[bigneil]

Last week I brought my car to the dealership for the first time in many years because I wanted to get the best alignment.

Many garages will cover their ears and sing "La la la la la" if you have H&R springs, but at BMW they know how to calibrate for those.

Anyhow I was told they couldn't get the rear passenger wheel into perfect alignment (though it was in the green). I asked why and they said that over time our cars will suffer metal fatigue and heat stretching from winters/summers and the solution is adjustable rear control arms.

He mentioned two, in the $100 and $300 range. It's only an hour each side labor. So I decided to research it. This may or may not solve the problem: my car has slightly pulled to the right for many years over many alignments.

Does anyone have adjustable rear control arms?

[Jrrrrrrr]

Originally Posted by bigneil

Many garages will cover their ears and sing "La la la la la" if you have H&R springs, but at BMW they know how to calibrate for those.

The magic to calibrate for lowering springs is to adjust camber and toe because the ride-height change changes camber and toe.

Anyhow I was told they couldn't get the rear passenger wheel into perfect alignment (though it was in the green). I asked why and they said that over time our cars will suffer metal fatigue and heat stretching from winters/summers and the solution is adjustable rear control arms.

The eccentric bolts at the end of the BBQ-tong rear lower control arms can get badly seized all around and limit camber adjustment, even on west-coast cars.

He mentioned two, in the $100 and $300 range. It's only an hour each side labor. So I decided to research it. This may or may not solve the problem: my car has slightly pulled to the right for many years over many alignments.

The ebay adjustable rear control arms are the best bang for the buck out there:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/REAR-LOWER-C...ec59be&vxp=mtr

[jayjaya29]

I went with SPC/Eibach (branded under both names) adjustable arms. A little more expensive but worth it for the name behind it...

[seanpriddy]

I have H&R Sport Springs, so I put in some SPC adjustable rear control arms. Now my alignment is spot on.

[bimmaboy88]

the ebay ones are the S**t. best $100 spent. i have used them on my previous 2 e36 m3s. they are easy to work with and well built. trust me I like to torture my car in the canyons, in the past 3 years that i have used them, never once did they fail.

in addition, if you have some basic tools and a jack to supper the differential, i say you do it yourself. all you got to do is disconnect the differential from the driveshaft and loosen the 3 bolts holding the differential, and the bolt holding the control arms in place will have enough space to pop out. probably will take you about 2 hours to complete the whole thing. its one of those things that just take time, and isn't hard to do.

[200kclub]

Originally Posted by bimmaboy88

the ebay ones are the S**t. best $100 spent. i have used them on my previous 2 e36 m3s. they are easy to work with and well built. trust me I like to torture my car in the canyons, in the past 3 years that i have used them, never once did they fail.

in addition, if you have some basic tools and a jack to supper the differential, i say you do it yourself. all you got to do is disconnect the differential from the driveshaft and loosen the 3 bolts holding the differential, and the bolt holding the control arms in place will have enough space to pop out. probably will take you about 2 hours to complete the whole thing. its one of those things that just take time, and isn't hard to do.

I've also heard from a tech that if you put a jack under the diff and push in a little bit, there is enough flex in the stock bushings to get to the inner bolts. You'd need an alignment after that regardless don't you?

[Jrrrrrrr]

Originally Posted by 200kclub

I've also heard from a tech that if you put a jack under the diff and push in a little bit, there is enough flex in the stock bushings to get to the inner bolts. You'd need an alignment after that regardless don't you?

No, all 3 diff bolts need to be removed in order to manipulate the diff in such a way to get those lower control arm bolts out. Your tech sounds like someone I wouldn't want to take my car to if he actually uses that technique as described.

You definitely need to adjust rear camber after installing new rear lower control arms of any sort -- then you need to adjust rear toe as well because the camber change will slightly change the toe.

[white-hot]

Originally Posted by Jrrrrrrr

No, all 3 diff bolts need to be removed in order to manipulate the diff in such a way to get those lower control arm bolts out. Your tech sounds like someone I wouldn't want to take my car to if he actually uses that technique as described.

You definitely need to adjust rear camber after installing new rear lower control arms of any sort -- then you need to adjust rear toe as well because the camber change will slightly change the toe.

^This x1000. If I had a nickel...

[200kclub]

Not my tech, a friends... That's good to know because lowering the whole diff is not something I'd want to do when I decide to do this.

Also, a good alignment is ****ing expensive, and getting one everytime I do some chassis work is getting old. 3rd one in 2 months tomarrow :/

[bigneil]

Thanks for the info.

Bimmerworld has Aluminum ones and Steel ones. I seem to remember someone saying the aluminum ones aren't strong enough though? Do I need new bushings too?