Rear Toe Issue - Advice?

#1

I recently went to GTE for an alignment and all seems well except the left rear toe.
Here are the rear measurements:
Rear Left: Camber -3.2; Toe -0.49
Rear Right: Camber -3.3; Toe -0.0

I am no expert, but this seems to be a less than optimal set-up, with the left rear wheel pointed out to somewhere.
The technician was unable to adjust the left toe.
Two questions. Is this a significant issue that needs to be addressed; what are the implications?
If it should be addressed, how can the left rear be adjusted?
Thanks for the help.

#2

Rear toe, nor camber, are adjustable on e30.
It can be that something is bent (although unlikely if car hasn’t been hit, etc.). More realistically you would need to change bushings for rear suspension. You can get offset (asscentric spl?) rear trailing arm bushings, and if rear subframe bushings are original, it might not be bad idea to change those as well.
hth,
Igor

#3

Thanks Igor for the reply. Actually, the car was hit in a race last year. The hit was on the left rear fender, just behind the wheel. The whole trunk section was pushed sideways. The car was later straightened on a frame straightener at a body shop. So now the body looks straight.
But perhaps something remains bent that is causing the toe out.
Is this an important issue for handling/racing?
Any recommended fixes? (another crash perhaps? a sledge hammer?:))

#4

I would consider this an issue that should be fixed. The problem is that the rear toe out will cause rear to be unstable under high speed sections, especially corners. And it is harder to control oversteer. You can try to get a frame shop to straighten it. I would not recommend a BFH method. AKG also makes very nice adjustable bushings for the rear trailing arms, although I would recommend to get the frame straightened first because almost .5 in. toe out might be out of the adjustment range of the bushings.

#5

Antzwain00 wrote:

[quote]I would consider this an issue that should be fixed. The problem is that the rear toe out will cause rear to be unstable under high speed sections, especially corners. And it is harder to control oversteer. You can try to get a frame shop to straighten it. I would not recommend a BFH method. AKG also makes very nice adjustable bushings for the rear trailing arms, although I would recommend to get the frame straightened first because almost .5 in. toe out might be out of the adjustment range of the bushings.[/quote] Trailing arm is likely bent.

#6

I would definitely check the trailing arm and the main cross member.

I doesn’t take much to tweak them in an impact, even with a small “ding” on mine, it through it off enough to preclude me from assembling it with the hard urethane bushings during my initial build, so I had to find a replacement.

Just my $.02

#7

Rear toe out is bad. E30’s are notorious for the rear trailing arms bending over time and in an impact. On my old ITS E30 I had about 1" of toe out and the alignment/frame shop bent them back to where they belonged.

At nationals my Spec E30 got hit and bent the rear trailing arm and i was able to help it a little with Carter’s port-a-power (which I broke and just remembered I need to get part for) but could not get it all out. I have replaced it with another one.

Good Luck.

Michael
#36

#8

Thanks to all for the guidance. I will check to see what may be bent; then try to fix.