xcntrk

I had my car aligned recently and wanted to share my results.

I was really surprised at how quickly I've been destroying rear tires which on the 550i (275/30R-19) isn't cheap to replace. The problem is from the stock alignment settings. BMW sets the stock camber and toe settings very aggressive straight from the factory. The thought here is that the car is designed for high-speed performance and handling - at the cost of inefficient tire life. Since my 5er doesn't see high-speed motorways like our European brothers, nor does it see any open-track events or rarely get over 80mph, I decided to relax these settings in order to obtain better tread wear.

The factory rear camber is -2.00° and the toe(in) is +0.15°. This explains how my tires have been chewing up. The down side is that there's not a lot of camber adjustment in the rear. I worked with the alignment shop and we pulled all the camber out that the stock setup would allow - then normalized the two side to a final value of -1.30°, then relaxed the toe-in to a new setting of +0.10°.

Hopefully these new settings will help achieve better tire & tread wear without sacrificing too much performance at least with my driving style.

andrewsweetnam

I've thought about booking my car in to have the tracking wheel alignment done.
Does the car feel any diffrent on the road!
I remember when i had my e39 touring done the rear felt smoother over the bumps. I was running 275/30/19s on that as well, and after I had the rear wheel alignment done the rear tyre life almost doubled!

SilberGrauE60

BavAuto.com has a camber kit that gives you the capability to adjust the camber much more than you were able to do with the stock setup. They claim a full 2.0 degrees of adjustment, thus enabling resetting the camber to 0 degrees if you wish. Don't have any experience with them, just quoting their website/catalog claims.

ThunderbuttNLeadfoot

I too have my car aligned with less aggressive settings but still my first set of factory 275/30/19 Conti tires only lasted about 22k. My front tires however still have alot of tread left.

xcntrk

I just recently installed new tires prompting the re-alignment. The increase in traction alone (all alignment settings aside) is very noticeable, therefore I can't really speak to feeling any change from the alignment itself. Even at -1.30° that's still a good amount of rear camber, so I have no loss of comfort that I'm going to loose any traction in the corners. Then again I don't take 80mph hard corners either

RonVF

Hello,

I am in need of an alignment as my car (2005 545 ia sport) inside rears wore out.
Do you guys get the alignments done at the dealer or someplace else? When I talked with one tire shop they said they couldn't do BMW and the dealer wants $150 which seems a little high compaired to a normal 4 wheel alignment of $75.00
I currently have snows on and wonder if I should wait until I put my summer tires on or if that doesn't matter for the alignment?

Thanks

AchtungE60

$150? usually it's about $300 for retail consumers. I pay $240. Still I take my BMW to Tire Kingdom to use their Hunter Laser alignment...cost me $100. I'd wait if you're swapping out tires.