Alignment suggestions

[rickflairne]

To align one of these cars to BMW spec you must have 150 lbs. in the drivers seat, passengers seat, in the rear seat, 46 lbs. in the trunk and a full tank of gas. I have lifetime alignment through Firestone and they don't have the weights. Prior to my ZHP I would normally just have a full tank of fuel since it is normally just me in my car but I kinda want to do it the right way. Thoughts? Should I worry about all the weights?

Also, I was going to buy all the weights for him in exchange for the free lifetime service. True weights are tough to find for anything less than $.50/lbs even on craigslist. Any other suggestions? I obviously want something that is not messy as I am pretty particular about my car and what it may be exposed to. I have thought of sand bags (leaks), 5 gal bucket with concrete (too bulky). I have also though about tractor weights which are kind of tough to find around Charlotte as it is relatively commercialized.

Thanks

Edit: Weights stated are approximate as they are being recalled off the top of my head.

[kayger12]

If a place doesn't have the equipment/ballast to do it the right way, I would personally just take the car to a dealer or indie who does.

If you're going to be paying either way, I'd rather take it to a place that aligns Bimmers the right way on a regular basis.

Moving this over to the Maintenance Forum.

[danewilson77]

I took my car to the dealer and the did not ballast the vehicle.

[kayger12]

I took my car to the dealer and the did not ballast the vehicle.

Which leads me to my next question-- why would they have to ballast the vehicle? It doesn't make a lot of sense to me to put 600 pounds of ballast in a car to align it, if most of the time there's only one or two people in the car.

:threadjack Sorry.

[rickflairne]

As I stated above, I always just threw a full tank of gas in my e46 325i before alignment and it always felt tight and balanced. They have a 1 year Hunter alignment machine/rack, just not the weights. I'm not even sure it the stearlership here "ballast" the vehicle.

I got lifetime alignment for $100 which i use every 4-5k vs. paying $130 every time if I went to the Dealer.

[rickflairne]

After a quick search I found one of Dane's threads and the shop I use basically has the same machine that was used on his car.

[kayger12]

Hmmm.

Anybody here actually have their car ballasted for alignment? Chime in peeps.

[Marcus-SanDiego]

Hmmm.

Anybody here actually have their car ballasted for alignment? Chime in peeps.

Never ballasted. On BMW number 6.

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[danewilson77]

LOL......could be an "old wives tale"? I have always heard it was supposed to be ballasted...but damn....if the BNW dealer doesn't dhu eeeeeeeeet, you would think that's right. IDK.

[zhpnsnv]

I think it becomes more important on coilover setups where you can get the corners balanced perfectly. This is the protocol for track setups, though I've never heard of it for street only cars.


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[quikryptonite]

Another alignment question for you guys. My car is pulling to the left after reinstalling my summer tires. So I took it in to my mechanic to make sure there weren't any lurking suspension issues.

My mechanic just called and told me everything in the suspension system is fine. Should I just take it to the dealer early next week and get this resolved? The best place in town is always booked out 2-3 weeks.

[ELCID86]

Another alignment question for you guys. My car is pulling to the left after reinstalling my summer tires. So I took it in to my mechanic to make sure there weren't any lurking suspension issues.

My mechanic just called and told me everything in the suspension system is fine. Should I just take it to the dealer early next week and get this resolved? The best place in town is always booked out 2-3 weeks.

And have the dealer do what?

Did your mechanic not do alignments?