Car doesn't drive right after LCA install, need your help/advise
 

Here's the situation, i was running a set of 19x8.5 wheels with 225/35 tires all around and my handling was awesome! I bought a set of 19x8.5 front and 19x10 rear wheels using the old 225/35 tire for the front and a new 235/35 rear. I also bought the spc lower control arms. Installing the LCA's I noticed the more I go camber out the more toe in was getting, I didn't have time to install the toe bushings so I reinstalled the stock arms. When installing the stock LCA's I tightened the bolts before lowering the car to the ground. Ever since this day my car doesn't drive right. It feels very loose in the rear end like it wants to slip out. What I've done since this is remove the 10" wheels and went with 8.5 front and 9.5 rear still using the old 225/35 tires and the new 235/35 rear. I had the car aligned and after explaining what I did to the shop they told me the correct way to install the arms. They loosened up the bolts to let the car settle ( which it did by about a half an inch) then tightened them. The car felt better but not like it used to before all this. I decided to completely uninstall the arms and reinstall them like I was originally supposed to. The car still drove somewhat better but not perfect. I then brought my tire pressure to 35 from 40 which also helped the stability. After all this the car is drivable but still doesn't feel as good as it used to. My next thought is the inner LCA bushings are bad and need to be replaced, so I am waiting on my whiteline ones to come in. I'm asking for any suggestions as to what would fix this issue, after I install the bushings and get another alignment if that doesn't fix this I don't know what else to do. I would very much like my car to drive like it did before. Please advise
Btw I'm lowered on Megan ez street coilovers, all the way down.

*cough* Might have something to do with it. *cough*

Ahem. Now for the helpful part.

All the way down is never going to drive well. Period. That said, if the control arms are all that changed, your alignment is probably still fubar. You could have damaged the bushings during one of the installs but damage due to use is unlikely in a car this new.

*rant time*
I am continually astounded by the number of people going out and spending $25k on a car and then throwing bargain basement parts at it. I understand that people have different goals, and that most are different from mine. But there is such a thing as common sense and respecting the engineering. It is obvious that in this case modifications were done with very little understanding of the physics or mechanics that were being affected. Points for manning up and asking for help, but next time research and understand what you are doing before you hurt someone.
*end rant*

Cheers
Nathan

Changing camber via the rear LCA will always affect toe on this car, so you have to have the ability to do both, or not at all.

As far as the car not driving correctly, I second the alignment suggestion.

Try contacting the vendor who sold you the camber arms. They will know exactly what's wrong with your setup especially if there is a potential part defect.

Also. What kind of tires did you put on? Are the new rears a match to the fronts?

Post the alignment specs. My money is that it's a toe issue

Read.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tirete....jsp?techid=47

-alex

Just keep throwing money at it. The problem will eventually disappear, right?

Also, 19x10 rear wheels with 235 width tires? Really?

This sums that up :D

More on topic, were the coilovers installed before any of this started? Were they touched at all in the process (other than unbolting them from the LCA)?

Hey Kwise - Vic from SPC here - I am going to forward this to our designers - they will get back to you this afternoon with some suggestions for your set-up!!!

The LCAs are stable, once installed and tightened correctly - I am going to be posting some Gatebil drift footage of one of our set-ups on an FT-86 that is running our LCAs - they held all through a really intense drifting season, and the team loves them!

Awesome customer service right there.

Im betting toe. My car felt the same way after the lowering spring install until I got it to the alignment shop.

Sorry to hear that you have taken your kit off Kwise1. As you found, the more you change camber, the more you will change toe. The kit you had from SPC had an off-set toe bushing included so that you could effectively change the length of the OE toe link and then dial-in your toe setting with the OE cam.

As SubieNate alluded, your suspension is a system. Whenever you change ride rate, ride height, tire package etc… you will change the way the car feels. To minimize any compounding affect with other components, SPC has put adjustment out at the wheel. All other arms on the market make the adjustment on the inboard end of the arm, so… when you change length of the arm you effectively change the pick-up point of the stabilizer bar and the strut, it is a small affect, but it throws more variables into your system.

The only ride difference you should see when you install SPC Arms, (and you will need to be a ride quality engineer to detect it,) is that the rear end will be a bit stiffer as we have replaced the OE rubber bushing in the camber link with an xAxis sealed flex joint.

If you want easier or more toe adjustment, check out our toe link part number 67655.

I had the Megan coils on with the old wheels same height and that's when the car drove fine. I've had no issue with the coils the only time the problem started like I said in the post was when I messed with the arms.
So I'm pretty sure the coils or how far the car is lowered had nothing to do with it.
Calm down with your rant, options are like assholes everyone has one no one wants to hear it.

The stock lower control arms are installed

Yes they're both nitto 555, but the rear ones are new

Yes the coils we installed prior to my original 19x8.5 all around wheels. I didn't change the setting of these at all just installed the controls arms wrong was told about it from the shop then reinstalled the arms the right way

Thank you for all the info, the SPC arms seemed to be a quality part, I just don't need them with my 9.5 rear wheels. My issue is now with the stock arms not the SPC ones.

Why all the hate on Megan coils, I've installed these on my car, my wife's FRS and my friends FRS and had no issues so far. My friends set up is very similar to mine with 19x9.5 square but 225/35 tires all around, dropped like mine and his car drives right. It seems the con census is get another alignment, I'll swap out the inner bushings and get another alignment, hopefully this will fix the issue thanks for everyone's input so far. Would having different size tires effect this or the fact that the fronts are older than the rears?

Age and stagger should not produce such insane difference. Your choice of tire size paired with an alignment guy that slacked at his/her job produced such issue. On top of that, your tire pressure is still high. Don't get offended by people ragging on your setup. You chose to go down this route so you should expect compliments and criticism alike.

What tire size would you recommend? My friend is running 225/35 all around on 19x9.5 wheels and stock control arms and the same Megan coils. His car drives fine. That's why I'm at a loss should I try the same tire size as his but that's a little more aggressive stretch.

Also what tire pressure do you recommend as well?

245 is minimum width on a 9.5" width wheel. For track guys, the width of the tire equaling the width of the wheel yields the the most optimal grip. 265 on a 10.5" is the minimum. I'm stating these recommendations if you want the most out of your setup.

Make sure your toe settings are dialed to 0" all around. If you want some rear end stability, dial in 1/32" total rear toe-in (1/64" on each side). These settings will have to be check every time you install suspension components. If you want to put in the SPC LCAs, then get the alignment done afterwards. Make sure you watch the guy doing it and ensure he/she is getting that specific setting in. Modification will increase the response of the car, but that also means any imperfections in setup will be magnified. You are basically taking away the buffer zone that the OEM guys dialed in.

32psi all around. Check them early in the morning.

My comment was more about a budget coilover being driven as low as they can go. Being at the bottom end of the travel range will make most coilovers act funny, especially over bumps.

Since you didn't touch them though, I would bet it's the alignment. Did they adjust the toe at all when playing with camber? If so, putting the stock arms back on will likely have thrown your toe way out.

I never drove with the spc arms installed, I put them in saw that i would need to install the toe bushing and took them out immediatly. I then installed my stock arms not putting weight on them before tightening the bolts (my Mistake). The next day i got the car aligined and after telling the shop how i installed the arms they told me what i did wrong. they loosened the arms, let the car settle (meaning the inner bushings were taught) and redid the alignment. I took the car home and it drove better. I completely removed the arms and installed them like i was supposed to before and got another alignment (same shop). They adjusted the toe some. the car now drives ok with the air pressure at 35 instead of 40 ( ill change it to 32 today)