushing to the sub-frame had come loose on each side. So, I re-torqued everything and got it straight to the shop for the alignment. I am crossing my fingers and hoping that the toe angles were the reason those came loose. However, if that's not the case I will be making a visit to the dealer for some new hardware.

 

This may be your problem. The bushings on the subframe side need to be lightly tightened with the wheels in the air and and then re-tightened and torqued with the wheels on the ground or loaded.

 

+1 jgt and alignments are needed if you change tie rod ends and or springs/coilovers not control arm. Oh your Firestone needs the camera machine not all of them have it. And unless your overly obese you dont need anything in the car. I had the lifetime thru firestone they never had an issue with the BMW. Call around and ask specifically for the Camera alignment machine

 

Sorry I only read your initial post. See my DIY for the bushings but I've replaced the arms and bushings on my 5er and had no issues. BMW does recommend alignment but that is pretty much to steal your $. If you think about the mechanics of the suspension, it is very simple. THE only thing that can cause toe is the tie rod ends. In fact, when i replaced those with new ones I did have to do an alignment. I have replaced upper and lower control arms in the front (several times) and in the rear as well and had no issues.