F50 wheel alignment

[StarPD]

I understand that the F50 has no adjustment on the front for caster and camber. I'm still not satisfied with tracking and steering response/feel on my '05 Q45.

Does anyone know if there's a way to increase caster slightly, and the same for camber without major surgery? Not looking for much, just slight changes, as I've learned that especially with cars, "All things in moderation" is usually best.

Used to be some front end shops could carefully (and very slightly) bend some components without problems, but I think that may be a lost art.

[Nismo_Freak]

You could adjust the toe in the front just a hair. That will improve steering response, but the overall feel will remain the same. The car will tend to plow a bit more in the middle of the corner, and tire wear will increase. This will adversely effect tracking.

The best solution I can offer you is to try an increased tire pressure, or more to a sports compound tire. The tires are the biggest aspect of any car.

Can you explain what you are experiencing in more detail?

[StarPD]

Thanks Nismo_Freak.I note less than satisfactory tracking with minor wandering on the road, less road feel than I was used to with my '94 "t" model, and understeer.I'm running Bridgestone 245/45Z 18 100 RE050A "Pole Position" tires on 18" x 8" TSW "Kyalami" wheels. Tire pressures set to 34.5 F and 37.5 R at Q45Tech's suggestion. That helped understeer some, and improved tracking and road feel, but not enough.

There is no alternate or aftermarket rear sway bar I can use to reduce understeer more, so I'm out of luck there. I would like to further improve straight line tracking though. Ride is as stiff as is tolerable, so more tire pressure isn't the answer. Same goes for replacing bushings with polyurethane. I'm afraid even a little more caster might exacerbate understeer, but it might improve tracking and road feel somewhat.

I really like this car (2005). It corners MUCH flatter than my '94, and turns much shorter. If I could improve tracking, road feel and understeer, it would be perfect in every way. As it is, these shortcomings are minor, but annoying. One of the difficult points is that these things are not severe by any means, just niggling, to the point where it wouldn't take much improvement to be all that I want it to be. I suspect that if I could get a thicker rear sway bar and crank maybe 1 or 2 degrees more caster and 1/2 degree more camber, that would do it.

Most people would never notice these issues, and would be perfectly happy with the way it handles, but I am extremely sensitive to chassis dynamics and handling.

[Nismo_Freak]

The problem with stock suspension cars and sticky tires is you have a ton of variables as to why understeer would be created.

I would suggest this.

Look at the front tires and see if you have strong shoulder wear. If you do this is indicative of a lack of front camber. With a soft spring rate and a McStrut front you are going to have a poor camber gain curve. This usually causes the front to wash out. The problem is half a degree might work, but odds are you will need something on the order of -2 to -2.5 degs. to zero out the front suspension. That's fairly aggressive probably by your standards.

Ideally you'd adjust the front caster from the stock ~5.50 - 6 degs. (taking a guess) to ~8 degs. to improve your dynamic gain a bit. This also will increase steering effort and give you a bit more feedback.

You can replace the rear sway endlinks with adjustable solid links and that will give you a small gain in rear bar effectiveness; probably not enough to make it worthwhile unless Nissan did some real mushy OEM links.

With those tires I can see you running out of front travel as well. McStrut requires ludicrous rates to maintain travel. If that is the case then you don't have a viable solution beyond increasing the front sway bar rate.

If you wanted to get real ghetto you could drill a hole in the sway bar and move the endlink.

[StarPD]

Front and rear tires all wearing evenly, even though they are only UTQ 140.So far, after 10k miles, they appear to have worn only around 15 or 20%.That surprises me.

Bigger front sway bar would only exacerbate understeer, something I don't want to do.

As for adjusting caster and camber, I agree with you, and that's what I'd like to do, but there appears to be no means of doing it. And that's the intent of my post, to find out something I haven't thought of.

Regarding changing the rear sway bar endlinks or relocating them on the bar, that might be some help, but I haven't yet gotten under the car to examine exactly what the setup is. I plan on doing that next time the car is in the shop for an oil change, probably in a month or so.

I'm hoping someone can come up with a trick or two beyond your excellent observations.

Thanks.

[Nismo_Freak]

Bigger front sway bar would only exacerbate understeer, something I don't want to do.

Not if the car is understeering as a result of running out of travel.

Try disconnecting the front sway and drive it around. See if it understeers more.

You have to remember your car is short on spring rate since it's OEM.