Edge wear on X5 staggered

[djpete]

I have a 2014 X5 35Xdrive. I am running factory sized staggered 20" Continental Extreme Contact DWS06 Plus tires. I had an alignment done and it's within the acceptable tolerance but I am getting wear on the inside edge of the rear tires and the outside edge of the fronts. I know the camber on the X5's is to support traction in corners but I seem to be going through tires annually! The front wear is suspected from driving in the mountains where it's curvy. My question is: can the alignment be changed to compensate for this "excessive wear?" What do you recommend?

[Clifton]

The outside wear on the fronts is normal and cannot be corrected with alignment since there is no camber adjustment from the factory.

You can buy a modified control arm with camber adjustment from places like FCPEuro. Click here

You can also play with tire pressures to help reduce outside wear.

[tlow98]

Originally Posted by Clifton

The outside wear on the fronts is normal and cannot be corrected with alignment since there is no camber adjustment from the factory.

You can buy a modified control arm with camber adjustment from places like FCPEuro. Click here

You can also play with tire pressures to help reduce outside wear.

Clifton is dead on. The rear camber is adjustable, but may put you outside of “factory” specs so you’ll need a shop that’s willing to do that or just do it yourself.

[tlow98]

Also, you prolly don’t want to hear this but downgrading to the 19s will save you 1/4 of your tire bill, maybe more.

[shimmy23]

are you lowered? i'm lowered on a dinan setup and dont have excessive wear, on stock arms too.

[djpete]

Originally Posted by shimmy23

are you lowered? i'm lowered on a dinan setup and dont have excessive wear, on stock arms too.

Factory height, No suspension modifications.

[shimmy23]

Originally Posted by djpete

Factory height, No suspension modifications.

not sure how many miles you have but your joints may have enough wear in them to cause alignment issues while driving and premature tire wear

[3002 tii]

Originally Posted by shimmy23

are you lowered? i'm lowered on a dinan setup and dont have excessive wear, on stock arms too.

I wasn’t even aware Dinan offered lowering springs for the F15 X5

[XxBBVTMxX]

My two cents…

I think it’s how those DWS’ are designed. I changed 3 sets before I called it quits on them. I’m on my first set of Bridgestone Alenza AS Ultras and the wear is great. Plus I don’t feel like I’m being held back by that weird DWS tread pattern.

I never liked Continentals in the first place.

[tfunk88]

Tire wear is from a combo of many factors, but that being said…BMW alignment specs are set to favor understeer. One factor they use to achieve this is much more negative camber in the rear vs the front. Stock F15 is around -.75 to -1 in the front, while up to close to -2 degrees is “within spec” in the rear. This leads to more inner tread wear at the rear while highway driving and more front outer edge wear for curvy road driving. It’s like the best of both worlds lol

Right now my alignment shop set my rear at -1.5, it was at -1.9 before. My front is at -.85 and isn’t adjustable until I install the Mahle adjustable upper control arms. But apparently those will only take me to around -1.3 or so…still better than stock.

[tlow98]

Originally Posted by tfunk88

Tire wear is from a combo of many factors, but that being said…BMW alignment specs are set to favor understeer. One factor they use to achieve this is much more negative camber in the rear vs the front. Stock F15 is around -.75 to -1 in the front, while up to close to -2 degrees is “within spec” in the rear. This leads to more inner tread wear at the rear while highway driving and more front outer edge wear for curvy road driving. It’s like the best of both worlds lol

Right now my alignment shop set my rear at -1.5, it was at -1.9 before. My front is at -.85 and isn’t adjustable until I install the Mahle adjustable upper control arms. But apparently those will only take me to around -1.3 or so…still better than stock.

Bingo. The maddening thing is that the wear on the rear is so bad, that when you need the tire in the rain you now have no tread where it matters and you get… over steer. Way to go BMW!

[TOPEC]

Its not just BMW, all manufactures set their cars to understeer from the factory because frankly speaking... understeering into a tree is a lot better than oversteering into a tree sideways. Check your toe in/out as well.