[JABCAT]

Originally Posted by BMR.WRLD

Love to see it


Do you notice a difference?

Yes the car feels a bit more nimble. There's also a distinct different in the feel of the steering wheel when in the Sport setting. Doesn't feel as heavy as before is best I can describe it.

*Does anyone have the address to BMW NA so I can request reimbursement for the $172 I paid considering it was out of alignment from the get go & the first dealer I took it to refused to look at it within the 2k mi warranty period?

[MineralGreyMetallic]

I have to chime in again.

My car feels amazing now. Not just accelerating in a straight line, but accelerating while turning.

Steering is way more intuitive and predictable now.

The car felt like it was fighting itself before, and I just assumed that was a side effect of having 21s with tiny sidewalls in the rear.

[BMR.WRLD]

Love to hear it, it's striking how a few 'minor' adjustments transforms the car. I feel it's easy to take it for granted that BMW did their job to begin with.

[Bret]

Originally Posted by JABCAT

*If you can get the dealer to do it.
I took mine in at 1,800 mi & the Service Advisors argued with me it wasn't covered. Then I pulled up the M2 warranty booklet & showed them, they still argued & said they'd never heard of alignment being covered. Finally, they said if I wanted it covered, they would have to have a tech diagnose the alignment issue, submit it for warranty approval, and wait for BMW to approve it. Said they would need my car for at least 4 days & no loaner was available. BUT if I wanted to pay $225, they could do the alignment that day. BMW of South Austin btw.

I would love to have seen the look on his face when you showed it to him. Unfortunately, some people are too proud to admit when they are wrong in spite of overwhelming evidence. So, he created a bunch of hurdles for you to jump over when in reality all they had to do was put it on the alignment rack to see if it was in alignment or not. When it wasn't, they would have done the work and collected their $ from BMW. Instead, they took an opportunity to create customer loyalty into losing a customer forever.

Originally Posted by JABCAT

Got mine done when it went in for an oil change on Wednesday. And my steering wheel is straight now too

I hate it when I pay for an alignment and then the steering wheel is crooked afterward. I've had it happen several times, so I now tell them that if it isn't strait after the alignment, I'll be back to have it realigned.

[buckybadger]

I got my car aligned from an expert in my area. I did put on ohlins R&T suspension. It transformed the car to the next level in terms of driving dynamics, plus proper alignment made a huge difference.

The bmw dealerships do an average job in my opinion and experience. Find a good independent shop who works on performance cars. Pricing wise they might be similar but their alignment will be generally much better.

[JABCAT]

Originally Posted by Bret

I would love to have seen the look on his face when you showed it to him. Unfortunately, some people are too proud to admit when they are wrong in spite of overwhelming evidence. So, he created a bunch of hurdles for you to jump over when in reality all they had to do was put it on the alignment rack to see if it was in alignment or not. When it wasn't, they would have done the work and collected their $ from BMW. Instead, they took an opportunity to create customer loyalty into losing a customer forever.


I hate it when I pay for an alignment and then the steering wheel is crooked afterward. I've had it happen several times, so I now tell them that if it isn't strait after the alignment, I'll be back to have it realigned.

$100%. The $225 from me was more important than clearly following the warranty documents & earning a customer. I live in Austin 8 months out of the year & will take my car (and my wife's X3MC) to BMW of Dallas for anything it needs. Will not use BMW of South Austin, nor will I buy a vehicle from them. Too many businesses are short-sighted.

[DarkNight707]

I got mine checked over the weekend… not a surprise here.

The steering wheel is still off center (to the left)… left them a message and waiting to hear back from them.

[RobM2]

For all of you with funky alignments, do you all have the MPHAS?

[JABCAT]

Originally Posted by rlove

For all of you with funky alignments, do you all have the MPHAS?

Standard suspension on mine.

[D.Yooras]

Originally Posted by rlove

For all of you with funky alignments, do you all have the MPHAS?

From experience thus far, G87 vehicles seem to have alignments that are out of spec from the factory both with and without the MPHAS kit. Most of the time, the MPHAS kit cars are more out of specification than non-MPHAS but, for the most part, they are all out to some extent.

In all fairness, these cars are being produced by a newer production facility and this is (if I recall correctly) the first M car they are producing so I'd expect to see some aspects of production that are not ideal. However, getting an alignment after break-in is generally a good idea, especially on performance cars and even more so true on M cars which are very sensitive to minor changes in alignment.

One thing to consider is that alignments done at the factory are done while the car is moving down an assembly line (in most cases) and they are not aligned to the specifications you see on a service alignment sheet. The reason for this is that car is going to settle, the suspension will sag a bit, and the bushings will take a set once the car has sat at 1G (under it's own weight) for a reasonable period of time.

For example, Audi (until recently) wouldn't not pay for warranty alignments until 1,200 miles or higher. That has changed as of recently, but they actually have a different specification sheet for vehicles under the 1,200mi mark.

[DarkNight707]

Originally Posted by JABCAT

Standard suspension on mine.

Same here.

[LAGWAGN]

Another vote for ‘get an alignment’. Maybe not as bad as some others, but still pretty far out of spec at 3,500 miles. On stock suspension.

[Zatellia]

I dropped my M2 off last week for an oil change and an alignment (out of pocket, at 8k miles), for one just to check to make sure its good after all these posts and to straighten my wheel (not very far off but still off a hair to the left) I dropped it off in the morning and went to work and picked it up at the end of the day.
I get to the dealer to find out they did the oil change but did not do the alignment. The dealer gave me a bulletin from BMW stating that steering wheels may appear off center due to the curve of the screen or something like that... the tech checked the tires and they showed no signs of uneven wear and they were trying to save me some money. I appreciate that they were trying to save me some money but when I say I want x work done then I want the work done. Now I have to wait for a day when I can drop my car off again to get the work done.

[BMR.WRLD]

Originally Posted by Zatellia

I dropped my M2 off last week for an oil change and an alignment (out of pocket, at 8k miles), for one just to check to make sure its good after all these posts and to straighten my wheel (not very far off but still off a hair to the left) I dropped it off in the morning and went to work and picked it up at the end of the day.
I get to the dealer to find out they did the oil change but did not do the alignment. The dealer gave me a bulletin from BMW stating that steering wheels may appear off center due to the curve of the screen or something like that... the tech checked the tires and they showed no signs of uneven wear and they were trying to save me some money. I appreciate that they were trying to save me some money but when I say I want x work done then I want the work done. Now I have to wait for a day when I can drop my car off again to get the work done.

I can understand that, if I opt to have the work done anyway then please do it.

[Carefree]

Originally Posted by Zatellia

I dropped my M2 off last week for an oil change and an alignment (out of pocket, at 8k miles), for one just to check to make sure its good after all these posts and to straighten my wheel (not very far off but still off a hair to the left) I dropped it off in the morning and went to work and picked it up at the end of the day.
I get to the dealer to find out they did the oil change but did not do the alignment. The dealer gave me a bulletin from BMW stating that steering wheels may appear off center due to the curve of the screen or something like that... the tech checked the tires and they showed no signs of uneven wear and they were trying to save me some money. I appreciate that they were trying to save me some money but when I say I want x work done then I want the work done. Now I have to wait for a day when I can drop my car off again to get the work done.

I don’t see any relationship between a curved screen and an off center wheel.

Maybe you’re low on headlight fluid.

BTW, dealers aren’t in business to save you money.

[Zatellia]

Originally Posted by Carefree

I don’t see any relationship between a curved screen and an off center wheel.

Maybe you’re low on headlight fluid.

BTW, dealers aren’t in business to save you money.

They gave me the service bulletin or what ever its called, ill throw up a pic of it later. I agree though but I had a long day at work and didn't feel like arguing with them about it.

Oh I agree completely but at the same time I don't know why they wouldn't have done it and just charged me for it even if it was good before hand... unless it was some thing like the alignment machine was broken or the operator was sick lol

[JABCAT]

Originally Posted by Zatellia

They gave me the service bulletin or what ever its called, ill throw up a pic of it later. I agree though but I had a long day at work and didn't feel like arguing with them about it.

Oh I agree completely but at the same time I don't know why they wouldn't have done it and just charged me for it even if it was good before hand... unless it was some thing like the alignment machine was broken or the operator was sick lol

Add a steering wheel with a 12 o'clock stripe, and you'll definitely see it is off-center, not just "appears" off-center. I just added a custom steering wheel (with 12 o'clock M stripes) to my wife's X3MC and now it's obvious her steering wheel is off-center as was mine. It'll be getting an alignment this week when the spark plugs get changed.

[curtdragon]

I'm buying mine from out of state and doing PCD. I'm wondering how hard it will be to get an alignment from my local dealer

[LAGWAGN]

Originally Posted by curtdragon

I'm buying mine from out of state and doing PCD. I'm wondering how hard it will be to get an alignment from my local dealer

Not at all, if you do it within the warranty window.

[curtdragon]

Originally Posted by LAGWAGN

Not at all, if you do it within the warranty window.

I feel like the local would get butt hurt because I went with another dealer.

[LAGWAGN]

Originally Posted by curtdragon

I feel like the local would get butt hurt because I went with another dealer.

I bought mine out of town and took it to the dealership I passed up my allocation with to buy immediately. It’s just business and they will be happy enough to get paid by BMW to do an alignment (in my case by me). Don’t sweat it, dealerships knows ‘the game’.

[Kevin_The_Clean1]

Originally Posted by DarkNight707

I got mine checked over the weekend… not a surprise here.

The steering wheel is still off center (to the left)… left them a message and waiting to hear back from them.

That's not that bad overall. But, there's definitely room for improvement there.