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No camber plates, but the fronts wear pretty

evenly as it is. The most critical aspect of keeping tread on the tires after alignment and balance are indeed tire pressure. I actually run lower tire pressure than recommended. I run 32lbs in the front and 34lbs in the rear. 245.45.17 front, 275.40.17 rear. Of course if you buy the ultra high performance summer tires , pump them up, and drive it like you stole it, the tires will wear away almost immediately. I purchased 2 sets of michelin pilot sports (they lasted 7,000 miles rear and 14,000 miles front)I finally wized up deciding I would rather spend money elsewhere than on tires.

Since I am not a racing driver and my e39 540 sport 6 speed is NOT a race car and most of the time I can't drive the car near it's limits anyway, I started looking for different tires and wear solutions. I finally landed on ultra high performance all season tires. If it snows around here I simply don't drive, if it's really slick out I throw 4 100 lb bags of sand in the old van on get where I need to so no need here for me to purchase winter wheels and tires. The all season allow an amazing amount of flexibility, driveability, wet / dry, summer / winter grip, response, and longevity.

Currently I have the Hankook Ventus 4V ES tires and so far they are great, in fact the best tire I have ever had on any BMW.

I thought about camber plates but really don't need them. I did need to adjust OUT all the negative camber I could and did with no regrets.

Of course you will have to find a special allignment shop that will step outside the box or do it yourself. It's not difficult to do with a straight edge and a camber gauge.

What about the front camber? Did you buy front

camber plates for the struts? If so, any problems?Fritracer
Cincinnati, OH
2000 540ia Sport Package 9/99 Silver/ Black
img=168887[/IMG]

Yes, the 528i had the sport suspension. I will

trade out some slight handling for better tire wear. At the rate of wear on the tires from the negative camber, I might get 25k miles total out the tires; not acceptable to me.
So the rear can be adjusted out without buying part? I have seen the camber plates online at the various BMW site. I will look into these as money allows.Fritracer
Cincinnati, OH
2000 540ia Sport Package 9/99 Silver/ Black
img=168887[/IMG]

That's about a mile from my house (m)

I driven on Lake Shore Drive may times, that's all residential housing, must be doing the work at his house, not that there's anything wrong with that. Done the same thing in my driveway and garage.

I have the V4 All Seasn Ultra HP and they have

35,000 miles and still very quiet and are still above the wear bars.

I removed as much of the Negative camber from the rear as I could and it has paid off in much better tire wear and I can tell no difference in handling.Michael - Chattanooga Tennessee
BMWCCA 65795

00 540 Sport / 6 speed, SaharaBeige Metallic / SamanaBeige II Montanna Leather, 35% tint, Xenons, DSP, CD Changer, Auto dimming rear view mirror, rain sensing wipers, fold down rear seat, Style 32 staggard wheels, Hankook Ventus V4 ES 245/45/WR17/95W Fronts and 275/40/WR17/98W Rears. 152,900 Smiles and climbing!

08 Harley Davidson Sportster 1200 C Anniversary Edition Number 0064/3200 Copper and Vivid Black (FOR SALE)
16,800 miles

2006 GMC Sierra SLT all options

1988 GMC Safari 400,000 miles plus and still going

Other BMWs hanging around usually needing attention
06 E90 330i sport pkg +all options
98 E36 328i 5 speed Sport/Premium PKG
00 e46 323ia Premium Pkg
04 X3 sport/premium 3.0 six speed (back again)

Visit tirerack.com, and compare your current>>

tires with those that have been mentioned in this post. Read owner's reviews, as well as Tire Rack tests: they have their own test track.
Ed in San Jose. BMW CCA member since 1987 (Nr. 62319). Golden Gate Chapter. '97 540i 6 speed. Build Date 3/97. Aspensilber over Aubergine leather.

Did the 528 have the Sport suspension? The >>

540 Sport suspension is lowered almost an inch from stock, and the camber setting is more negative. If you muck about with the settings, you'll lose some handling. Not worth it IMHO.

You can fit adjustable camber plates to the front strut mount (which allows for a camber adjustment), and have a reputable alignment shop dial out the camber in the rear.

Or, get same size wheels for front and rear, and rotate the tires every 5k. That's what I do.
Ed in San Jose. BMW CCA member since 1987 (Nr. 62319). Golden Gate Chapter. '97 540i 6 speed. Build Date 3/97. Aspensilber over Aubergine leather.

Re: Jon A. - Boston area Indy Mechanics

Russ Erickson
Certified Foreign Repair
9 Lake Shore Dr, Duxbury, MA 02332, (781) 585-8739.

$75/hr.

Porsche Audi dealer experience

Heard that too, went with Contis xtreme contact...

2000 540i Sport in Houston, TX

I put these on my car in March of this year...

11,000 miles, still very quiet, great handling, wet or dry. I have noticed tramling recently; no loose suspension parts. There is noticable negative camber wear starting to show now. Is there anyway to put more positive camber into the suspension front and rear to stop this? My 1998 528i did not wear tire like this.Fritracer
Cincinnati, OH
2000 540ia Sport Package 9/99 Silver/ Black
img=168887[/IMG]

Hankook V12 Ventus 6,000 miles and still quiet

Tried those - Too noisy!

The F1s are better.

Jon A. - Boston area Indy Mechanics

Hey Jon - I recently got into an 03 530i - looking for a non-dealer mechanic South of Boston - any ideas?

Jon, this Roadfly Impromptu Tire Survey might help

e39 Roadfly Impromptu Tire Survey

Eurodavid

new design

Andreas
Queens NY
BMWCCA# 186796
86 325es (wrecked by careless driver)
87 325 (project for life)
00 540is 6spd (daily driver)

Goodyear Eagle Gt

Andreas
Queens NY
BMWCCA# 186796
86 325es (wrecked by careless driver)
87 325 (project for life)
00 540is 6spd (daily driver)

Re: I'm running the Toyo T1R's and so far so good

I also had a set of T1-S and T1R. I'm running PS2s now.

The PS2s are "lighter" and more "transparent" in the dry but the T1Rs were almost as good, cheaper, and definitely better in the wet.

The T1Rs still had a fair bit of meat on them but what starting happening is that the insides started wearing to the boundary of a different kind of compound from the time spend on the rear. I get alignments regularly and I didn't consider the wear particularly abnormal, just a bit faster on the inside. If I remember the details correctly, on my particular set of four on the "left edges" (they're directional) had a bit of a wandering boundary between these compounds and it started to wear unevenly following this boundary. They were starting to get noisy (wowowowowowowow) and I was worried about running another summer on them and having something go boom.

I no longer rotate tires - I've posted before about why I started following BMWs advice inspired by Eurodavid and personal observation - but used to rotate this set so all of them had spent time on the rear and had this wear pattern. If I had not rotated I probably would have purchased two only and kept motoring. If my set also didn't have this wandering boundary layer I probably wouldn't have noticed anything either. They were nowhere near worn to the belts or anything.

leaky intake or exhaust valve?

I'm running the Toyo T1R's and so far so good

I've had them for a year and about 7k miles and they grip great, wet or dry and have been quiet. The turn in bite is better than the Goodyears, which I loved. I got them at Town Faire tire in Salem for about 2/3's the cost of the GSD3's.

Check craigslist for a style 66, I saw a set of Style 19's on there this weekend. You could also take your chances with ebay.
Vin
98 540 Sport with everything & extra hots
BMW CCA, Boston Chapter
"The 540 is the head-case supermodel girlfriend..." Eric S.
"The worst thing you could do with your money is save it." ~ Jackie Gleason
If everything seems under control, you're just not going fast enough. Mario Andretti
The United States is a nation of laws: poorly written and randomly enforced. - Frank Zappa

Take a look at the F1 Asymetric >>

top-rated high-performance summer tire in the latest Consumer Reports. I replaced my GSD3s with them, and am quite satisfied, except that they are built to load range 97, rather than 94, and ride rougher than the GSD3s, but are quiet at speed.

You'll need to adjust the tire pressure downward for these 97-rated tires.
Ed in San Jose. BMW CCA member since 1987 (Nr. 62319). Golden Gate Chapter. '97 540i 6 speed. Build Date 3/97. Aspensilber over Aubergine leather.