wheel alignment

[ronc]

i was given a recomended alignment# of -1 deg camber and max caster and factory toe setting for a 07 sport with oem bilstiens rb springs and cobalt sways. is this a good setting? and when they say max caster does that mean all the way plus or minus. thanks RON BTW i assume these settings are for front and back?

[Brian]

Negative one on camber is fine (a high performance alignment will usually be higher but we balance tire wear considerations according to mix of driving, etc).. You are missing toe here, so I will guess zero toe front and back....which is a neutral position. For lots of freeway work it is typical to Toe IN slightly front and rear to avoid tramline. And for performance it is typical to zero toe the rear and slightly toe out the front. Don't worry about the caster, go for 6.5 with that negative one camber (they are only going one direction on the caster, they can't screw it up by going the wrong direction).

[ronc]

i do a 50/50 mix of highway and city driving. the toe figures that i was told was to set at factory settings front and rear. i dont want tramlining so could you give me actual #s for toe all around?

[Brian]

To avoid tramline slight toe IN all the way around, 1/16th per corner (some shops call that total 1/8th total toe in per front, and same at rear).

Brian

[ronc]

Negative one on camber is fine (a high performance alignment will usually be higher but we balance tire wear considerations according to mix of driving, etc).. You are missing toe here, so I will guess zero toe front and back....which is a neutral position. For lots of freeway work it is typical to Toe IN slightly front and rear to avoid tramline. And for performance it is typical to zero toe the rear and slightly toe out the front. Don't worry about the caster, go for 6.5 with that negative one camber (they are only going one direction on the caster, they can't screw it up by going the wrong direction).

should i sit in the car while they do this alignment with a half tank of gas?

[Brian]

Ideally, sit in the car during alignment. Many shops won't allow it.

[Gordy]

I'll hijack this thread, vs starting a new one -- appears the OP's questions have been completed. My apology if not.

I'm looking at about the same setup as ronc's, and have an alignment scheduled in a few days. So I just want to make sure on the numbers.
2007 stock 17" rims/tires. Eibach sways & Sport springs, Tokico HTS (set fairly firm, 3-4 turns typically for DD). Car is a DD, as my hope to explore AutoX continues to fail due to Tu/We as my days off ... Anywho, 40-50% freeway, rest rural "highway"/town. Roughly 70mi round trip. Semi-regular "spirited" blasts on the local twisties! Tram-lining doesn't concern me much, asphalt freeway here, no grooved concrete. Plus I stay outside of the troughs.

Guessing my setup will be nearly identical to ronc's, except I'm leaning towards zero toe at all corners.

Camber: -1
Toe: Zero x4
Caster: 6.5

[ronc]

I had my wheel alignment done today these are the numbers;

[Brian]

If I am reading their chart correctly it looks like they toed OUT the rear. That's not what we want. We normally toe out the front a little for high performance alignments. We toe zero the front for neutral. We toe in both front and rear to avoid tramline for those who do a lot of freeway work. When we toe out the front, we want the rear either toe zero, or even slight toe in.....but not toe out in the rear. I might be reading their chart incorrectly but I would ask them if that is showing final result of toe out in the rear. And if so, I would have them dial that rear toe to zero (with any error to the negative rather than the positive).


To keep from making a mess of the forum, I will erase that second thread on same subject.