Does Alignment Change with Wheel Swaps?
 

My summer setup is currently 17x9 wheels on a 245/40/17 tire. If I revert back to stock wheels and winter tires (215/45/17).

I need an alignment either way since I changed my front camber on camber plates recently but I was wondering if it would be a smarter idea to have it done on the summer tires then swap to winter wheel setup. Or does it even matter? What do you guys think?

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Ah a fellow CT member! What part?!

Need more info.
Is it your daily? Do you track/autox your car in the summer?
How much camber do you have / aim for?

There is some compliance in the bushings of the suspension, so when the same force (weight) applied with different leverage (which offset are your larger wheels?), the angles can change slightly. With winter tires you probably won't notice any difference though.

Having said that, the "optimal" alignment for winter would require a lot less camber than an "optimal" alignment for summer. Less grip = lower G's = less roll = less camber.
Depending on what you do in winter, you may or may not want to have different alignment for winter vs summer.

But most likely you'll be fine with just doing one alignment for summer tires.

Ayy! I'm in Central CT near Berlin Turnpike.

Had the car for 1.5 yrs but never engaged on the forums till now. Glad to be here

This car is my daily. I am aiming for about -1/-2 camber in the front and -2/-2.5 in the rear.

No trackdays/Autox yet but next summer I'm looking to take it to the track. That is what I was thinking, get the car aligned on summer tires then just swap to winter tires.

I may or may not do it in one go because I don't want to confuse the shop...

I see, welcome. I'm in the New London County area near RI.

I don't think -2º of front camber will hurt during winter.

What's the max your camber plates allow?
You'll benefit from more than -2º front camber when you hit the track,
get comfortable and start going progressively faster.

I'm on blizzaks WS90 in the winter. I would highly recommend 0 or -1 camber in the rear.
Look at the shape of the tire tread in the picture below. See how it tapers off near the sidewall? When I was on -2 camber, it felt really sketchy.

https://www.tirerack.com/images/vide...izzak_ws90.jpg