WIS of wheel alignment
03-27-2014, 05:33 PM
#26
Senior Member
Thread Starter
If the bolts were milled flat instead of slotted where they meet the ridges, it would of allowed the bolts to me more adjustable (more than -0.4, 0, and +0.4).
05-04-2022, 07:21 PM
#27
I had bought my 07" E63 in 2017 and it pulled to the right something aweful. It had many more problems than that but after completeing the repair of all of them in my garage over 3 years! (Heads & Intake and Air Struts Rebuilt, new rear shocks, new subframe bushings, hubs, F1 Fab Camber Arms, UPD Rear Toe Arms, Radiator/AC and AC Compressor, PS Pump w/Upgraded HP Hose, UPD Engine Bearings, DS Disc(s) & Intermidiate Bearing, Rear Main Seal, Cleaned Tranny Valves, renewed linkage, Racing Brakes/Pads, 3.06 Ring & Pinion with LSD) I then thought I'd finish it off with having a "professional" complete my alignement!! What a waste of time and $$$ it was!!
I took it to 3 places demanding my $$ back after the first two!! The First place was a little miffed that I hung around to begin with even after having to explain that any adjustment of the front "Crash Bolts" would require my using the STAR to deflate the Air Spring system. Of course, when asked if they would be able to suspend the car body in-situ while I would have to deflate pressure from the Airmatic, if need be, I was met with that proverbial Stare. Fortunately, I brought the proper sized 28mm wrench to adjust the rear UPD Toe, but i ended up with his useless to me 29mm in place of my 28mm!!! Nevertheless, after setting Rear Toe, we went up front where he caught me off gaurd by loosening the passenger front AirSpring Arm!! He obviously didn't hear me when I asked him the question if he had the ability to suspend the car while I released BEFORE he was to make any front Arm Adjustments!! As soon as I turned around, I was met with a startled look right as we both hear a "BANG" occuring as a result of loosening the Crash bolt in the AirSpring Arms under pressure! He looked at me and said "That wasn't supposed to happen?" I replied that of course it would happen as there's 7 Bar PSI plus the wiehgt of the whole car on each side pushing down and my concern was that by doing what he did, he might have stripped the eyelets within the AirSpring Bushing!!! His reponse was that it now all lined up according to his system!! Crazy!! He took it out for a ride, returned only to say it was still pulling right. Of course he blamed it on the relatively new tires (less than 5000mi). After making the necessary manual checks in my garage, the eylets fortunatly were intact!! Needless to say I got my $$ Back!!!
The last place allowed me to come back a few times to give the kid a chance to correct the pull, but in the end, again, it wasn't meant to be. I will say his effort at fixing the pull was to Toe-in the Driver Rear?!?!?! I should add that by this time, I had new Michelins all around!
So I followed a post I saw of Birdwell a while ago and thought I'd give it shot. I will say the preperation is very important as you have to make sure your on a fairly level surface. I used 8 pieces of linoleum flooring squares sprayed with some lube to be placed under each wheel and built up each surface under each wheel in an effort to make the car level as possible. My notes regarding this were scrapped after I bought one of those Laser FLoor Level Lights and set it up at the highest wheel and made sure each other wheel was intersected by that light indicating 4 corners being level. Pretty useful tool! I also got one of those digital magnetic angle devices that I could stick to my rotors. This made setting the Camber a Breeze. I went rather upright (like -1 degree) and it provides a very light touch to change direction. But I'm getting ahead of myself!@!
Once the Front Camber was set, I then surrounded the car with a line of nylon string attached Hub Level to jack stands all around. When doing this you have to take into account the difference in Track Width. For the 2007 E63, the manual states the difference is 9mm wider in the rear. So, that means you select a distance away from the center wheel hub all aound (Say 60mm) but add 4.5mm distance away further from the front Hubs to measure from. This will set the lines parallel to the wheels on each side. I first made sure to correct that "Adjustment of the Driver Rear Toe" and set that the same as the Passenger Rear. You do this by measuering the distance away from the front of the wheel rim to the nylon string and visa versa for the rear side of the same wheel. I used my Calipers to measure from the rim to the line and recorded the difference on each wheel in a notepad to determine proper placement. Sometimes just tightening will cause the distance to change, so note this going forward as it will take you more than just one go to get it right!
Once the Rear was aligned, I moved to the Front. Bear in mind, I had aleady made the switch back to Neutral setup in the front (ie-No Crashbolts), but that clearly was not helping. Using the Crashbolt Schematic that is avilable somewhere here on the forum, I proceeded to adjust step by step for a pull to the right until I got to the very last extreme which ultimately did the trick!! (Which for me was to simply pull the Passenger Torque Arm Forward and the Driver Side Rearward and set them up with the Crash Bolts! I left the AirSprings Set to Neutral) As for the alignment, I ended up setting both Camber Arms to the same amount of threads showing and confirmed with the Angle Device to be within 0.5mm set up at -1 degree. Next up was setting the Toe. Before you do this, you have to make sure the Steering wheel is set to Center. Sure Birdwell's DIY can get you close but I found that you can use STAR/Xentry to Dial it in perfectly to Center, which must be done after each adjustment of toe as even a 1/4 turn will pulll the wheel out of True Center!! It takes a couple tries on each side to get the masurement of each tire to be within tolerance difference, but I was simply blown away after completing this that my first test drive resulted in perfection!!! I mean, there could be a little more Camber on the front to tighten things up a little, but I'm so Centered now that I don't want to mess with it!!!!
I took it to 3 places demanding my $$ back after the first two!! The First place was a little miffed that I hung around to begin with even after having to explain that any adjustment of the front "Crash Bolts" would require my using the STAR to deflate the Air Spring system. Of course, when asked if they would be able to suspend the car body in-situ while I would have to deflate pressure from the Airmatic, if need be, I was met with that proverbial Stare. Fortunately, I brought the proper sized 28mm wrench to adjust the rear UPD Toe, but i ended up with his useless to me 29mm in place of my 28mm!!! Nevertheless, after setting Rear Toe, we went up front where he caught me off gaurd by loosening the passenger front AirSpring Arm!! He obviously didn't hear me when I asked him the question if he had the ability to suspend the car while I released BEFORE he was to make any front Arm Adjustments!! As soon as I turned around, I was met with a startled look right as we both hear a "BANG" occuring as a result of loosening the Crash bolt in the AirSpring Arms under pressure! He looked at me and said "That wasn't supposed to happen?" I replied that of course it would happen as there's 7 Bar PSI plus the wiehgt of the whole car on each side pushing down and my concern was that by doing what he did, he might have stripped the eyelets within the AirSpring Bushing!!! His reponse was that it now all lined up according to his system!! Crazy!! He took it out for a ride, returned only to say it was still pulling right. Of course he blamed it on the relatively new tires (less than 5000mi). After making the necessary manual checks in my garage, the eylets fortunatly were intact!! Needless to say I got my $$ Back!!!
The last place allowed me to come back a few times to give the kid a chance to correct the pull, but in the end, again, it wasn't meant to be. I will say his effort at fixing the pull was to Toe-in the Driver Rear?!?!?! I should add that by this time, I had new Michelins all around!
So I followed a post I saw of Birdwell a while ago and thought I'd give it shot. I will say the preperation is very important as you have to make sure your on a fairly level surface. I used 8 pieces of linoleum flooring squares sprayed with some lube to be placed under each wheel and built up each surface under each wheel in an effort to make the car level as possible. My notes regarding this were scrapped after I bought one of those Laser FLoor Level Lights and set it up at the highest wheel and made sure each other wheel was intersected by that light indicating 4 corners being level. Pretty useful tool! I also got one of those digital magnetic angle devices that I could stick to my rotors. This made setting the Camber a Breeze. I went rather upright (like -1 degree) and it provides a very light touch to change direction. But I'm getting ahead of myself!@!
Once the Front Camber was set, I then surrounded the car with a line of nylon string attached Hub Level to jack stands all around. When doing this you have to take into account the difference in Track Width. For the 2007 E63, the manual states the difference is 9mm wider in the rear. So, that means you select a distance away from the center wheel hub all aound (Say 60mm) but add 4.5mm distance away further from the front Hubs to measure from. This will set the lines parallel to the wheels on each side. I first made sure to correct that "Adjustment of the Driver Rear Toe" and set that the same as the Passenger Rear. You do this by measuering the distance away from the front of the wheel rim to the nylon string and visa versa for the rear side of the same wheel. I used my Calipers to measure from the rim to the line and recorded the difference on each wheel in a notepad to determine proper placement. Sometimes just tightening will cause the distance to change, so note this going forward as it will take you more than just one go to get it right!
Once the Rear was aligned, I moved to the Front. Bear in mind, I had aleady made the switch back to Neutral setup in the front (ie-No Crashbolts), but that clearly was not helping. Using the Crashbolt Schematic that is avilable somewhere here on the forum, I proceeded to adjust step by step for a pull to the right until I got to the very last extreme which ultimately did the trick!! (Which for me was to simply pull the Passenger Torque Arm Forward and the Driver Side Rearward and set them up with the Crash Bolts! I left the AirSprings Set to Neutral) As for the alignment, I ended up setting both Camber Arms to the same amount of threads showing and confirmed with the Angle Device to be within 0.5mm set up at -1 degree. Next up was setting the Toe. Before you do this, you have to make sure the Steering wheel is set to Center. Sure Birdwell's DIY can get you close but I found that you can use STAR/Xentry to Dial it in perfectly to Center, which must be done after each adjustment of toe as even a 1/4 turn will pulll the wheel out of True Center!! It takes a couple tries on each side to get the masurement of each tire to be within tolerance difference, but I was simply blown away after completing this that my first test drive resulted in perfection!!! I mean, there could be a little more Camber on the front to tighten things up a little, but I'm so Centered now that I don't want to mess with it!!!!
Last edited by E63007; 05-04-2022 at 07:34 PM.
