After killing the set of rear tires that were on the car when I bought it (bad inside edge wear) I got the alignment checked and learned that the rear toe-in (for which there's no factory adjustment) was out of spec. The left side is actually toed out (.11 deg) and the right is almost zero though the minimum toe-in per spec is .12 deg. Looking under the car there's nothing obviously wrong. Does anyone know of any dimensional checks, or anything else, I can do to identify the damaged parts, assuming there are some, before I start moving toward installing a rear alignment kit. Thanks, Tim
I don't have any detailed dimensions to check, but there are only a few parameters that are going to determine rear toe. This picture shows all there is to the rear suspension of a Z3 Roadster/Coupe. It looks to me like the weak links are the clevises where the semi-trailing arm attaches to the cross-beam and the area where the semi-trailing arm transitions to the wheel carrier. It appears that Ireland Engineering sells a rear toe adjustment kit for the Z3. http://store.nexternal.com/shared/S...reType=BtoC&Count1=950985133&Count2=868125557 Good luck!
To check the subframe mount bushings, simply raise and support the car so that the rear wheels are off the ground and the subframe is not held up by jacks. If the subframe rests on the stud support brackets, the bushings are shot. This is not easy to do with jack stands and a jack on a Z3, which is why I mentioned having someone else do it.
