Suspension Geometry

[CSG Mike]

Originally Posted by einrejosh

Hi guys, I just got an alignment from Speed Element on monday 2/9. I installed Fortune Auto 500s and Stance lower control arms since in most pictures the rears seem to not go so low. I installed them myself since I am not baller enough to pay people for labor. I did everything right of course, preload and ride height all using a caliper. Only problem was camber in the front and rear, and rear toe. So I fix my alignment enough in my garage to have it drive-able to Speed Element, and they tell me if I want to go -2 degrees in the front I need camber bolts, so I went ahead and bought it and now here's my question.

-Does my suspension geometry get messed up if I have two camber adjustments on each side? (eccentric bolt and top hat) and none of them match?

-Why this concerns me is because the both top hats are at different measurements, and both bolts are at different measurements. I would rather have the top hats maxed out as a reference point and adjust the eccentric bolts since maxing out the top hats barely gave me any negative camber and then just adjust the eccentric bolts.

On another note, I will no longer be going to Speed Element for service. I feel they half assed my alignment, they half assed the install of the eccentric bolt, they didn't torque anything down from what I saw. I couldn't observe the Tech working on my car, even though I'm a Tech myself, they did the alignment where its "good" on paper but less likely when you drive it, their Techs took multiple smoke breaks, and only one of them is ASE certified, which sometimes matters if you care about your car and who works on it. All in all, I feel Speed Element is a Performance Show Car shop only for show, the only reason I would only go here in the future is because of one of the sales rep, Jason, he would have to be the coolest there. I'll probably just go here for parts now in the future.

On another note, this place has a shit ton of awards for their Evos, so I say check em out for that, but that's all.

I'll upload some pics later of my car, but yeah, if anyone can answer my question that would help, I'll just get an alignment else where.

-Final alignment specs, -2 degrees in the front, 0 toe, -1.5 in the rears (need after market toe arms to go less camber) and .09 toe.

It will never match perfectly on both sides, as the loading isn't identical. We set the camber plate equal, and fine tune using the camber bolt. However, our subframe is also manually centered (dead on) and the car is corner balanced, so the camber bolts are pretty darn close.