Re: (Spoolin1X)
| Quote, originally posted by Spoolin1X » |
| Actually the answer is no, i have not done much if any the last few weeks, i have a place that a fellow NY member has recommended that i will be going to once i get my winter tires and raise my car a bit. |
You mentioned raising the car and I see that you have the adjustable coilovers. You really need to choose what ride height you want to run, set it that way and then get the alignment done. If you raise the car for winter driving and plan on lowering it for summer or track days, etc., you will need another alignment when you change the ride height.
As I said earlier, R32s have camber change built in to the suspension as it goes through the range of suspension travel. Also, the toe will sometimes change a slight bit as well, so it's important to have it checked after any ride height change. The other thing to note, is that the factory alignment specs apply to the vehicle at the stock ride height only. If you lower the vehicle and then set all the adjustable angles to spec, you will often end up with a "skewed camber curve"
because you have set the camber at a lower ride height which should have more negative camber than at stock height. So, what you actually end up with, is less negative camber throughout the suspension travel. This is why I commented that -2 deg of camber was not a big concern to me given your lowered ride height. Personally, I like to set the camber at stock ride height (this can be achieved on the alignment rack with the air jack system lifting the car)
then let the car back down to it's lowered height (on the springs) and see where the camber is. It will probably be more negative than where it was set at stock height. If it's reasonable and even from side to side
I'd go with it. This is one of the biggest mistakes I see alignment shops make when dealing with lowered vehicles. They blindly set the car up to factory specs and usually end up taking negative camber out of the entire range of suspension travel. Often times, this will negate much of what could have been gained from the suspension mods. In fairness to alignment shops and techs, they are trained to align cars to factory spec at factory ride heights, and there is considerable liabiity
involved with doing any non-spec alignment in these days of litigation.
I also noticed that you are running 19X8.5 wheels. Are you using wheel spacers, or different offset (than factory) wheels to allow them to clear? If so, this is a big problem from an alignment standpoint. From an engineering standpoint, the entire suspension is designed around a given track width, which effectively changes when you change wheel offsets in any way. Things such as scrub radius, roll center, etc. end up being changed and there is no way to compensate for those changes with an alignment. The biggest problem, from a handling perspective, is how the offset induced trackwidth change affects the toe-out-on-turns function of the suspension. When you turn your car in either direction, the inside wheel needs to follow a smaller radius than the outside wheel. The sharper the turn, the greater the difference between the two radii. So, effectively, what happens is the front wheels must actually become toed-out to follow different radius paths. The factory engineers spend tons of time figuring this out and then designing the suspension to give the proper amount of toe-out for any given steering angle. This is determined by the factory suspension geometry and pretty much set in stone. Usually, when you use wheel spacers they increase the trackwidth by some amount which
requires less toe-out-on-turns than the stock setup for any given steering angle. What this means for enthusiasts is that the car will scrub (drag) the inside front wheel when pushed hard into a corner. The outside tire is heavily loaded and the toe-out-on-turns is more than needed to achieve the desired turning angle. Something has got to give, so it scrubs the inside tire. For street driving, this condition will also tend to make the car feel very nervous in the rain, snow, or ice, because the grip level is so much lower. So, all of this gives you extra tire wear, poorer handling, and safety problems in bad weather. There are some other engineering reasons why wheel spacers and non-stock
offset wheels are a bad idea, but I've tried to keep this alignment related.
Also important to note, is that if you have an alignment with narrower, stock offset winter wheels and then switch to wheels with different offset for the summer, the alignment angles will again, have to be checked. The biggest problem with the extra offset is that it changes the caster readings when you sweep the heads to check it on the machine. Changing wheels won't physically change the actual caster angles of the car, but it will often affect the readings on the machine, which is what was used to set the caster in the first place. My recommendation would be to have the caster set with wheels of stock offset.
Here's a couple of tips to help you get the most from this or any future alignment: Take the car to the shop with 1/2 tank of fuel. This will simulate an average fuel weight in the rear from full to empty. don't have heavy items like golf clubs or bowling balls in the trunk, unless you always carry them with you. This should be common sense, but you'd be surprised at how many customers never give it a thought. Total vehicle weight and weight distribution have an effect on alignment angles. Also, if you usually only drive the car alone, you may want to simulate the drivers weight in the seat with weights comparable to your average body weight. We used to actually have the driver sit in the car on the rack to do this, but most insurance regulations don't allow that any more. This will give a better alignment for tracking, autocrossing, and solo street driving, but may not feel as good with other passengers onboard. You decide on that one.
Well, good luck, and remember, you have factory caster adjustment (shift engine cradle) factory front camber adjustment (lower ball joint slotted mounting holes) and factory front toe adjustment (tie rod ends) You also have CPP adjustable rear control arms which can be used to set the rear camber and toe. There should be no reason that your car cannot be made right, unless it has hidden damage.
Have a safe new year.
