Quote Originally Posted by t.er View Post
Yep the steering coupler only has maybe 20k km on it or so. I'll add the steering rack bolts as another thing to check.

I suspect alignment shops don't run into these issues because they have grease plates, so when they make toe changes there isn't any binding in the tire or any of the rubber in the system.
Wait you didn't use grease plates when you were making adjustments? That would definitely explain why you had trouble with the e46 (that has a ton of rubber bits for isolation) and not hondas (rubber bits cost money to produce lol).

There are several ways to DIY grease plates with stuff like salt or...well...you know.....grease...