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      09-06-2008, 06:35 PM   #1
Gray135i
Private First Class
United_States
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Drives: 2008 135i
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: East of the Mississippi

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DIY Alignment pin removal

Okay, several people have mentioned removing the alignment pins in the front to gain additional negative camber (and reduce understeer). My stock runflat tires are close to bald with the outsides wearing much more than the insides, so the additional negative camber should actually help tire wear.
For those of you that don't have the means to measure the camber, I'd personally just move the strut top as far inwards (towards the engine) as the slots allow.
I started this with -.5 degrees on the front left and -.7 degrees on the front right. (-1.5 on right rear and -1.8 on left rear in case anyone wonders)

Tools needed:
13mm open end wrench
13mm deep socket or 13mm shallow socket with extension
floor jack
pair of Vise-Grips with pretty good teeth


Step 1
Jack up front side of car until tire if off the ground

Step 2
Loosen all three nuts of strut tower, I personally just loosened the one under the strut tower brace and removed the other two.

Step 3
Holding Vise-Grips vertically with jaws facing down, latch onto the alignment pin.


Step 4
I'd try to rock the pin back and forth for just a second to loosen it before you pull it out. It popped out pretty easily on both sides for me, but I'm sure some people will need to pull a little harder. Pictured here is the pin you're removing, its grooved but not threaded, so you don't need to unscrew it.


Step 5
Once the pin is removed, you'll need to pry the top of the strut over. I used the handle of my ratchet and stuck it down in the rubber lined hole in the middle of the three strut tower studs. Pry the top of the strut so that the three strut bolts move as far towards the engine as the slotted hole will allow. Once you've moved the bolts as far as they will go, tighten down one of the strut stud nuts. You can now tighten the other two strut nuts. At this point, you now have more negative camber and can lower the car back to the ground.

Step 6
Repeat on the other side of the car and make sure all strut nuts are tight.

On the left side, I now have -1.0 degrees of camber. On the right side, I did not max out my travel and ended up at -1.2 degrees.

If nothing else, this will help my tire wear being uneven and hopefully provide a little less understeer. Good luck!
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