StarvingArtist

I finally have something worthwhile to contribute. I've been fighting front tire wear through 3 sets of tires, here is what I've learned . the factory aluminum control arms have hollow rubber mounts. They sag and create too much camber wearing off the inside edges of the tires. They are also too soft so that any bit of out of balance in the tire or rotor shakes the toe alignment causing tire wear. As the tire wears it gets further out of balance creating a vicious cycle. I bought new OEM control arms from Bimmer and they had solid rubber mounts. Apparently someone else figured this out and fixed it.

Then I bought new rotors and had them balanced to a tenth of a gram at a machine shop and bought a set of continentals with a 540 treadwear rating. It rolled smooth as silk for a few thousand miles until I caught an 800 pound moose right square in the windshield at about 60! but that's a story for another day.

The control arms are cheap and easy to put in. Just cut the tips off you ball joint fork so they don't hit the backing plate.

otakki

I'm interested in this story, too.

desired_speeds

part number? so the bmw control arm is straight bolt on besides cutting the tip off the ball joint fork?

StarvingArtist

Sorry I should have been more clear.This is an OEM Mercedes part made by Lemforder. The ones at the Mercedes dealer should be the same part in a Mercedes box, (unless they are still trying to unload the hollow ones) The only Mercedes service department within reach is too smily to deal with, so I order from Bimmer Specialist online and work on it myself. Part # 211-330-43-11 and part # 211-330-44-11 (left and right). Since I don't race on a track, I'm also going to buy camber bolts (from the dealer... uugh) for my new ride and lose a little bit more camber.