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      04-05-2019, 11:57 AM   #1
KulaMichael
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Camber/Suspension Issue

Greetings! I recently picked-up a 2015 M235i with 49,000miles and had it looked over by the local BMW Dealer. They found the front passenger tire was bald and worn through the bands on the inside edge very significantly. The alignment and steering wheel were off. They were not able to get the camber into spec, and suggested leaving the vehicle as is for the time being, thinking that replacing the struts would be a good next step.

I am noticing a slight droning at highway speeds, and at low speeds over bumps it sounds like there is a knocking, best description would be a cloth bag with wooden balls knocking around.

Current Front Left Camber: -0.59
Current Front Right Camber: -2.14

Looking for thoughts and suggestions as to how to proceed.

Do I go for replacing the upper and lower control arms and install camber correction bushings to get my camber even?

Do I replace the front struts with OEM and add Dinan springs?

If I look at the cost of bilstein struts and Dinan springs to cover the front, it may be more economical to go with coil overs....

Do I go with KW V2 coil overs and camber plates?

I am interested in having this be a performance vehicle, tracked 2-3 time a year. Hoping to keep my initial investment low since finances are currently tight, but also want to have my car running the best it can. I have a space, tools, and ability to do the work myself.

How would you start going about resolving or diagnosing the issue?
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      04-05-2019, 01:05 PM   #2
Sypher
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Is there any current suspension mods? These cars has fixed camber from factory and cannot be adjusted unless you're running camber plates or different LCA. If the suspension is stock, and you have -2.14 on one side, sounds like there's something quite wrong with the suspension.
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      04-05-2019, 01:49 PM   #3
KulaMichael
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sypher View Post
Is there any current suspension mods? These cars has fixed camber from factory and cannot be adjusted unless you're running camber plates or different LCA. If the suspension is stock, and you have -2.14 on one side, sounds like there's something quite wrong with the suspension.
To the best of my knowledge there are currently no suspension mods.

Exactly!

Not sure where to start looking to correct the problem and would like to be financially smart verses blindly switch out components. Not happy that BMW wasn't able to give me a better idea as to what it was going to take.
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      04-05-2019, 02:14 PM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by KulaMichael View Post
To the best of my knowledge there are currently no suspension mods.

Exactly!

Not sure where to start looking to correct the problem and would like to be financially smart verses blindly switch out components. Not happy that BMW wasn't able to give me a better idea as to what it was going to take.
Perhaps it'd be worth getting a second opinion on alignment just to rule out technician or inaccurate machine. Considering the tire wear, probably not the case, however.

Is toe correct? With toe badly misadjusted, it changes camber readings as well, so you want to make sure toe is close to zero.

Finally, I would look for bent components such as control arms, spindles, etc. If you're tracking the car and will be replacing control arms, you might want to install F80 control arms for additional camber.

Just my few cents.
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      04-05-2019, 03:53 PM   #5
KulaMichael
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The Toe was at -0.47 and was corrected to +0.05
The left camber was originally at -0.53 corrected to -0.59
The right camber was originally at -2.07 and was "corrected" to -2.14

The dealer did a visual inspection for any damaged or bent components, and didn't see anything that stood out as damaged or bent. Not sure if it would make sense to replace upper and lower control arms before taking on replacing the strut/spring or doing a full coil over job.

I will ask around to see if there might be a good shop to take a look at. Open to all ideas at this point.
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      05-18-2019, 07:25 PM   #6
manillaTugBoat
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Unhappy

I’m experiencing something similar. I took my car out for a spirited run on some fading tires and when I came home I noticed that the outside of the passenger tire had far more wear than the driver side. After replacing the tires and taking it to Bmw for an alignment they aligned the whole car except the front passenger tire who’s camber is out of tolerance at -0°23. All of this to say the dealer says that the suspension is bent! They suggested to replace the swivel arm and the wheel hub both and quoted me $2k.

Let me know how you resolve your situation.
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Last edited by manillaTugBoat; 05-18-2019 at 07:33 PM..
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      05-19-2019, 08:38 PM   #7
Sypher
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Was your spirited drive mainly left turns, or had harder left turns than right? The front camber on these cars are not adjustable. They didn't touch your drier side camber either. The camber changed because of toe adjustment. They did touch your passenger side toe too but that didn't affect your front camber. -0.23 degrees is not too far out of spec. These cars chews through outter shoulders under spirited driving due to the bad amount of OEM camber.
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      05-20-2019, 11:40 PM   #8
KulaMichael
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With the Toe correction the tires aren't getting shredded so I haven't addressed the issue yet. Partially because I currently am between jobs and low on funds, and partially because the dealership did not earn my trust. Advisor said they will just start swapping out parts until they figure out what is wrong, and I get the full bill regardless if the parts needed to be swapped or not. I would gladly pay a premium for an exact diagnosis followed by correcting the actual issue. If the plan is to just start swapping parts then I will be taking it to a local repair shop or do the work myself.
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      05-21-2019, 02:06 AM   #9
pikcachu
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Quote:
Originally Posted by KulaMichael View Post
The Toe was at -0.47 and was corrected to +0.05
The left camber was originally at -0.53 corrected to -0.59
The right camber was originally at -2.07 and was "corrected" to -2.14

The dealer did a visual inspection for any damaged or bent components, and didn't see anything that stood out as damaged or bent. Not sure if it would make sense to replace upper and lower control arms before taking on replacing the strut/spring or doing a full coil over job.

I will ask around to see if there might be a good shop to take a look at. Open to all ideas at this point.
Camber is fixed so there is no way to "correct" it...

what happens is the machine just reading different from one read to the next ...the toe adjustment might have a little effect on the reading but it's mostly a reading variation between the reads

at -2 something is wrong.... should be between -0.50 and -0.75 or so
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      05-21-2019, 02:08 AM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by KulaMichael View Post
With the Toe correction the tires aren't getting shredded so I haven't addressed the issue yet. Partially because I currently am between jobs and low on funds, and partially because the dealership did not earn my trust. Advisor said they will just start swapping out parts until they figure out what is wrong, and I get the full bill regardless if the parts needed to be swapped or not. I would gladly pay a premium for an exact diagnosis followed by correcting the actual issue. If the plan is to just start swapping parts then I will be taking it to a local repair shop or do the work myself.
well it's pretty much impossible to figure out what's bent as you won't be able to tell such small difference by looking....

It might even be the machine is not calibrated right... might as well get another place to read the alignment
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      06-15-2019, 11:24 AM   #11
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This all sounds like impact damage - I'd get an indie frame shop to measure it for how out of true things are. I'm thinking s/b hit s/t pretty hard, enough to ding front frame alignment. If the 'carfax is clean' then this may be an issue for you to settle w/ whoever sold it to you (that indie shop can probably also tell if it was hit, and what repairs were done - not unheard of to have unreported collision damage). On the plus side, there are plenty who would give a cherished piece of their anatomy for 2.5 degrees of front camber, so if you can figure out how to do that to BOTH sides you'll be a star.
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      10-10-2020, 10:22 PM   #12
Jllor97
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Dealing with a similar issue... Was recently on a road trip in Colombia and all was good until the sun went down. About 20 mins after sundown I hit a pothole on my F22 235i going about 60mph. Heard a loud bang so I immediately pulled over and to no surprise I popped my right front tire (not running run flats anymore cuz too expensive here in CO.) Real issue is I immediately noticed negative camber on that same tire. I already got a new tire and the car drives fine... no vibrations and no swaying to either side but the negative camber is obvious. What damage should I look out for?
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      11-01-2020, 07:28 AM   #13
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Your Front Right camber issue is due to the Steering knuckle (BMW calls this a Swivel Bearing).
My recommendation is to replace this Steering knuckle, with a brand new Hub and Bearing assembly then Do another alignment. I promise you this will fix your issue.
See alot of these issues due to the Shit roads where I live.

The suspension components it's self may not even look bent to the naked eye and even putting 2 side by side its still very hard to see the difference.
I would think that the car Hit some sort of large pot hole in its previous ownership.
My recommendation would replace that steering knuckle and Hub before you start looking into lowering struts/springs and aftermarket bushings ect.

Pretty much what the dealer Quoted there. I wouldnt copy the part numbers exactly from that post but ya that is your issue i would say
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Last edited by Taunto; 11-08-2020 at 02:18 PM..
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      11-02-2020, 06:00 AM   #14
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I had a similar problem and dealer used a swivel bearing / steering knucle with correction and replaced the damper.

Our cars have a stock steering knucle with -0.5 degrees correction. There is another one "neutral" (0 degrees) and another one with positive correction.

I had installed the M3/m4 LCA+TS so I should have like 1.5 negative degrees. Left was OK but Right was like 2.5 or a bit more.

They replaced the damper an the steering knucle (using the one with +0.5 correction) and it result to less than 1.5 degrees in the front right. After some battle with the dealer, They finally replaced the steering knucle with the neutral one, resulting a -1.5 degreees.

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