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Geometry Done on a Modded BMW 330D Sport at Drury Lane


Anees
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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:

 

machine.JPG

 

Car Goes On:

car1.JPG

 

 

Fitment of Camber Plates:

Up she goes for a ride.

car2.JPG

 

car3.JPG

 

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

 

 

Adjustment Underway:

 

machine2.JPG

 

Tim working at getting the Toe in spec.

car4.JPG

machine3.JPG

 

 

 

Geometry Setup - BEFORE:

before.JPG

 

 

Geometry Setup - AFTER:

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 Tony's 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 thr 68Kg 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 forum members.

 

Info Here:

http://www.drurylaneservices.com/

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Superb report Anees, thank you.

 

Drury lane do have a good operation and i have every respect for them.... How did they feel about you taking a pictorial :lol:

 

It's interesting about the suspension preloading and the reluctance to do it... But nevertheless the target data assumes the car is loaded so loaded it needs to be. The fact they did load the car to ease your concerns shows their working standards are high.

 

I haven't spoken to Paul for a while.... Maybe i should and see if we can assume some sort of relationship.

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Just a quick update to say that the car now handles far far better then it did previously. The steering is less jumpy and more settled and through corners it really is very good. Not quite as good as my lexus was with the Apexi coilovers, but the Eibach coilovers are more designed for road use and are much softer. The Apexi coilovers were pretty hard. The ride with the Eibach is almost the same as standard, expect that it is slightly bouncier; but its not crashy so not annoying. :D

 

Also no knocking to report :D

 

I put my geometry report on a BMW website that I visit and one of the forum members posted the following; I would like your opinions on this please Tony.

 

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.

 

I thought that the standard BMW geometry settings were "good" unlike the Lexus, so I shouldn't need to make changes as suggested by this BMW forum member. Should I be worried?

 

Also, another BMW forum member posted that they had a geometry check done by a place in Bolton and the place weighed his car down (he also has uprated suspension) and when they removed the weights the on-screen values remained the same....interesting :lol:

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question ???? if you have to waight a car down for geo,like full tank people front and back etc.....surely when you then drive with say half tank fuel and just you on ya tod in the car and few bit's and bob's in the boot.then technicly wouldnt this alter the way the car would drive due to bein set with all the waight's in position :lol: i:e my mondeo had no waight in it.so when im init on my own it drive's ace :D thank's tony :D i swaped the wheel's round now steering wheel is bang on :) but when it's loaded up with the fam and shopping...etc it's a pig to drive :D

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-2 degrees is the required positions for your car?.... Compared to a Micra it is a lot but absolutely natural for the BMW.

 

If you were to run 0 as suggested it would be barrier time for Anees... Please don't even consider it!!

 

The topic on preloading is redundant on a lowered car or a BMW fitted with the sports kit... I you think about it the dynamic gains are vastly reduced so the weight has little or no effect toward the target positions.

 

In my opinion the camber positions are a matter of fact, the only gray area is the final toe gains (on/off bump) This would need some "live" pull downs to ensure the front toe remains positive on/off the bump.

 

Your Geometry calibration positions are deemed neutral.. By design you have a fast road understeer calibration, which is a wise move considering the type of car you have...... Enjoy :lol:

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-2 degrees is the required positions for your car?.... Compared to a Micra it is a lot but absolutely natural for the BMW.

 

If you were to run 0 as suggested it would be barrier time for Anees... Please don't even consider it!!

 

 

The settings in the Hunter machine seem to indicate -2 degrees is correct.... :D I don't want to be meeting any barriers anytime soon so thanks for the advice. Seems strange for him to suggest 0.

 

 

In my opinion the camber positions are a matter of fact, the only gray area is the final toe gains (on/off bump) This would need some "live" pull downs to ensure the front toe remains positive on/off the bump.

 

Your Geometry calibration positions are deemed neutral.. By design you have a fast road understeer calibration, which is a wise move considering the type of car you have...... Enjoy :D

 

At Drury they did actually pull down on the front and rear anti-roll bars as a test and the car settings on screen still stayed in spec.

 

As you know Tony, your opnion is (for me) by far the most important one, so if you say its fine; then I am reassured! :lol:

 

Thank you for the help.

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That's a very nice setup they have there. Hopefully the WIM Centre will be even shinier.

 

What a machine :lol:

 

The wim centre will make TDi's look dirty and that's saying something :P

 

The DSP is a good machine but i think the 3D Visualiner (wim's) machine is the dogs danglies...... It offers soooooo much information :lol:

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That's a very nice setup they have there. Hopefully the WIM Centre will be even shinier.

 

What a machine :lol:

 

The wim centre will make TDi's look dirty and that's saying something :P

That sounds like a challenge :o

 

Seriously though it is veeeery difficult to keep a workshop clean and tidy. Ours has seen over 2 years of active service now but it's not too bad. I wish I had chosen a better floor covering though (even though I did research it thoroughly :lol: )

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That's a very nice setup they have there. Hopefully the WIM Centre will be even shinier.

 

What a machine :lol:

 

The wim centre will make TDi's look dirty and that's saying something :o

That sounds like a challenge :D

 

Seriously though it is veeeery difficult to keep a workshop clean and tidy. Ours has seen over 2 years of active service now but it's not too bad. I wish I had chosen a better floor covering though (even though I did research it thoroughly :lol: )

 

Tiss a challenge.... :P

 

In truth i salute TDi... The centre versus your industry sets a president few could maintain.

 

A clean & safe working environment is a welcoming arena for staff and customers alike.... Plus it does display a moral standard.

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