yes and no... (archive)

My only comment is that I truly hope they didn't say the tires had anything to do with it. The camber plates, ok sure, but the tires? Are they out of their mind?

Well, first to clear up some things. There are no camber plates on the car, only swapped stock ones. I would put more stress, ie more camber with aftermarket camber plates. But I don't think that is thier point of contention. If the car is modified, they must have permission from BMW to work on the car. The car is changed from a stock setup. Is it modified? That is a grey area b/c it is a stock part. I would likely agree taht it is modified according to their definition, however I belive that had nothing to do with the failure. As for the tires, look at it this way. If I were to mount racing slicks on the car, I think everyone would agree that they would help generate more lateral loading in turns, ie instead of topping out at .9 g's, I might hit 1.2 or 1.3g's. so increasing the "stickiness" of the tires will increase the load transmitted to the wheel bearings/hubs. Now, your Michelin Pilot Sports have a treadwear rating of about 220 or 240,(can't remember). The A032R's I have on my car are 60, or maybe 50. Something like R compound tires,(BFG R1's, Hoosiers), are 0 or 00. Slicks are worse. So the A032R's will theoretically be capable of creating more lateral G's, hence slightly more load on the bearings. The question is how much, and did it make a difference, ie a failure. I can't answer that, but my opinion is it didn't cause the failure, but contributed. I can't say how much, but I believe a small amount.
-Bob

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