s13 alignment - what settings for a daily driver/ weekend warrior? (hard #'s)

[Black R]

Ok, so I took my s13 coupe to a local place for an alignment yesterday.

I have the following suspension components on the vehicle:

Eibach Sportline lowering springsTEIN inner and outer tie rodsTEIN tension/ caster rodsadjustable camber bolts (uppers only)

Now the steering wheel isn't straight, so I have to go back today to get them to fix it.

But here's the numbers they have for the alignment they did:



Now immediately I notice that it looks like they didn't touch some settings AT ALL.

What should I have them set the caster at? In fact, what would you guys recommend for all settings? Keep in mind that this is a daily driver but does get flogged on the weekends.

[smocan]

Well first of all, you need RUCAs to correct the rear camber, thats about all the adjustment they could do with stock ones, so thats why that hasn't changed to a respected amount. If you buy RUCAs, they can get the camber down in the rear to the recommended range.

I'm no expert on alignment specs except for my own experiences, but i'm not sure why they can't get the camber to match on both sides (Like the left and right match in the front, and left and right match the in the rear).... my guy had no problem dialing them in.

It looks decent for the most part, your toe is good enough it wont cause problems.

But again, i'm no expert but hope that helps you out a tad...

[ashibah83]

as said before, some of the specs cant be set right with stock parts when you have lowered the car, and even the stock ruca's will sometimes yeild no change, most alignment techs(i do ALOT of aligments) tend to Toe-n-go on most vehicles, meaning they will ONLY set the toe unless its obvious that camber or caster is out and most of the time they wont even touch the caster if its even adjustable( its not on most vehicles, except trucks and older cars), with aftermarket tension rods they should be able to get a cross caster of .3-.6 degrees higher on the passenger side(so the car doesnt follow the crown of the road) if you watch them and give them specific specs then they may be able to set it to your liking,but most places will tell you that if the readings are in specs then thats as good as its gonna get

i have full adjustable arms all around and i set mine to

-1.2 front camber both sides+.02 front toe(total)6.75 and 7.25 front caster

-1.5 rear camber0 rear toe

it was a pita getting all the specs where i wanted them and it took multiple trys(the car has to settle a little)but it acts exactly how i want it to when i track it, i think the only thing ill change is the caster, increase it, when i take it to drift events( positive caster=steerback)

[Black R]

thank you for your feedback.

I went back yesterday and told them to set the caster at 7deg along with fixing the steering wheel centering.

Here's the result:



It feels better now.

So are you saying the greater the degree of positive caster, the better it is for the track/ drifting?
Modified by Black R at 12:49 PM 7/27/2009

[ashibah83]

a neutral to slightly negaitve amount of camber is better for "spirited" driving, positive Caster will allow for "steerback", basically your wheels are turned to the left or right and when you let go of the steering wheel the car will try to straighten itself out

[kamikazestorm420]

you cant really set the left and right camber the same because the road not straight. the road is crowned more to one side for water drainage, and if you have the left and right settings the same you will pull to one side.

[Black R]

you cant really set the left and right camber the same because the road not straight. the road is crowned more to one side for water drainage, and if you have the left and right settings the same you will pull to one side.

I've never heard this before.

On my autox car, I always set the camber identical - as well as toe and caster. This is after setting up my cornerweights of course.

[ashibah83]

camber has a SMALL affect on the way your car drives(causing a pull or drift) Caster has a much greater affect on a pull or drift because of a road, set the camber a close to even as you can it shouldnt affect your car for daily driving

[naed240sx]

Bad info in this thread.

First of all, nobody should ever be running more rear camber than front camber, regardless of whether it is a daily or track car. The front suspension is macpherson and has terrible camber gain under compression, so you should be running more than at the rear, which has multilink.

Also, don't dial in alignment bias because of road crowns. Highways are mostly flat, and who cares about a little bit of pull on city streets. If your aim is performance, you should have the same specs on each side.

[Black R]

I didn't see anyone condoning the fact that my rear camber is very negative.

I don't have a current way to correct it - until I get some rear camber arms. *shrug*

[nismofly]

front camber could be a little more but without camber plates youll have trouble

rear camber needs to be less period, and still less than front, again you need ruca's here

front toe is ****ed, dunno wtf happened there, and rear toe probably could be fixed a little better too

caster is good where youve got it for now

[Nismo_Freak]

Front camber should be about 2 degs. for your tires. If you go with a wider tire and a stickier compound (R Comps) you should bump to about 3.0 - 3.25 degs negative.

Factory alignment specs are for people that don't modify their cars. It's set for stability, tire wear, and fuel economy.. not performance.