aharper

This past weekend I sanded and sprayed my winter rims black for a different look. I put them on the car a couple days ago and last night went back to my summer wheels. When I put the wheels on the car I noticed that the rear driver's side tire is "out" at the bottom by more than an inch from the top. I went around to check all other tires which seem to be pretty darn straight (the other rear tire is off by only a little). I had the car aligned about 2 months ago, twice actually, and haven't had any trouble with alignment that I've known of until last night. Problem is, I don't know if it was like this before I put my winter wheels on or not, I just happened to notice it last night.

Can somebody else measure their car and post back results? I used a level and put the bottom against the bottom of the tire. I lifted pulled the top away from the tire until it was straight up and down and measured. I'm getting a bit over 1". My tires are gonna wear uneven very fast if it stays like this. ugh.

measurement...


winter wheels...

aharper

I just found the below pic that was taken over a month ago... this looks like it may very well have been off back then, too, and I just didn't notice. Thoughts?

Stephen Max

That's getting close to -3 degrees of camber. That can't be right.

DavidF

I have read that the negative (is that right) camber of the rear wheels is normal and reason the E60 (sport?) wears the inside edge of the rear tires so quickly. Not sure how much camber is normal. My 545i sport has similiar negative camber.

pjinca

Specs for our cars is around -2 degrees negative camber, so wearing the inside edge is perfectly normal. However, -3 degrees is too much and you'll want to get that checked. Personally I got tired of going through so many rear tires so I had them dial out as much negative camber as possible last time I got an alignment. I am down to -0.8 degrees now, so hopefully my rear tires will last longer than 6-8 months.

aharper

Update: The pic I posted earlier is fresh after putting my summer wheels back onto the car. I have driven since that pic was taken and the measurement has changed. If I place my level in the same manner it is just over .75" now, not just over 1" like was reported earlier. I'm guessing that the shocks need time to compress some after lifting the car. At just over .75" how far off is the camber? Is that within normal specs??

Also, I'm now noticing a slight shake at around 50mph. Rethinking my steps it occurs to me that I left my hubcentric rings on the car when I put the stock rims back. Could I have damaged the ring out of center somehow??? I looked at it just now and can't find anything that looks odd or out of shape but figured it's worth asking about.

Thanks for the help!

jgt

Timely post. Buy my kit and solve all your problems!
https://5series.net/forums/topic/116...ar-camber-kit/

Joking aside like everyone else stated -2.0 degrees is considered normal and within spec but will definitely reduce the life of the rear tires.
Maybe your left shock a weaker than right causing more load i.e. more negative camber.
Take it back to the alignment shop to get the current values and see if they'll do a courtesy check since you recently had the alignment done.