So after putting on the two new INVOs on the rear my alignment has been pretty bad. I have to hold the wheel at an angle to go straight. If I move the wheel into neutral position the car will veer off the road. I decided to take it in to Perfect Auto in Glendale. My buddy who has an e92 just took his car there after a recommendation of Avus BMW. Steve from Perfect Auto quoted me $75, but ended up charging me $70.
I'm not an expert on toe, camber or caster. I just simply know what they mean. The values that were in the machine were for a generic BMW e36 non-convertible. That being said, the comparison of my numbers was in relation to that machine. I don't know if more or less toe, caster, or camber is good or bad or how to set my car up for the track. I do know that these numbers will be good for the street. I am wondering though, how my offset control arm bushing played into the caster if at all...hmmm.
Caster for my car was 6.3° for the left and 5.7° for the right. This was not adjusted. Acceptable values were between 6.1° - 7.1°. The difference from side to side could be a lot of things, I'm not going to guess why it's different.
My front left tire had a toe of -0.17° and the front right had a toe of 0.25°. So basically the wheels were pointing to the right. He centered the toe out at 0.8° for the front on both sides. Toe for the rear was 0.01° on the left and 0.21° on the right. Perfect for the rear right but off on the left. Acceptable range was 0.21° - 0.29° and was adjusted to 0.23° on both sides.
Camber was off on the rear based on the specs of the machine. Rear camber was specified between -1.9° - -1.6°. The tech was able to adjust the left side but said the right was maxed out. I ended up with -1.7° on the left rear and -0.9° on the right rear.
Same went for the front of the car where the specified range for camber was -1.4° - -0.4°. The front left was at -0.9° and the front right at -0.4°. The front camber was not adjustable on the stock configuration. I wasn't too concerned about these values as I have stock suspension and would like it to be at the stock settings for the street.
Overall I was pretty happy with Steve and Perfect Auto. He has a really nice building and a clean shop. His prices are reasonable and you can tell he was not rough with the cars. He didn't do the actual alignment. Avus told my buddy to ask for Steve to do it. I don't know if he really needs to do it as it is done by the computer. I wouldn't hesitate to tell other BMW owners to go here for an alignment.
Perfect Auto
364 W. Colorado Blvd.
Glendale, CA 91204
818.246.0949
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