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BMW Geometry again.


Anees
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Hi guys,

 

My BMW 330D has been pampered in the last week or so with new staggered alloys 8" front and 9" rear, new Goodyear Assymetric tyres, replaced worn bushes etc. Car sailed through its MOT and I thought it was time to give the car a geometry check since it had been quite a while:

 

Last Geometry

http://www.wheels-inmotion.co.uk/forum/ind...?showtopic=2016

 

Went for a check on Thursday at Drury Lane in Oldham. All went well so I thought; Paul @ Drury Lane talked me through what was being done. They adjusted Camber, Caster, Toe-in at both the front and rear of the car. I watched all these adjustments being done.

 

I have been driving the car for a few days now and I am not happy with the front. The rear feels great - nice and planted but the front of the car is not so good.

 

1. More play in steering wheel which i don't like - I want steering to be more direct.

2. Steering feels loose

3. Front feels twitchy.

4. Steering does not "snap-back" as quickily as it used to.

5. Car does not feel planted.

 

At Drury Lane they basically set the car to the default BMW settings; so I am unsure what the issue could be. I will post the report up when I get home, so hopefully someone can spot something.

 

I have not had time to go back to them yet, but I will try to get back to see them on Wednesday during my lunch hour if I can.

 

Thanks,

Anees

 

PS

I might be coming down to London-way in the next week or so, so if possible I would love to get Tony to take a look at the Geometry setup.

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Yes print-out would be very interesting. Could he run more than the -0.40 front and -2.00rear camber with thecoilovers ? Or is OEM essentially fast-road ?

 

Looking at the pictures in the old thread, seeing WIM and Drury Lane's ramps makes me jealous. Our place is so scruffy. I fee llike a tramp lol.

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Did they add weight to the car?

 

Nope - I did mention the weight and again they said it wasn't needed due to the stiff suspension. When someone climbed into the car to show me, the readings did not change.

 

I also made sure I had a full tank of fuel and the underbonnet fluds were full.

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My old wheels were not BMW wheels either.

 

Old Wheels:

 

Front 18x8.5 et40

Rear 18x9.5 et45

 

New Wheels

 

Front 18x8 et40

Rear 18x9 et40

 

The new wheels are also light weight at only 9.5Kg per wheel which is around a 1.5- 2Kg saving per corner.

 

So nothing obvious seems wrong with the geometry report then?

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Is this your first time on Goodyear Asymmetrics.

 

 

Yes......... firs time ever.

 

Previously I had Falken FK-452 which were recommended by many on the owners club. This time I fancied a change and the good reviews of the Goodyears and past good experience with goodyear tyres on my Lexus IS200 swayed me to try the Goodyear Asymmetrics.

 

Maybe I need to play with the tyre pressures? I must confess I have not checked what the current tyre pressures in the car tyres are.

 

According to the manufacturer they are supposed to be 34psi front and 42psi rear. I have always felt uncomfortable running such high pressures at the rear so on my Falkens I settled on 35psi front and 38psi rear.

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Hi Annes sorry to hear about your problems....From what i know is that "some" cars seem to have a problem with the Goodyear Asymmetrics more so with running "18" wheels....

On my IS200 i got some Toyo T1-R fitted ( "18" wheels also ) on the rear and the car felt awfull almost like the tyers where flat....I think its because the sidewalls are to soft for the car....

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B) Surely it can't be the tyres??

 

I have been out and checked the tyre pressures - they were slightly under inflated but now that I have changed them car doesn't really feel better.

 

I am going to get my mates garage to just look over the car to see if they spot anything worn out - there shouldn't be since it has only just passed its MOT but you never know!

 

Slightly off topic here, but:

Is it possible to have the steering adjusted/setup so it is quicker and more direct?

 

Thanks to Tony and other contributers to this thread so far for the valuable input. :o

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I wouldn't recommend the asymmetric on any car now due to the complaints, these being..

 

* The steering feels like there's a delay between yaw and actual grip.

* The rear feels like it's in a cross wind and fishtailing

 

The turn in can be manufactured but you cannot use the front camber.... Move the front toe negative, remove some rear camber and add positive rear toe.

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I wouldn't recommend the asymmetric on any car now due to the complaints, these being..

 

* The steering feels like there's a delay between yaw and actual grip.

* The rear feels like it's in a cross wind and fishtailing

 

The turn in can be manufactured but you cannot use the front camber.... Move the front toe negative, remove some rear camber and add positive rear toe.

 

:o

The things you describe are exactly what I would say I am experiencing. Another reason why I got these tyres was that they are/were impressive on another car I drive from time to time - a Honda S2000 where they just GRIP and GRIP and the turn in is fantastic; admitadly we are talking about totally different cars here and the S2000 weighs much less.

 

EDIT:

 

Had a look on www.BMWland.co.uk and the Goodyears seem to have some good reviews by both e46, e90 (3 series) and e60 (5 series) owners

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Have a look around this site> http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/

 

Cheers mate.

 

They have a section on the top rated tyres by car. For a BMW e46 3 series it appears to be Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric.

 

http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Tyres_For/BMW/E46-3-Series.htm

 

I am going to post on BMWland and see if anyone else has had such isses. I will report back :o

 

Anees

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Have a look around this site> http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/

 

Cheers mate.

 

They have a section on the top rated tyres by car. For a BMW e46 3 series it appears to be Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric.

 

http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Tyres_For/BMW/E46-3-Series.htm

 

I am going to post on BMWland and see if anyone else has had such isses. I will report back :o

 

Anees

 

Maybe that wasn't the best link to offer and prove my point but how come i knew exactly how the car felt..... I knew because i've had the same complaint time and time again on these tyres.

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I posted on BMW Land about this issue and I had a few responses - mostly mixed.

 

@Tony - Tony does there seem to be a common denominator that determines if the tyres will work well on a car or not? Three positve replies were from a 5 series owner and the other two from an e90 330d Sport and e46 330D SE owners - both very happy with the tyres.

 

The other suggestion was from a e90 330d owner that had been to WIM actaully - he said my geometry was in spec but not perfect - I would argue that my car is lower then his and on aftermarket suspension so mine won't be exactly by the book.

 

What I really need to do is swap wheels and tyres with another BMW owner and see if there car with the tyres it has fixes the issue; problem is I don't know anyone that can help.

 

I did ring Drury Lane today too and they were more then happy for me to bring it back in so they can take another look at it; but I'd like to try a different set of wheels and tyres first ideally.

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There's another thread in wim about the handling and tyres but i'm dammed if i can find it.....

 

There's no way i can find a common denominator in the overall scheme of things since i work on such a varied range of cars, i do agree with you though to try a different set of wheels/tyres before you tinker with the Geo.

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There's another thread in wim about the handling and tyres but i'm dammed if i can find it.....

 

There's no way i can find a common denominator in the overall scheme of things since i work on such a varied range of cars, i do agree with you though to try a different set of wheels/tyres before you tinker with the Geo.

 

If it was Lexus Owners Club I could post up asking for a swap and normally some kind member would help out............ thats one thing I do miss.

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Right - drove the car for a while today while having to collect something from work and concentrated hard on how the car drove.

 

1. Car rolls alot when making quick direction changes - definetly more then it used to. (Hit some country roads)

2. Unstable on the motorway (like in a crosswind) as Tony mentioned before

3. Steering is abit numb and doesn't snap back as quick as it used to. It feels like its slow or delayed.

 

On the plus side no matter how hard I pushed the car into the corners the rear end was stuck like glue!

 

Should hopefully get the car on the ramp tomorrow at a garage but I am getting more and more convinced the tyres are to blame.

 

:angry2: Bit fed up with it all really.

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