One front wheel pokes out more than the other?

[cmstrilchuk]

Another one here who has noticed the same issue - in a different 'way'. I do my own alignments. I had Konis on otherwise stock suspension. With the little pin removed from the stut towers I would push the top of the pass. side strut mount in for max camber. Let' s say I got -1.1*. On the drivers side, when pushed all the way in I would get about a full degree more, -2.1*. I looked for under the car for bent control arms, measured as best I could the underbody dimensions, subframe points. Never could explain it. Bugged me so much I started looking around for a body shop to put it on a frame straightening jig to measure. But I never did - installed coilovers with plenty of camber available and shrugged it off - for now.

[liam821]

My car is doing this same thing. I'm not really sure what to say about it. The driver's side rear pokes out 5mm more than the passenger's. Sadly, the wheels I have on the car right now are so aggressive, 18x10.5 +12 in the rear, the passenger fits fine but the drivers not so much. Basically, on suspension compression, the driver's side tire slams straight into the fender. I tried adding a bit of camber in the rear but still no luck. So frustrating. Alignment is fine, ride height is the same side-to-side, I double-checked everything a few times.

You can clearly see in the below pictures. I'm not really sure what to say, I think my car is just bent... I might put it on a frame straightener to see if everything is in check.

Passenger's side


Driver's side




You can really see how much more flush the driver's side is than the picture above.

[Hollywood]

Another one here who has noticed the same issue - in a different 'way'. I do my own alignments. I had Konis on otherwise stock suspension. With the little pin removed from the stut towers I would push the top of the pass. side strut mount in for max camber. Let' s say I got -1.1*. On the drivers side, when pushed all the way in I would get about a full degree more, -2.1*. I looked for under the car for bent control arms, measured as best I could the underbody dimensions, subframe points. Never could explain it. Bugged me so much I started looking around for a body shop to put it on a frame straightening jig to measure. But I never did - installed coilovers with plenty of camber available and shrugged it off - for now.

Perfect timing for this topic! I've got exact same situation but thought it may have been from off where I snapped passenger tie-rod. Been doing my own alignment too & car drove/handled well on track afterwards. Just ordered lower control arm in case it was bent slightly. Doesn't look like it but we'll see.

[Arith2]

I'm thinking BMW screwed the molds up for the fenders. Alignment machine literally reference your rear tires' alignment to determine the front. There is a possibility BMW messed something else up but it doesn't affect alignment or performance. Lift the cars and measure from the fender edge to the strut.

[Nate047]

Just put a 5mm spacer on the other side and call it good lol

[mrgizmo04]

I have this and noticed it between alignments. What I think is happening is everyone who doesn't run stock top mounts is subject to this...

My pin on both sides is "removed" because I'm not on stock top mounts (GC). That allows for about a 1/4 (or a bit more) an inch of movement of the camber plate vs the chassis. So even though the camber plate itself says "0", the actual camber can be about a degree or more off 0 between sides, since the camber plate mount studs can slide relative to the chassis within these slots. Now if you adjust the camber via the camber plate in addition to the camber plate moving within those slots, you can get different amount of "poke".

So while I run about -3 degrees of camber, my camber plates right to left say different amounts, one says about -1.6, the other says about -2.4, but that's because each camber plate is positioned slightly differently in those slots in the strut tower.

I keep forgetting to tell my alignment guy to push the camber plates against the inside of the body first before setting camber so that both sides look the same.

I haven't really found adverse driving impact, but the track is obviously different/"wider" on the side with more poke.

I got concerned at one time when I first discovered this to the point where I got calipers/measuring tape and measured things on right side vs left (spindle, control arms, attachment points, etc) and everything checked out to make sure nothing was bent, etc.

Random pic off internet, but hopefully you get what I'm talking about.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

[timmo]

I have this and noticed it between alignments. What I think is happening is everyone who doesn't run stock top mounts is subject to this...

My pin on both sides is "removed" because I'm not on stock top mounts (GC). That allows for about a 1/4 (or a bit more) an inch of movement of the camber plate vs the chassis. So even though the camber plate itself says "0", the actual camber can be about a degree or more off 0 between sides, since the camber plate mount studs can slide relative to the chassis within these slots. Now if you adjust the camber via the camber plate in addition to the camber plate moving within those slots, you can get different amount of "poke".

So while I run about -3 degrees of camber, my camber plates right to left say different amounts, one says about -1.6, the other says about -2.4, but that's because each camber plate is positioned slightly differently in those slots in the strut tower.

I keep forgetting to tell my alignment guy to push the camber plates against the inside of the body first before setting camber so that both sides look the same.

I haven't really found adverse driving impact, but the track is obviously different/"wider" on the side with more poke.

I got concerned at one time when I first discovered this to the point where I got calipers/measuring tape and measured things on right side vs left (spindle, control arms, attachment points, etc) and everything checked out to make sure nothing was bent, etc.

Random pic off internet, but hopefully you get what I'm talking about.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

I could be wrong but I don't think this should affect it, it's just two different points of adjustment. Whether you use more of the slots in the strut tower or more of the camber plate, the position of the strut shaft is consistent so long as the measured camber (on alignment rack, or with a level gauge) is symmetric on both sides.

[liam821]

Just put a 5mm spacer on the other side and call it good lol

ha! That's probably not a good idea, although I did think about it. While that would fix it so both wheels "look" the same, for me then both wheels would crash into the rear fenders. I must say with a super aggressive wheel setup where a few mm is the difference between clearing or not having one fender in a different place is a huge pita.

[Tbonem3]

I thought I was suffering from this as well, both F & R, but after thorough measuring, I found that my camber was not equal. After adjustment, my fender gaps (using a drop string method) are equal!

I would say go get an alignment.

[enjoy_m3]

Digging the work t7r wheels liam! 9.5+22?

[liam821]

I thought I was suffering from this as well, both F & R, but after thorough measuring, I found that my camber was not equal. After adjustment, my fender gaps (using a drop string method) are equal!

I would say go get an alignment.

I've checked the camber a dozen times, it's perfect. I even got out a level and verified that my garage floor was flat.

Digging the work t7r wheels liam! 9.5+22?

They're 18x9.5 +12 in the front and 18x10.5 +12 in the rear. They fit nicely, except for that one rear that doesn't really fit very well. I think my car is just broken.

[Epsilon]

I've checked the camber a dozen times, it's perfect. I even got out a level and verified that my garage floor was flat.



They're 18x9.5 +12 in the front and 18x10.5 +12 in the rear. They fit nicely, except for that one rear that doesn't really fit very well. I think my car is just broken.

Did you try swapping the wheels to make sure they're the same offset? ...just throwing it out there.

[alexM3Chicago]

My car is doing this same thing. I'm not really sure what to say about it. The driver's side rear pokes out 5mm more than the passenger's. Sadly, the wheels I have on the car right now are so aggressive, 18x10.5 +12 in the rear, the passenger fits fine but the drivers not so much. Basically, on suspension compression, the driver's side tire slams straight into the fender. I tried adding a bit of camber in the rear but still no luck. So frustrating. Alignment is fine, ride height is the same side-to-side, I double-checked everything a few times.

If you can, check the rear upper control arms for bends on either side of the car- what you think is your "good side", may actually be the side thats bent/broken. That could be the thing that may be causing your issue.

[Tbonem3]

Or a bent LCA. People should probably replace the chopsticks every 100k too (if not getting aftermarket camber arms)

[liam821]

Did you try swapping the wheels to make sure they're the same offset? ...just throwing it out there.

Good idea, I'll check.

If you can, check the rear upper control arms for bends on either side of the car- what you think is your "good side", may actually be the side thats bent/broken. That could be the thing that may be causing your issue.

Or a bent LCA. People should probably replace the chopsticks every 100k too (if not getting aftermarket camber arms)

The whole rear end is from my blue car which only had 19k miles. Maybe something is bent? I inspected it and it looked fine, but I didn't measure anything. Perhaps I should do that next.