tjleeland

Long story short... My wife got t-boned on Labor Day; the guy hit her square on the driver?s side rear wheel. It broke the arms and struts off. Thankfully she and my daughter are ok.

So I got the car back from the body shop (The local BMW Dealers) yesterday, and when I got it home started to notice all the things that they did not fix correctly. After looking at the rear wheels for a while I notice that they are not "square" (perpendicular to the ground), they do not stand straight-up. So I put a level on them and they are almost two inches off square. The front wheels stand square but not the rear. I call the body shop and they say the wheels are supposed to lean in.

My question is this correct, should they lean in???

I have the sport package with the ARS (Active Roll Stabilization) and Active Steering.

Thanks

Rudy

Yes, the rear wheels should lean in. Search the forums for information about negative camber and you'll see many posts about this.

After that sort of impact, however, I assume the car had a four wheel alignment done as part of the repair process...

Veight

Are you saying that your tires do not sit flat on the pavement? If the body shop says thats how they are supposed to be that is unbelievable. Those tires will wear incorrectly so fast that they will be ruined in 200 miles. I know the BMW body shop at my dealer is BMW certified and would never send out a car that is not to specs.

Rudy

Veight, most BMW's have some visible negative camber on the rear wheels. It can lead to some irregular tire wear but it also contributes to the great handling of the car and helps it be "The Ultimate Driving Machine"...

Veight

I understand. I thought that when he said his wheels were not perpendicular he was not seeing all the tread touching the road. I guess he is looking at the line from the side of the wheel down. I thought he was referring to a gross camber.

I know in some cases after some severe body damage that the entire car does not appear to move straight down the road which I believe is due to bent frames.

s4iscool

Neg camber is right, and many rwd cars run quite a bit...it can actually be your friend in the twisty stuff. Did you get your frame measured? that would be my biggest concern in an impact that hard.

my2007

Sorry to hear of your accident but luckily no one was hurt. If I read correctly, agree with the other members that cos of the -ve camber wheel should lean in, normal. But if this is excessive, then should get it checked as there is a set tolerance and make sure that it is within spec otherwise you will get adverse tyre wear and poor handling.

DrLev99

My rears also seem to lean in more than would "appear" normal, and I've have my car aligned at least 6 times in the past 4 months, and I even watched the last one being done..due to some vibration issues they couldn't fix. The negative camber is exactly where it's supposed to be on front and rear, according to BMW specs, and it still looks exaggerated in the rear. The outer part of the bottoms of my tires don't even touch the pavement.

But they say it's correct, so who I am to argue after 6 alignments? We have 2 other E60's in my housing development, and it's funny because when I was originally concerned about this issue, I stopped to check how the rears looked on the others when walking the dog, and they all leaned in the same...exactly like mine. So, my worries are now gone. And my tires are still great after 4500 miles.

Ask your SA for the alignment specs that they should have done post crash. See if it's all in spec and rest easy.

tjleeland

Thanks for all the info. I was able to get the alignment specs from the SA and it is within specs.

Thanks again,
TJ