Project Green Hell: 1995 BMW 325i/4/5 Sport

[Jake]

Gather 'round, children, for a brief tale as to why my career will never change paths to that of an alignment technician.

I replaced the tie rods on Saturday. Very easy job on the E36... I had never done tie rods before, and it was pretty self-explanatory. So, I pulled the old ones out, and attempted to measure the length of the old tie rod to compare to the new one. Did that on both sides, got them to what I thought looked good (well, good enough to get down the road), and headed off to the alignment shop.

This was "straight ahead, captain" on the way to the shop:



The car drove "fine" -- as in, I didn't die in a fire on the way to the shop.

Left the keys with them, got Chipotle while they worked, and walked back over. "Sir, has the car had any front end work done recently?"

"Why yes, it has, I did tie rods about, um, an hour ago. Why?"

"Oh good, because this alignment is WAY out."

Stock toe setting on an E36 non-M is 0.9°. My passenger wheel was something like 1.2° (NotBad.jpg). My driver's wheel, though?

3.3° of toe.

Oops.

The alignment guy was this Puerto Rican man who could tell I was a DIY-er/enthusiast/dumbass, and was showing me all the things he was doing to align the car in the shop.

"Is good that joo brought de car to us now, becos joo go anoder 5 mile on dese tires, you hab problem. Joo go anoder 10 mile, tires worthless."

He also pointed out my front balljoints to me... the driver's side balljoint is pretty bad. Passenger side is "okay" but they both need replacing. So, I just ordered new LCAs with balljoints, as well as new brackets with new bushings pre-pressed. Shouldn't be too hard to pop everything in. I figure I should have it done before I go to VIR in October... whargabbling down the track is not my idea of a good time.