After a false start, we’re aligned, back on the ground, and heading for our first big event.
It’s the most basic of functions after doing extensive suspension work: Get your car properly aligned.
Sounds simple, right? Drop it off at the alignment shop. Use a string setup like the one from Caliper Garage. Whatever. It’s not rocket science.
Well, it’s not, but it’s certainly more complicated when one of your tie rods is frozen in place and won’t adjust.
First, let’s back up a bit.
First off, why did we need an alignment? Well, we had just finished installing our SCCA Time Trials Sport division suspension kit: Koni Sport dampers, Eibach Pro-Kit springs and Vorshlag camber plates. We’ll deal with the whys and hows of all these bits in a separate update because for now we’re rushing to get to Virginia International Raceway for the first big East Coast SCCA time trial of the year, and our alignment was not cooperating.
We consulted with the team at BimmerWorld–who, after years of competition in IMSA and SRO know a few things about making BMWs handle. Operations Manager Phil Wurz gave us a suggestion for a baseline setting for our 435i: 3.5 degrees of negative camber in the front along with 1/8 inch of total toe-out; for the rear, 3 degrees of negative camber along with 1/8-inch of total toe-in.
The small bit of front toe-out should give the car a little livelier turn-in and build slip angle quicker, while the small amount of rear toe-in should aid with power delivery and rear stability with our open diff. And the camber will help keep those contact patches square while 3600-plus pounds of BMW tries to pry them off the road.
Of course, the stock F3X-chassis cars do not provide any provision for camber adjustment in the front from the factory. And they sorely need it. Just take a look at how ground up the edge of that Michelin tire is after running just a few baseline laps at the Florida international Rally & Motorsports Park.
Fortunately, the Vorshlag camber plates, which are one of the very few allowances in the very tight Sport-division prep limits, take our stock figure of zero degrees of camber (the passenger side actually measured out at 0.1 degree of POSITIVE camber one of the times we checked it), and easily turn it into whatever measurement we want.
It was easy to obtain the requested 3.5 degrees of negative camber in the front, and there’s another 0.75 degree or so available to us if we need it. The fit and finish is also OEM grade, and they don’t squeak or rattle the way many plates do.
So camber in the front, which technically should have been the hardest part, turned out to be a snap. Certainly everything else would go fine, right?
Nope.
After setting rear toe and camber, which are available adjustments through factory suspension mounting cams, Geoff Thompson at the Alignment Shop ran into a snag up front. Our left-front tie rod was completely frozen. No amount of leverage, chemicals or heat could budge the adjustment, and we were just a week away from leaving for Virginia.
Ugh.
We first checked the local parts houses and BMW dealer. The parts stores stocked the right and left inner and outer tie rods for our 435i–they’re exceedingly prolific on several BMW models–but the available parts were a budget brand retailing for close to $300 for inners and outers for both sides. (We’d be crazy to just replace the bad side at this point, right?)
And that didn’t even include steering rack boots. Our local dealer wanted $99 EACH, plus an overnight fee for those.
So we called BimmerWorld and plead our case and explained our time crunch. And, as it turns out, it was easier AND less expensive to have better-quality stuff overnighted from Virginia to Florida than it was to get the off-brand stuff locally or pay the dealer markup.
BimmerWorld’s replacement parts are all OEM BMW, or they come from the same suppliers that BMW uses for their OEM stuff. In the case of the tie rods, that supplier is Lemfoerder, and each COMPLETE tie rod cost less than $80. The boots were $20 for the pair. That’s like less than 40% of what we were about to pay locally, which leaves a lot of space for FedEx or UPS expedition.
You will need to know what kind of steering rack you have–F3X cars come with either a ZF or, in our case, a TKP brand rack–and BimmerWorld used our VIN to confirm which we had. (It’s the 9TKP for those playing along at home.)
With those new tie rods installed, we were back to the Alignment Shop to let Geoff finish the front end, then on the trailer to head to VIR–with a stop for a few days at BimmerWorld for some more prep which we’ll have a live thread covering.
If these two tie rods look the same, it’s because they are. The only difference is the new one on the right isn’t frozen solid. BimmerWorld supplies the same Lemfoerder tie rods that BMW uses in the OEM fitment.
Despite the adjuster part of the tie rod being frozen, the inner removed easily from the rack. A big wrench and a little leverage were all it takes to free the inner tie rod.
This sticker on our rack helped identify it as a TKP instead of a ZF–the two possible suppliers. Each rack uses a different length boot, but both use the same tie rods.
The new inner tie rods threaded right into place.
The final operation is to secure the boots in place and congratulate yourself for paying $20 for them from BimmerWorld instead of $200 from the dealer. You’ll need one of those pinchy-clamp tools to secure the clamp, but even with the right tool, these things are a pain in the butt. If you use a screw clamp, we won’t tell anyone.
Out of sheer curiosity, we tried to free the stuck tie rod end with no concern for its preservation. Even with a pipe wrench, we were unable to budge the threads. Our car spent most of its life in Florida before moving to Chicago for a year. Apparently one year up north was all it took to seal this tie rod’s fate.
Finally, back on the rack at the Alignment Shop and all lined up. We can head to our first big event comfortably pointing in the right direction.
