Here’s a one stop alignment specs adjustment guide you’ve been searching for. If you ever asked “What kind of alignment should I get for my E46 M3?”, you came to the right place. Here are some recommended tire sizes and alignments for your E46 M3 in a variety of scenarios. These are meant to be used as a cheat sheet guide and may differ from different suspension setups or preferences. But generally these will get you in the ballpark so you can just fine tune by yourself.
Alignment Specs Basics
- Rear Toe In gives you high speed stability at a cost of tire wear
- Camber does not affect tire wear, toe does
- Front toe out +.05 may help with the inherent lazy center feel and quicker turn in for E46 M3 at a cost of additional tire wear.
| Type of Driving | Front Camber (Degrees) | Rear Camber (Degrees) | Front Toe (Inches) | Rear Toe Total (Inches) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stock | -1.0 | -2.0 | -0.18 | -0.23 |
| Sporty | -2.0 | -1.8 | 0 | -0.15 |
| Autocross | -2.5 | -2.0 | -0.06 | -0.08 |
| Track Day - Moderate | -3.5 | -2.5 | 0 | -0.08 |
| Track Day - Aggressive | -4.0 | -2.7 | +0.06 | -0.25 |
Tire and Height
- Square setup (same size) allows you to rotate your wheels
- Square setup will experience tram lining (car follows the imperfections of road)
- Stagger setup will tend to understeer
| Type of Driving | Front Tires | Rear Tires | Front Height (in from Center Cap) | Rear Height (in from Center Cap) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Economical | 235/35/18 | 265/35/18 | 14 | 14.5 |
| Sporty | 245/35/18 | 265/35/18 | 13.5 | 13.5 |
| Autocross | 265/35/18 | 265/35/18 | 13 | 13 |
| Track Day | 275/35/18 | 275/35/18 | 12.5 | 12.5 |
Rebound & Compression
- Rebound – Available on Single Adjustable Coilovers
- Compression – Available on Double Adjustable Coilovers
| Type of Driving | Front Rebound | Rear Rebound | Front Compression | Rear Compression |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Economical | Stock | Stock | Stock | Stock |
| Sporty | 60% | 60% | Stock | Stock |
| Autocross | 50% | 80% | 70% | 80% |
| Track Day | 80% | 75% | 95% | 85% |
Spring Rates
| Type of Driving | Front Spring Rates (in/lbs) | Rear Spring Rate (in/lbs) |
|---|---|---|
| Economical | 143 | 345 - 685 (Progressive) |
| Sporty | 450 | 500 |
| Autocross | 500 | 550 |
| Track Day | 700 | 800 |
| Splitter + Wing | 900 | 1000 |
Additional Suspension Tuning
If you are interested in further tuning your shocks, please take a look at our Fine Tune Suspension and Shocks Guide. Remember, keep your bushings in tip top shape! The E46 M3 has many bushings including Rear Trail Arm Bushings (RTAB) which I recommend to replace every 50,000 miles and the Front Control Arm Bushings (FCAB) and Rear Control Arm Bushings (RCAB) to replace every 100,000 miles. Have an alignment to suggest or have questions about fitment? Comment Below!
toe in is defined as positive and toe out is written as negative.
hi andrew, my coilover is stiffer on front than rear, should i follow the chart and make the rear stiffer spring rate, its a true rear coilover
Quick Question, are the alignment specification assuming that you have bias weights in the seats or are these figure for an unloaded car?
So i see for the wing and splitter the F spring rate is ~16k while the R is 18k. This is my DD but also my track car (basically a dual purpose car). I’m just trying to decide a good medium for a spring rate. I’m young so I’m sure my back can take it if the ride is rough and plus less passengers if they hate the ride quality lol. My car will be running on 18×9.5 +35 wheels; 275/35/18 Michelin Pilot Sport 4s.
Great info in the article thanks!! I see the recommendation for ride height center of wheel cap to fender but what if your running a wide body and have cut the fenders out? What else could we measure off of and how low can we go? Should we go low as we can go and not rub for a dedicated track car?
Nice post Andrew!
Just wondering will this work for a 19 inch staggered setup?
245 front and 265 rear. Cheers.
Hey Lester. I don’t have direct experience with that setup but there’s a really good fitment article by APEX that should provide some knowledge! https://support.apexraceparts.com/hc/en-us/articles/360001448073-E46-M3-Wheel-Tire-Fitment-Guide
Should. That’s what I have. 265-35-19 rear
245-35-19 front
TMS camber rods rear.
TC Kline single adjustable dampers. 550lbs springs front. 650 lbs rear. ( heavy convertible)
TCK camber/caster plate. TMS 30mm and 24mm anti-sway bars. TMS adjustable links.
Michelin Pilot Super Sports.
Drives better on the street than my 18″ 265mm square setup.
Great info Andrew!
One question. I see all your recommendations for ride height assume equal ride height front and back when measuring at the arches. I.e. matching wheel caps.
Any reason you went this way rather than the more common 13.5/13 I see all over the net?
How does this affect the handling in your opinion? I prefer the arches to match but would love some insight into how this might affect the handling.
Thanks
Hey Jon. When we created this article it was before we got super heavy into the track stuff so yes, ideally there should be rake for performance. Maybe it’s time to update this article! Generally, it’s advised to run 0.5″ higher in the front to accommodate brake squat, neutral suspension geometry and clearance for curbs on the track.
Hey Andrew,
Could you kindly elaborate how camber does not affect tire wear?
Given all other adjustments are the same, and you only adjust camber (let’s say towards negative camber), how does your tire wear not get affected with the inner tires now pushing down more than the outer side?
Thanks!
You are correct that camber wear will still be an issue, but it’s not as excessive as people make it sound like. Tire degradation happens when there is more contact and pressure with the tire so with more camber, yes there is more pressure on the insides, however it is minimal. That’s why you’ll hear people say the wear will heavily depend on your driving style because the harder turns you take (daily driving) the more outside wear you’ll have which will “even out” the wear. However, when you add more toe, you’re adding more contact by introducing another variable, grip. Toe is a mild form of the tire moving in not only a vertical direction, but horizontal as well. I run -2.8 with 0 toe on my daily and although there is slightly more inner wear, it is manageable. Also tire pressure is a huge factor to minimizing inner camber wear – same concept of contact. The higher the pressure, the more wear you have towards the center thus less on the inside/outside.
Hey Andrew,
To make things clear, is the toe measurements you put in per wheel? or a total of both wheels? I would guess its a total.
What about the camber? I’d assume that per wheel and not a total of both wheels.
Hey Danny everything is per wheel.
would that make a total of .16 total toe in for rear track settings? what would this number be in degrees?
hey andrew,
What kind of front sway bar do you recommend for an e46 m3 with oem+ suspension (dinan springs, b4 struts/shocks)?
i know i will benefit more from an upgraded front bar as opposed to a rear bar due to macpherson suspension up front, any pointers here?
Hey sorry 1,000 years later…if it’s still relevant I’d recommend any adjustable sway bar e.g. Eibach sway bar kit. Due to the nature of the MacPherson, front sway bar is highly recommended to keep the negative camber as “dynamic” as possible and get as much grip as you can. The rear, I personally run just OEM bar. I have full aero and the OEM is stiff enough.
Hi,
Thanks for the great info. If you have -.08 rear toe does that mean the rear wheels will point outward.
It will be inward.
Toe In. Talk with your alignment guy. some shops use the +/- sign and some don’t
Ok thanks. I did do some research regarding the allignment machines and toe in is classed as positive + toe. Toe out is classed as -negative.
Toe and camber are opposite which is strange.
On my 2005 M3 I currently have Koni sports, H&R Camber plates. Springs are linear with 430 front, 600 rear. Not sure on the height, the car is low but nothing rubs. Tire are 18 275/35. Camber in the front is 3.5 – I need to get adjustable arms for the rear.
However the current setup has the car relatively neutral. Some oversteer but nothing that is created by specific inputs.
I just increased my castor to the full amount available in the plates, it was set at half the available. This coming weekend is a track event at Summit Point, WV. Shenandoah is the track, its tight with 22 some turns in 2 or so miles. I was there last year with a slightly different setup ( minus the camber plates ) so this year should be even more funt.
Whats up andrew, can i ask your current specs?
I’ve got a 2003.5 I’m building to compete in STU at nationals. Ive got poly bushings (powerflex purple/black) everywhere, and h&r suspension. Currently running the 235/255r18 setup. What tires/alignment spec would you recommend? im looking at re71r’s, but trying to decide if i want to step the rears up to 265’s over 255’s
Stick with your your 235f/255r setup, camber -3f -2r, just a hair of toe, 34 psi front/36 psi rear hot, and set your height to 13.5/13 inch from center cap to fender. I think that would be a good start. Basically, your car is going to understeer because of the staggered setup. All your setting optimizations should revolve around getting rid of that understeer. Go out there and take notes of how your car is handling entering the corner, at apex, and corner exit then make the necessary adjustments with the following rules in mind. If you’re understeering: 1. Reduce tire pressure in front and increase in rear. 2. If you have coilover dampening, increase stiffness in rear. The most important thing though is learning so go out there and talk to as many people as you can. Especially the guy setting his PB. 🙂
what about going 245/40/18 F and 275/35/r18 R? would that offer a noticable performance gain? im needing to buy new tires anyway, the tires on the car are goodyear eagle all seasons 450 TW and they are horrible. Those sizes above will work with my wheels while adding more contact patch and only add about 6% total to the price of tires
Hey Skip,
Oscar here.
I recommend a square setup to get rid of that understeer, if you can (I forget what STU class ruling is on tire sizes). I ran 245/275 in the rear before and it slowed my acceleration down quite a bit. No noticeable gain in grip and had even more understeer. Unless you have a full bolt on m3, I don’t think 275 in the rear would help much and even then you would need 275 in the front to benefit from it. The staggered setup where the front tire size is smaller than the rear will be the culprit. If you can increase the front tire size, that would be your best bet and most to gain.
You want the front and rear tires to be as close as possible and the fronts to be as wide as possible. Improves braking, balance, and has a neutral drive characteristic.
For autocross STU class, you want as much negative camber as you can in the front without bumping up a class (you can do so by removing the camber pins in the front strut. This will help with rotating the car around sharp cones so you can power out on the exit quicker.
Try Federal RSR tires, they’re good performance for the buck. For most competitive setups, most people run 265/265 or 275/275
for some reason i cant respond to oscar so im replying where i can. My front wheels can support the 255’s as well, so i could do 255’s square. my only worry with that is tramlining, which is why i was looking at staggered setups. how much of that is something i need to actually worry about vs people exaggerating how bad tramlining occurs. Thanks for the speedy responses guys.
Hey Skip,
Tramlining is going to happen with a square setup especially on highway. You could try a little toe in on front and rear to get back a little stability at the expense of tire wear.
I run 265/265 with no toe in front and a little toe in rear for the track for high speed stability. Its doable as a daily. But if you were getting competitive with the M3, I would live with a little tramlining to save some tire.
It does show during highway driving or super bad roads. Follows the grooves of the road. But on a good surface, it does handle really well and predictable.
So I would say you can’t really take your hands off the wheels anymore for any reason because of tramlining and you have to pay attention more to the roads. You should be getting a lot more feedback on the roads which is good and bad at the same time. Any imperfections, you will have to feel and counter but im probably exaggerating a bit.
For autocross, I would do toe out in the front to get a bit more rotation in the rear. But its going to make tramlining even worse.
I guess the question is now, how much of a daily is your M3 vs how competitive you want to be in autocross.
i have a 2006 e46 m3 running stock springs and shocks.
my tire sizes are 235/35/19 front and 265/30/19.
i am going in for an alignment.
what should i get for a more sport or aggressive feel
You can try adding 0.2-0.5 degrees of negative camber all around and lower your tire pressure to around 35 front / 30 rear. This isn’t your ideal DD setup, but something to try since it won’t be too much of a wear on your tires. Just make sure you have 0 toe.
Nice article. Have any recommendations when running 19″ (zcp or csl) with Coilovers or damper suspension kits?
Hey what’s up Jorge. For entry level regardless of track/daily, I always recommend BC Racing + upgraded Swift (linear) springs. BC Racing comes with camber plates which is a plus. Alternative to BC is ST, which is owned by KW. However with ST, you don’t get the adjustable dampening like the BC. An upgrade from that is the KW V3 and other exterior reservoir systems like Moton, but those get pricey. Keep in mind most people run linear springs to avoid rubbing issues with the inside wheel barrel and shock. KW V3 for example has progressive springs \/ vs || which causes fitment issues. Consult clearance before you decide on a set.
Graet post. Is this guide applicable for non-m e46’s? Thanks in advance.
Yes this guide is applicable to all RWD Front Engine Car
Tire size and spring rates are different on the E46 M3 so take those with a grain of salt, but for the others like alignment and rebound, you can apply the same theory.