Alignment FAQ Thread

[JazzleSAURUS]

Originally Posted by churchx

timmydatooth: first things to check - tire pressures (if tires & their wear same). And who knows, what alignment really is, do you have printout? Alignment been done != alignment done right.

Any good alignment tech will normalize tire pressure, and check if the driver has a tire pressure preference so they can ensure the alignment is correct. That said, many alignment techs are plenty lazy and just want to crank out their free alignments with tire purchase so they can go home.

[timmydatooth]

Originally Posted by JazzleSAURUS

Any good alignment tech will normalize tire pressure, and check if the driver has a tire pressure preference so they can ensure the alignment is correct. That said, many alignment techs are plenty lazy and just want to crank out their free alignments with tire purchase so they can go home.

So do I have to take it back to tire kingdom and let tem know it is still pulling to the right even after alignment. Or will I be ok to ride this out until my next tire rotation/ alignment check? The pull to the right is very slight so it really doesn't affect my daily driving too much but I can clearly tell when I let go of the wheel my car doesn't go straight.

[ZDan]

Originally Posted by timmydatooth

So I just got an alignment from tire kingdom. But now I notice when I drive it still pulls to the right a little bit. Is this normal or is this something I should be concerned with? I know alignments will not be prefect every single time but just don't want any extra wear on my car or tires.

Is apparent pull due to road crown? Normal for the car to try to "fall off" due to roads being cambered. If it pulls slightly to the right on the right side of the road and slightly to the left on the left side, this is normal.

If it pulls right no matter where car is relative to road crown, there's an issue. But it might not be the alignment. If pressures are OK, you might try swapping tires left to right and see if the pull changes direction. In which case a tire might have an internal defect...

[churchx]

timmydatooth: if pressures are even (check at any fuel station, if don't have pressure meter), then i'd better take it to some other competent shop of known work quality, or at least at one, that provides also printout to be able to check their work.
There is also chance of something failing, eg. if there had been heavy hits, some adjustments moved or some parts bent or some bushings worn, like JazzleSAURUS mentioned, but imho at less probability then non even tire pressures (luckily easiest/fastest/simplest to check/fix) or alignment out of whack.
P.S.
If going for another alignment, i'd take this chance to read threads about it and if you also track car to maybe get a bit more optimal/performance oriented alignment, then stock. Eg. even if no rear LCAs, then some cheap camberbolts front for more front neg. camber and so on. Also worth educating oneself about alignment settings in general, what camber/toe/caster affects, which and to what extent you may wish to change from what you have now, which pros and cons some changes may bring and so on. Eg. - what does more grip when pushing/less understeer, but makes following road grooves more, what more stability, but more wear and harder to loose stability if intentional and so on ..

[bfrank1972]

Originally Posted by churchx

Handling wise - depending on for what/where/how you'll use your car. For daily driving only i'd go for -1.5 to -2 front camber, -1 to -1.5 rear. If taking also to track, then -3 front, -2.5 rear. In both cases zero toe front, slight 0.1deg toe-in rear.

Just saw this thread and thought I'd chime in, running -2.8 camber 0 toe front, -2.2 rear .1 toe in rear, daily driven. Does fine, tire wear not a problem, especially when rotating front to rear periodically. Only a couple caveats- as someone mentioned earlier, the responsive front end with this camber is more prone to steer when you have higher road crowns for drainage. I find you have to watch things a bit more if there are pronounced ruts in the road from crappy road repairs. Also I find it's much more finicky with tire pressures, especially differential from right to left. It's also a bit fussier in super cold weather on cold roads. Regarding the rear, I notice a bit less traction in a straight line - normal tradeoff for better rear grip in corners/transitions. But none of it makes the car undriveable at all - the worst is the sensitivity to ruts from road work.

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[Leonardo]

Does adding spacers and camber bolts change toe settings?








I'm getting an alignment Friday.

[FirstWinter]

Originally Posted by Leonardo

Does adding spacers and camber bolts change toe settings?

The camber bolts most likely will.

[Leonardo]

Originally Posted by FirstWinter

The camber bolts most likely will.

Thank you for the reply. I installed a bunch of parts at the same time. My car drove straight, but I think it has bad toe in now. I noticed some tire wear, and am getting it aligned. Yeah, I know


Thanks again!

[Brink]

Gonna go in to get an alignment done soon, I'm on stock suspension just want to get into better alignment for a daily driver compared to however it comes from the factory. If I'm reading the original post right it looks like only toe will be adjustable? Wondering if I should just go for 0 toe all around or what is recommended.

[churchx]

0 toe all around is factory. But i'd throw in slight (to not increase tire wear) toe-in in the rear for some stability on RWD. Helps a lot in low grip (winter or wet) and both flooring in straight line and allowing to get on gas sooner coming out of curve.
Yes, stock there is only front & rear toe adjustment, camber is not adjustable, only what may change by lowering, or what changes in link with adjusting toe, or what can slightly be adjusted within bolt slack.

If you are on stock alignment, and wish for better for daily .. 1) get single camber bolt set for cheap for front (and max out with it front camber, to some -1.5) leaving rear as is, at stock's -1 to -1.2 rear camber, 2) get 0 front toe, slight toe-in rear as per above, 3) ask for alignment techs to get everything as even as possible right to left.
That bolt set is cheap, cheaper then alignment itself, and imho is best price/performance handling mod ever. More front grip, less (imho too much stock) understeer, with such reasonable amount of camber little to no ill-effects.

[skeeler]

I've been interested in the 86 twins since before they went on sale, and I am finally getting close to buying, but I've only today learned that there's notfactory camber adjustment at all. I always assumed people were adding camber plates and lower control arms just to get more range. I must say that's a significant turn-off. It's not that I'm unwilling to swap in parts, as my current cars indicated, but the fact that the factory didn't think that camber adjustment was important enough to include is concerning.

[Shark_Bait88]

Originally Posted by skeeler

I've been interested in the 86 twins since before they went on sale, and I am finally getting close to buying, but I've only today learned that there's notfactory camber adjustment at all. I always assumed people were adding camber plates and lower control arms just to get more range. I must say that's a significant turn-off. It's not that I'm unwilling to swap in parts, as my current cars indicated, but the fact that the factory didn't think that camber adjustment was important enough to include is concerning.

You can add camber bolts to add a fairly significant amount of camber, to the front at least, for pretty paltry sum.

[skeeler]

Originally Posted by Shark_Bait88

You can add camber bolts to add a fairly significant amount of camber, to the front at least, for pretty paltry sum.

I undrerstand that, but I think it's ridiculous to have to buy and install new parts simply to adjust camber on a performance car. This situation won't stop me from buying one of the twins, but it's very irritating. I'm already overlooking the fact that the cars come with McPherson struts, and I wasn't expecting another suspension issue.

[churchx]

skeeler: one of most distinquishing/characterising features of this car - it's cheap. 9/10 of owners will never take it to the track, and are better off with stock understeer biased alignment and no adjustment means also less chance to get it wrong. I might be wrong, but isn't no camber adjustment common also to other cars for subaru like impreza/forester/wrx/etc?
It's 25-50$ cost to add camberbolts front, $230 for rear LCA like SPC. Imho not unreasonable cost for those 1/10 of owners, that may need it for something more then DD.