I am not an expert, so take all information and instructions on this page with a pinch of salt. It is quite possible that they will harm you, your wallet, your car, or all three. If in any doubt at all, take your car to the professionals. You have been warned.
Park the car in front of, and at least 2m away from a wall or your garage door.
The further away the car is from the wall the more accurate the wheel
realignment will be. Jack up car and remove wheels.
N.B. When working under the car, or on the car
with wheels removed, make absolutely sure that the car is properly supported
and cannot move.
Safety first!
Next, before proceeding any further, fix laser pointers to magnetic mounts (I used BlueTack and insulating tape):
For the laser pointers, even the cheapest ones available off E-bay will be suitable.
Then attach the magnetic mounts to both left and right brake disks:
Approximately straighten the steering wheel and mark its position using a piece of insulating tape. Turn on the lasers and mark the wheel alignment on the wall (for both left and right wheels):
For the above, rotate the wheels up and down slightly to get an alignment line. This will make re-alignment more accurate.
Once the wheel alignment is accurately marked on the wall, cut the marker tape on the steering wheel so it can move freely:
Next proceed to remove and replace the bad front-end components.
I have replaced items 1, 6, 10, 11 and 12 in the
diagram provided by www.realoem.com.
For instructions on front-end R/R work search
BimmerBoard
and
e38.org; both have several excellent articles
on how to do the work.
(If you e-mail me your favourite links, I am happy to add
them here.)
While you work make sure the lasers/mounts do not get knocked out of position!
When finished with the R/R work, rotate the steering wheel so that the edges of the tape markers line up:
Then adjust the toe-in on the tie rod so that the laser spots again line up with your marks on wall:
With a few meters distance between your car and the wall, and with a laser spot size roughly 1mm across you should be able to re-align the wheels more accurately then most commercial alignment rigs. However, bear in mind that at best your alignment will only be as accurate as it had been before you started the work.
Put the wheels back on and enjoy.
I strongly recommend that you have the alignment checked and, if necessary, adjusted as soon as possible after the above repair. Even though in my case the alignment was OK and no adjustment was required, your mileage may very... The main purpose of using the laser markers is to make the trip to the wheel alignment shop more bearable.
If you find any mistakes or want to suggest additional info
that I should include, please e-mail me.