Geometry Check Done on my Modded 330D Suspension! Drury Lane - Oldham

[Anees]

Hi guys,

Made the trip to Drury Lane Service and Geometry Centre in Oldham today for a geometry check and adjustment.

My car has:

Eibach Pro Street-S Coilovers (lowered)
Eibach AntiRollbars with Uprated Bushes
Powerflex Rear Trailing Arm Bushes
Powerflex Front Rear Wishbone Bushes

I used Drury Lane quite alot with my Lexus so decided to give them another go with the BMW. It has been quite a long time since I last visited them for a geometry check and they now have the latest Hunter DSP600 Digital Imaging machine! One of the BEST apparently.

With all the suspension mods I have had done; I expected the car to be out quite a lot. Some pics:

The Machine:

http://www.qubx.co.uk/bmw/geo/machine.JPG

Car Goes On:
http://www.qubx.co.uk/bmw/geo/car1.JPG


Fitment of Camber Plates:
Up she goes for a ride.
http://www.qubx.co.uk/bmw/geo/car2.JPG

http://www.qubx.co.uk/bmw/geo/car3.JPG

As expected the Toe, and Camber was off; so adjustment was needed.


Adjustment Underway:

http://www.qubx.co.uk/bmw/geo/machine2.JPG

Tim working at getting the Toe in spec.
http://www.qubx.co.uk/bmw/geo/car4.JPG
http://www.qubx.co.uk/bmw/geo/machine3.JPG



Geometry Setup - BEFORE:
http://www.qubx.co.uk/bmw/geo/before.JPG


Geometry Setup - AFTER:
http://www.qubx.co.uk/bmw/geo/after.JPG

Unfortunetly the Caster is not adjustable on these cars, but the car doesn't pull to one side so I am not worried.

One interesting observation was that weighing the car down as per BMWs instructions made virtually nil difference to the geometry readings!

The Technician at Drury Lane (Tim) said that in his experience with the stiffenned coilover suspension, the weighting of the suspension makes no differenced to the readings. I was slightly worried, since I had read about the68Kg needed in th front seats, 68Kg rear, 21Kg boot, full fluid levels, full tank of fuel etc etc. I made sure the fluid levels were all full and the fuel tank was full.

I requested they weigh the car down anyway. To prove a point Tim got Steve and two others to sit in the car - the geometry readings on screen didn't change!

Obviously the stiff suspension handles the weight better then stock. Once the car was adjusted; weight was added to the car (just to make me happy) and no changes in the settings - everything was still in spec.

The weighting is more important on a car with softer standard suspension which will have much more suspension travel!

I was stuck in traffic most of the way home, so couldn't really give the car a good test, but the steering felt more settled and I took a corner at 40mph and the car was flat! Certainly a big improvement!

A good job again from Drury Lane and they are willing to offer discounts to members on Evotechnik and BMWLand.

Info Here:
http://www.drurylaneservices.com/

[sparkyunlimited]

that's really cool!
How much did they charge you for that?
Mine REALLY needs doing!
Dave

[Anees]

The Check is £47 and then its about £16.50 per adjustment. I did a deal with them when I was with the Lexus Owners Club where they would discount adjustments and basically cap off the adjustment price so that you could have as many adjustments as needed for a fixed price.

The owner Paul is away on holiday for two weeks so I will have to wait until he gets back, but hopefully I can get them to agree to do the same deal for Evotechnik and BMWLand members. ;)

[arkenphel]

Fantastic write up mate.

[Anees]

Fantastic write up mate.

Thanks mate.....I try :cool:

Think the only thing left to do now is a strut brace and then thats the suspension sorted. I can go further and get chasis braces etc but what I have done is quite enough for a normal road car. ;)

The ride is very good, just abit more bouncy then stock, but its not crashy; so doesn't wind you up.

Hopefully with the geometry setup I can enjoy the new improvements properly now.

[330vert]

hi M8 this is exact same setup I will have when I have the bushes fitted next week. Did they recommend you get adjustable rear arms to correct camber? Something Ive been thinking about but didnt know if worth the money.

[Anees]

hi M8 this is exact same setup I will have when I have the bushes fitted next week. Did they recommend you get adjustable rear arms to correct camber? Something Ive been thinking about but didnt know if worth the money.

I was recommended adjustable front camber plates, but nothing for the rear. If you look at the pics, the rear of my car is at the max ride height of the coilovers and is easily in spec. I have 9.5" wide rear wheels, so don't want to go lower. The front is wound down about half-way so can go alot lower and again is in spec. Personally unless you are going to seriously slam your car to the ground I wouldn't bother; especially with how much all these adjustable arms/plates costs. :D

[peppernick]

Rear negative 2 degrees + is a lot. Did you have to do that for the tyres to clear the rear arches? Tyres are going to wear out quickly. Front you can get away with more negative camber, and it does improve turn in, but with such the inner half of the front tyres wear as quickly as the rears on 0.5/0 degree negative camber.

You shouldn't need rear camber correcting rods with the drop you're running. The stock adjustment should allow you to decrease negative camber to even 0 degree.