92 E34 Wagon - Control Arm Situation

[OhioTouring]

A few weeks ago I looked down at my front tires and noticed that I had major wear to the outside of the tires. I changed both upper and lower control arms about 18 months ago and since I do not drive it much anymore, I have not really payed attention to the tires. Plus it drove dang straight after the job. I posted a picture of the tires.

I do not think I had the car loaded when tightening them down...arrrgggghhh.
Here's my questions:

1) Can I fix this issue as the car is now? If so, what would be the best way to go about that?

or

2) Do I need to replace the arms again? If I should then how the heck do I ensure the car is properly loaded?

And

Do I need the piece that allows one to adjust the camber (I think they are installed on the upper part of the strut)?

The ride height is 23 7/8" on the passenger side and 24 1/8" on the drivers side which is higher then the 23 1/8 that the Bentley manual calls for.

Before I go put new tires on, I need to fix the camber problem.

As always, thanks in advance for all of the help.

[Blitzkrieg Bob]

loosen the control arms bolts, bounce on the car few times and retorque.

Hopefully the ride height will settle, then get it aligned and all maybe well.

[OhioTouring]

Thank you for the reply.

I'll give that a try this weekend.

By putting the car on ramps, does that simulate the load?

[ArtemLepilov]

Did you not realign the car after you did all that suspension work? If so then that is most likely your problem.

-Artem

[Dave M]

Thank you for the reply.

I'll give that a try this weekend.

By putting the car on ramps, does that simulate the load?

Technically, you're supposed to have the simulated weight of passengers as well, but most (including myself) torque without the added weight. For what its worth, physics dictates that a flat car (all four wheels suspended) applies the correct force. So if possible, rather than just propping the front up on ramps, also jack the rear end to level things. This is made difficult once the car is on ramps, but be creative. If not feasible, just torque em with the front up on ramps, enough people seem to have had success doing it this way.

Dave

[Ross]

Nope, the weight of the car is the load. The ramps just enable you to get under it easier to tighten the through bolts with the suspension loaded.

[OhioTouring]

I did not have it realigned. Hind-sight is 20/20!!

But, it was or is my understanding that camber can not be corrected?

[Ross]

Only the toe setting is adjustable.

[Podmore]

Yeah, this looks like an excess toe-in on turns problem, not a camber problem. You may have noticed a little tyre squeal on slow corners, such as in a concrete floored car park. Essential after carrying out any parts replacement on the front suspension to have the alignment checked and adjusted, as the last alignment would have had to compensate for the wear in the control arms. With no slack in the new bushes, the front end geometry will have been altered. Of course, you may have also stuffed your new thrust arm bushes by not having the suspension loaded when you tightened up the through bolts.
The ride height could have been affected by the bushes being preloaded - that is, if you tightened the through bolts with the suspension hanging down, the bushes will be trying to restore the angle of the control arm to the unloaded position.