***Please be aware - this is a post relating to setting a car up as prescribed by BMW***
Having burnt through a lot of money over the past two months trying to get my alignment just right, I have learnt quite a bit about it, in particular, on the E46 M3. I have taken it to High Street tyre fitter depots, two recommended BMW specialists and finally Kwik Fit. The only person to get it right was a young lad at Kwik Fit, who didn't really know much about the in depth alignment needed on BMW's but took the time to learn about it. Because he was inexperienced, he didn't think he knew it all and followed the instructions to a tee, with me giving an input every now and then when he forgot something.
With the amount of time I have spent looking into alignment and the amount of money I have spent - the one thing that has become massively clear to me is that alignment is not about the machine used, is not about the experience of the person doing it, but is about the TIME and CARE spent on it, which I shall explain below:
- High Street tyre place - Had the latest Hunter alignment machine, but didn't even attempt to do Camber adjustment saying they needed some special tool (********) when really they just couldn't be bothered to do it because it takes too long. Done in 45 minutes.
- BMW specialists - Had a slightly older Hunter machine, but it was still very good. However, it was clear that they had rushed it through and not done it properly, even though they see E46 M3's on a daily basis, the level of care in their work just wasn't satisfactory and they left a lot of cross camber and toe settings were out when Kwik Fit checked it on their freshly calibrated Hunter machine 2 days later. Done in an hour.
- Kwik Fit - Young guy who hasn't been in the mechanic game long, didn't know much about E46 M3's or about how multi adjustable they were, but who spent ages on it getting it right and following the instructions, with my help. The alignment he did and the level of care in his work was exemplary. Took nearly 3 hours, but he did it so well and was learning as he went along. This proves you don't need to be an F1 mechanic to operate these machines properly, you just need to have some pride in your work and time to get it right. The actual machines are idiot proof. They tell you what to do, when to do it and even have videos showing you how to do it.
Right, so the practical part alignment. There is a LOT of people with misunderstandings about alignment, so I will try and make sure this thread is as factual as possible and without teaching anyone to suck eggs, go over everything to make sure you guys don't have to spend the time and money I did.
When you take your vehicle to an alignment place you must make sure of the following:
- You have a full tank of fuel.
- Your tyres are at the correct pressures (33FR/36RR for E46 M3 with standard 19's)
- Your bushes (FCAB, RTAB, rear ball joints) are in good order, and your track rods are not seized up.
When you get to alignment place, you must make sure they put the correct details of your car in. On every Hunter alignment it should read "E46 M3 - 19" alloys". If it says anything like "E46 Coupe with low slung sport suspension" they have got it wrong. The alignment specs they should be working to are:
Front:
-------
Camber: -1°20' to -0°40' (degrees/minutes)
Caster: 7°55' to 6°55'
Toe: 0°05' to 0°12'
Cross Camber (difference in camber across axle): No greater than 0.5° aka 30'
Rear:
------
Camber: -2°00' to -1°30'
Toe: 0°08' to 0°14'
Cross Camber - No greater than 15'
Prior to the alignment the car should be weighted down with 68KG in the front footwell/seat of each side and with 14KG placed in the boot. This brings the car to it's "Normal position". Now, people often think "Yep done, all weighted, ready to align the car" but don't understand what needs to happen next. Once the car is weighted the person undertaking the work should get the tape measure out and measure from the bottom of the alloy wheel (not tyre) to the highest point of the wheel arch.
The car should be brought to the following levels:
Front - 619mm
Rear - 600mm
If the car is within 10mm of these ride heights with the weights in when you measure it, you may proceed to balancing the car and bring it to "Design position". If not, the car must be repaired prior to the alignment.
"Design position" or balancing the car involves bringing each side of the car to within 1mm of the other side across the axle, which involves the removal and adding of weights as necessary. With my car, this involved putting 30kg in the drivers seat, but 60kg in passengers seat. With the rear of the car, this involved putting 75kg over the passenger side rear wheel, and none over the drivers side rear wheel. This brought the ride height completely level across each axle, and the Hunter machine could then take a reading. Straight away, 95% of the readings were in bang on in the green section, when they were not before after the previous 4 people had said it wasn't coming into line and they couldn't understand why.
From there, the rear camber and toe can be adjusted. Followed by the front camber and toe (in the right order).
This balancing of the car and ride height is critical to getting the right readings and is VERY often just skipped over by those doing the alignment - because they simply don't understand what they should be doing, even though it is on the screen in simple instructions. It is very simple and only took myself and the Kwik Fit guy 5 minutes to do - but just sticking in the ballast is only half of what needs to be done.
This is the ONLY way to align an E46 M3 and anyone else coming out with crap like "It'll only be you in the car most of the time, so we'll just weight the driver's seat" is wrong (on standard suspension and road conditions). BMW know best, they know it'll be you in the driver's seat most of the time yet they have tailored the specs to be how they are through their significant knowledge - trust them.
So now how does the car feel? They steering wheel is bang on straight, it takes the same amount of effort to turn left as it does to turn right, it does not wander at all and absolutely digs in like hell in the corners. The car is now set up correctly and you better believe you can feel it. I am happy again.
Also shocked to see that it looks like it needs some attention under there with bits of rust! Wasn't expecting to see that, my E30 was much cleaner underneath, its just cosmetic from what I can see at the moment though so I'll add that to my agenda.
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