New tires and Alignment

[sinbad2222]

Just had my original Potenzas (2006!) replaced by four Continental DWS Extremecontact. As has been found by many other forumites the car's handling was transformed for the better. My thanks to the forum for the information.
However I had the alignment checked and the technician told me he could not get the rear settings to be in tolerance.
Attached is report.
Should I be concerned or take any action ?

[Vanne]

That was the same as mine.. Rear end outa spec without the ability to redial to to spec.. 3.5 k later on bushes and struts and whatnot, and now it's back in spec.. : )
And it drives very.. Solid...

[XMetal]

Did you guys did your alignments with weights in place? I believed BMW specs out for weights to be placed in the appropriate locations during an alignment.

[sinbad2222]

Originally Posted by XMetal

Did you guys did your alignments with weights in place? I believed BMW specs out for weights to be placed in the appropriate locations during an alignment.

Not sure about weights. I guess not. Usual Sullivans set up - they stick you in the coffee lounge and never see the technician.
Manager did opine that maybe a "spring was weak".
LH side well down compared with RH side.

[Incompatible]

Originally Posted by sinbad2222

Manager did opine that maybe a "spring was weak". LH side well down compared with RH side.

More likely broken spring. If so, shop should have inspected/discovered before doing alignment.

[bignosejim]

Did they actually have the tool to adjust rear toe? I had an alignment at Firestone and they told me that they couldn't adjust the rear toe. After I questioned them, they said it was because they didn't have the tool. I ended up buying the tool to have them adjust it a couple of weeks later. At least I got a deal on the alignment so it turned out to be a normal price after you figure in the $75 for the toe tool. That tool also does every 3 series ever made... you'd think they would have had it.

[gas-can]

Originally Posted by XMetal

Did you guys did your alignments with weights in place? I believed BMW specs out for weights to be placed in the appropriate locations during an alignment.

I believe its 75% fuel, 2*68kg on front (to mimic 2 passengers), and ~15kg in the trunk.

I'm glad the DWS worked for you Sinbad. I tried mine for 1.5 months but I was never really happy with them, so I called yesterday to go through the satisfaction replacement thing. I'm swapping for the DW Summers (Even though its Winter )

-gc

[sinbad2222]

Originally Posted by bignosejim

Did they actually have the tool to adjust rear toe? I had an alignment at Firestone and they told me that they couldn't adjust the rear toe. After I questioned them, they said it was because they didn't have the tool. I ended up buying the tool to have them adjust it a couple of weeks later. At least I got a deal on the alignment so it turned out to be a normal price after you figure in the $75 for the toe tool. That tool also does every 3 series ever made... you'd think they would have had it.

I was on a road fun trip and got a flat. As The tires were 6/7 years old, and one almost illegal, I crawled along to the nearest tire store which happened to be a Sullivan's and asked them to replace all four. Didn't know of course about the special tool and whether or not they had it I shall never know. Charged me $89.99 for the alignment. Thanks for the information - next time I'll know to check.
I'm going to get under the car this week and check if a spring has gone. I know that for some reason UK Z4s have had an epidemic of broken springs - maybe their roads are worse than ours but as a recent immigrant from UK to Boston I think the Boston roads are some of the worst I've ever driven on !

[sinbad2222]

Originally Posted by gas-can

I believe its 75% fuel, 2*68kg on front (to mimic 2 passengers), and ~15kg in the trunk.

I'm glad the DWS worked for you Sinbad. I tried mine for 1.5 months but I was never really happy with them, so I called yesterday to go through the satisfaction replacement thing. I'm swapping for the DW Summers (Even though its Winter )

-gc

Interesting information, thanks. Is putting weights in for aligning standard procedure for all cars or is there something special about the Z4 ?
I asked the Sullivan manager for DW summers but he said out of stock in all nearby branches and doubt if he could get any until next spring.
Surprised you didn't like the DWSs. After the Bridgestone Ps they seemed amazing improvement but to be honest I never drive anywhere near the limit.

[ferrarif1]

If you get this done again, I would highly recommend Roux's garage in Berlin, MA. It's a very small shop with only Paul Roux and his father but for alignments and tire installation/balancing, you will not find a place with better equipment or two people who take more pride in the quality of their work.

Paul always has the latest software in his Hunter alignment machine (and will add the appropriate weight before aligning) . If they need a tool to do the job right, he will buy it. Paul bought some additional BMW diag tools just for my car when the ones he had could not do the new battery reset on my E60.

[inTgr8r]

Originally Posted by bignosejim

Did they actually have the tool to adjust rear toe? I had an alignment at Firestone and they told me that they couldn't adjust the rear toe. After I questioned them, they said it was because they didn't have the tool. I ended up buying the tool to have them adjust it a couple of weeks later. At least I got a deal on the alignment so it turned out to be a normal price after you figure in the $75 for the toe tool. That tool also does every 3 series ever made... you'd think they would have had it.

FWIW
The tool is not a necessity, it's only a convenience.
The RTAB carrier can be adjusted for toe without it.
I've done it both ways.

Any shop saying they need the tool don't know what they're doing.

[zubydafa]

Did you get DW extremes or DWS? I had both on my e46M3. The dealer swapped my DWS out for the extremes when I pointed out how horrible of a tire they were

Night and day difference between the two.

[gas-can]

I don't believe it's something done specifically for the z4, but it's done on sports cars mainly to accommodate for the fact that your suspension will be loaded by that weight during actual driving, and will behave differently than if it was unloaded.

Though mainly for sports cars, it's a good thing to do for any car , as a car should very rarely be driving by itself, with no gas, and a completely empty trunk.

zuby, I thought I was one of the few people that also didn't like the dwS. Is the steering response improved in the DW? What about cornering stability at higher speeds? (I noticed that quite a bit with the DWS and that's the reason for swapping this weekend to the DW)

I think I might be the only one on this whole bloody forum that actually misses the run flats

[zubydafa]

Originally Posted by gas-can

I don't believe it's something done specifically for the z4, but it's done on sports cars mainly to accommodate for the fact that your suspension will be loaded by that weight during actual driving, and will behave differently than if it was unloaded.

Though mainly for sports cars, it's a good thing to do for any car , as a car should very rarely be driving by itself, with no gas, and a completely empty trunk.

zuby, I thought I was one of the few people that also didn't like the dwS. Is the steering response improved in the DW? What about cornering stability at higher speeds? (I noticed that quite a bit with the DWS and that's the reason for swapping this weekend to the DW)

I think I might be the only one on this whole bloody forum that actually misses the run flats

you're not the only one! the dws was floaty at high speeds, not confidence inspiring, spongy at turn in. mind you, i wasn't even doing any sort of performance driving on these. they were just on the car to get around and still i thought they were not suitable. for an all season, the michelin pilot a/s were adequate.

i swapped for DW-extremes for free by the dealer after my complaints and was very pleased.

that said, after trying michelin PSS, i have not bought another tire