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The inner side of both front tires were worned way below the wear bar, and I was told I needed to get a new alignment just for the front tires as there is too much negative camber. I've just replaced the front tires. How much should I expect to pay a regular non-BMW alignment shop to align just the front tires to BMW recommended alignment values (and leave rear values as is), if they service BMW cars? Will the shop still have to measure the rear tire alignment too?
I don’t know of shops doing only front wheel alignments, but alignments range from $60 (shitty) to $200 (BMW dealership)
I would only do a 4 wheel alignment. And it is most likely the front tires were toe out that caused your wear other than excessive camber. There isn't much adjustment for the camber as it is. The rear wheels have adjustable toe also, which if off, can roast your rear tires away like you just experienced with the front.
Based on my experiences with shops, They run anywhere from ~$100-180. I would spend the extra money and go to BMW. I'm not sure about the ZHP, but with my E38, they have to put weights in the car in the front, back seat, and trunk and then use a bar to pull down on the front suspension. All done to simulate the load on the car with passengers travelling at speed.
Thanks guys. I will go to my indy BMW for the alignment within a few months; on all 4 wheels if needed.
On the Micheline PSS\PS4, on both fronts and rear tires, the inner inbound thread cracked like the picture shown on all 4 tires around same tire. I got like 33k miles on all 4 tires. The front tire's inner worn out much faster than the rear tires's inner thread. I had to replaced all 4 tires these past 30 days. I did not have prior experience with assymetrical thread pattern tires and rotation does not help since the innner thread will always be worn since I can only rotating these staggered tires side to side on a staggered setup
I don't have the alignment numeric values when I did an alignmment 2 years ago, but I believe they are OEM specs which means the inner sidewall will have negative camber values. Is reducting the negative camber to lessen the inner thread wear, what the alignment will do in order to lengthen thread life? Will I notice much performance difference? This is my daily driver and I don't drive sporty often.
33,000 miles doesn't seem bad. I'm not sure that changing the alignment specifications would fix the tread separation, which is the bigger issue. Though minimizing the camber and toe should improve wear. It shouldn't affect the ride too much and you probably wouldn't notice on the street, but that may vary from person to person.