Quote:
Originally Posted by CSG Mike
Think of it this way.
Your car gets "looser" as it goes faster. Lets make a scale of 1-100, with 1 being super understeery, and 100 being super oversteery. Now, on this scale, as you go faster, your car goes "up" the scale. For example, if your car is a 25 at low speed, it may be a 35 at high speed.
It sounds like before, you were at around a 40. The car would understeer slightly, but nothing terrible. As you get to higher speeds, the car would go up the scale, and become a 50, being neutral (loose, but manageable).
Now, you're at a 50. The understeer is gone at low speed, but at higher speeds, it goes up to a 60, and becomes loose, and actually swings the rear around.
You can fix where your car sits at static (the 40 that became a 50), or you can fix how the car changes based on speed (the 10 increase that happens, no matter where you start).
Just a different perspective that hopefully makes sense.
You need a better alignment guy. This is what I'd do if it were my car:
- Get the subframe centered by hand
- Install crash bolts in the front
- Play with tolerances to get more camber
- cornerbalance the dampers
- re-align
Steps 1, and 3 will not be available to you unless you have a VERY experienced alignment shop that does a lot (or exclusively) performance oriented setups
Step 2 can be done at home.
Step 4 will need a decent alignment shop or regular shop with the proper equipment
Step 5 will only be toe for you unless you buy more parts.
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Mike, your different perspective definitely makes sense - actually it helps a lot when thinking about how a car goes from understeer to oversteer.
I realize one of my bigger mistakes now: when I had the alignment done, I was kind of half-ass about it - I wanted a 'proper' alignment, which in my mind was pretty much adjust camber, toe, ride height - pretty simplistic to be honest.
The shop I went to actually does a lot of track prep work for dedicated race cars - I guess I didn't want to go full race since I also drive this thing on the street (but thankfully I don't have to use it to go to work or anything, purely a for fun car that I don't want only limited to the track). That having been said, I called them up and asked if they could do more of a track alignment including corner balancing.
Regarding the things you mentioned:
1. get the subframe centered by hand - what should I be looking for or ask the shop to do here?
2. Why the crash bolts? Is this just for additional camber up front? I'm using FA500 coils and they have camber plates - pretty much how I ended up getting -1.5* (oddly, after dropping the front, I actually had positive camber O_o). What should I do about the rear? are LCA's the best bet?
3. I don't really know what this means? Do you just mean messing around with different alignment combinations (since each aspect changes when you change another)
4. I'm definitely getting a corner balance - I'm operating under the assumption that they should model my weight, I should remove the junk in the trunk etc...
5. I want to do this right and proper - what additional parts do I need/do you recommend? and do you carry em? In the past you gave me a pretty simple 'set and forget' alignment: -2* front and rear, 1/32 toe in front and rear.
Still valid?
Also, shot in the dark, but on that 1-100 scale, what do you think is good to aim for? I don't suppose it's possible to make that 10 into... like a 5 is it?
Mike, I know I'm asking a whole crapload of stuff, I really appreciate all your help.
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celica73 Yeah the problem with that is we adjusted the ride height before tossing the car up for an alignment. So the baseline is already gone...
I'm running Fortune Auto 500 with camberplates (they came with em).
With regards to when is it loose... I felt that it was most unsteady when I was doing high speed turns side to side - I don't think that if it was a single turn alone it would be all that slippery. Although I could be wrong... I should've paid much more attention
