Alignment

[straight6pwr]

PrehistoricDog said:

Where's the best place to get an alignment on a lowered BMW? Looking to get some negative camber to fit my wheels better. Milwaukee area!

To be honest, I've yet to have a good experience at an alignment shop, and I've been to several. Between paying inflated prices (older BMWs only have 2 points of adjustment), jerk employees, or shops joyriding my car, its never a fun day when i have to hand the keys to someone else. Ive tried aligning my car myself, but have always been unsuccessful.

Also, your phrasing is odd. You don't expect for an alignment shop to just add camber do you? You have to get parts or make modifications for that.

[gilber33]

I would doubt that you could take your car to an alignment shop and ask for them to make your alignment worse. BUT, with that said, I recommend Frame and Axle in Butler.

http://www.frameandaxle.com/

They did my e30 when I couldn't find anyone else to do it. After speaking to a couple shops, one or two performance places, too, the newer alignment equipment doesn't work well with lowered cars but this place uses old school stuff (at least that's how it was explained to me). I got there, the guy took it out to get a feel for it, worked on it, took it back out, brought it back in, and took it back out again to make sure it was good. IIRC, it was like $70 or $80, pretty reasonable.

[straight6pwr]

gilber33 said:

I would doubt that you could take your car to an alignment shop and ask for them to make your alignment worse. BUT, with that said, I recommend Frame and Axle in Butler.

http://www.frameandaxle.com/

They did my e30 when I couldn't find anyone else to do it. After speaking to a couple shops, one or two performance places, too, the newer alignment equipment doesn't work well with lowered cars but this place uses old school stuff (at least that's how it was explained to me). I got there, the guy took it out to get a feel for it, worked on it, took it back out, brought it back in, and took it back out again to make sure it was good. IIRC, it was like $70 or $80, pretty reasonable.

i guess i never figured them for an alignment, great idea! i actually brought my first e30 there for them to weld up new plates on the rear frame over the springs after it collapsed from rust. it was a good experience and i was happy with the work and cost.

[Jdesign]

• Kelly moss
• Togue factory 
• big bear
• HI-Performance Fabrication and Tuning

Have we had this conversation before?

[Nick_F]

Plus 1 on big bear, just got the quote form them for a lowered e90 bmw alignment at 79.95

[patsbimmer1]

Next time I'm at my Waukesha or Oak Creek location I'd be happy to align it.  The most difficult part about doing a lowered car is 1) nobody has their own alignment numbers and wants the car aligned to factory settings and 2) nobody add's more adjustability after lowering a car.

Big Bear also does great alignments.  I've sent people there for corner balancing before.

gilber33 said:

After speaking to a couple shops, one or two performance places, too, the newer alignment equipment doesn't work well with lowered cars

That's false.  I've used the newest and best equipment on the market from Hunter Engineering and it will do lowered cars you just need to know what your doing. Most shops don't put the time or effort into actually learning how to use their equipment and never get any further than following the on screen prompts.  I know a few Hunter sales guys and installers and the horror stories I hear from them about the shops they install $50k alignment equipment in then they complain it doesn't work because they never bothered to get trained is scary.

[gilber33]

Might be false, but regardless they turned me away and I had to go elsewhere. The few shops that were local to me in the Falls used alignment  equipment that mounted to the tires and they needed at lease two inches between the top of the tire and the fender to fit the equipment. I was told that newer alignment equipment was going away from the stuff that clamped to the wheel itself

[patsbimmer1]

gilber33 said:

Might be false, but regardless they turned me away and I had to go elsewhere. The few shops that were local to me in the Falls used alignment  equipment that mounted to the tires and they needed at lease two inches between the top of the tire and the fender to fit the equipment. I was told that newer alignment equipment was going away from the stuff that clamped to the wheel itself 

That's the shame in that whole ordeal, the lack of training led to a poor customer service experience for you.  I could rant on about the lack of skill in the industry right now but i'll leave that for another day... You are correct that most wheel adapters are mounting on the tires such as the Hunter QuickGrab elites.  The reason they're doing this is because wheels are becoming more and more expensive with lower profile tires on them making it very difficult to safely mount a traditional frame to the wheel without damaging a wheel or a $500 target falling off and hitting the ground.  Again, i've aligned some very, very low cars and used the QuickGrab's without issue but I also receive training from Hunter Engineering twice a year along with teaching alignment classes twice a year so my knowledge is above average.

[Jdesign]

patsbimmer1 said:

That's the shame in that whole ordeal, the lack of training led to a poor customer service experience for you.  I could rant on about the lack of skill in the industry right now but i'll leave that for another day... You are correct that most wheel adapters are mounting on the tires such as the Hunter QuickGrab elites.  The reason they're doing this is because wheels are becoming more and more expensive with lower profile tires on them making it very difficult to safely mount a traditional frame to the wheel without damaging a wheel or a $500 target falling off and hitting the ground.  Again, i've aligned some very, very low cars and used the QuickGrab's without issue but I also receive training from Hunter Engineering twice a year along with teaching alignment classes twice a year so my knowledge is above average.

Did you ever consider hosting an "Alignment day" with a group on here so we can all get alignments and knowledge from you? That would be awesome.

[P_Roloff]

Jdesign said:

Did you ever consider hosting an "Alignment day" with a group on here so we can all get alignments and knowledge from you? That would be awesome. 

I second this. The e30 is gonna need one after the suspension rebuild, I’d enjoy learning more about this stuff too.

[straight6pwr]

+1 need an alignment. still havent found a good shop in MKE.

[Jdesign]

+6 on alignment. I string align all my cars because its too expensive to pay someone who does a shit job. I cannot tell you how many times I have dropped a car off for a 3 hour alignment just to drive it home with the steering wheel 20 degrees off center.