[jake89714]

I recently put new wheels on my car and lowered it on H&R sport. So I went to Irish mike in Orlando to get alignment, the tech comes up to me and say we need to drill a hole in the front to adjust my front camber, thats the only way he could adjust it because they lock it in the factory or something like that. I have no problem if that is the only way to adjust it but I was just wondering if you guys had the same issues.. Oh by the way he charged me another $100 top of my regular alignment $130

[Nick3237]

had to drill? sounds kind of fishy to me....

[ianthegreat]

I've had an alignment by a local shop (know the owner) and he never mentioned this. In fact I watched the whole thing and he never drilling anything.

[JBiddy]

Lol whattt

[SIEN]

Never heard of that. I had a full KDS alignment and they never drilled holes. Sounds fishy as hell.

[200Duece]

you did get ripped off and if they drilled into your car too then you have upgraded to raped...

[Bimmer This]

Some how, that does not sound right. You shouldn't have to drill anything.

[cotmfk]

I agree with the early majority on this one. It just doesn't sound right. Maybe get your car back and go to a different shop?

[DougN]

To the OP - yes.

[doctor_vino]

loll

[roadkillrob]

I certainly wouldn't let them drill it, there is no camber adjustment from the factory, but the proper way to do it is to put camber plates on top of the shock towers instead of drilling the shock tower to adjust hte camber.

[SpmnE9zero]

Originally Posted by jake89714

I recently put new wheels on my car and lowered it on H&R sport. So I went to Irish mike in Orlando to get alignment, the tech comes up to me and say we need to drill a hole in the front to adjust my front camber, thats the only way he could adjust it because they lock it in the factory or something like that. I have no problem if that is the only way to adjust it but I was just wondering if you guys had the same issues.. Oh by the way he charged me another $100 top of my regular alignment $130

I think you are getting ripped off all the way around! Not only should they not have to drill any holes, my garage is $60.00 for a 4 wheel laser alignment.

[Jeff@TopGearSolutions]

Drill.... Oh lord. I'm so tired of these idiot mechanics. Seriously.

[Verbiage]

Drilling to ADJUST? If anything, should be the opposite

[Strongmad]

I remember reading a post similar to this a while back similar to this, and the conclusion was that there is actually a hole near the strut tower that is supposed to be drilled out to adjust camber in cases where the car is lowered some certain amount.

[MSPORTWORLD]

Hey was probably talking about the alignment pin that they put in for installation purposes from the factory.

By design the E90/E92s were not intended to have very much if any camber adjustment at all. By drilling out this pin that is only there from the factory to assist in the installation of the strut you can squeeze out at most another -0.2 degrees of camber.

In case you are wondering where I gathered this information from. I am friends with a master tech at my BMW dealer who at my request was trying to squeeze out as much negative camber up front on my car to give me more grip on turn-in while still remaining in the F-stock class for auto-x and the most camber we were able to squeeze out with the stock set up was -0.5 degrees.

So short answer is yes...there is an alignment pin that is supposed to be drilled out if camber is to be adjusted. However, if your tech drilled something else out then there may be other issues.

Alignment at the dealer ran me $200, but I'm not complaining.

[reprod]

I would have taken my keys and walked out the minute i heard the word drill... Find a better shop with experienced tech who know the aftermarket market.

Also take your car to someone else to make sure those guys did not mess up any components up-front. No drilling is needed. They only need to remove the factory pins to get the camber where it needs to be.

[Castel]

lol, drilling! Hope you didn't do it man...

[jopa489]

Originally Posted by JPSlick

Drill.... Oh lord. I'm so tired of these idiot mechanics. Seriously.

+1

That's not normal.

[D.yi]

lol... epic fail.
my shop does a 4 wheel alignment + camber adjustment for 100.00 on the dot.
completely got ripped.

[Verbiage]

Originally Posted by reprod

I would have taken my keys and walked out the minute i heard the word drill... Find a better shop with experienced tech who know the aftermarket market.

Also take your car to someone else to make sure those guys did not mess up any components up-front. No drilling is needed. They only need to remove the factory pins to get the camber where it needs to be.

[MSPORTWORLD]

Originally Posted by Strongmad

I remember reading a post similar to this a while back similar to this, and the conclusion was that there is actually a hole near the strut tower that is supposed to be drilled out to adjust camber in cases where the car is lowered some certain amount.

to Stronmad

Alignment pin needs to be removed to adjust camber as directed by the BMW Tech Manual.

For future reference if you have no idea what you are talking about, you should just keep your comments to yourself.