When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Going into the alignment, I suspected the car needed less positive rake, so I was prepared to request a 0.2in raise in Front and 0.1 drop in Rear. Had a great experience at West End Alignment in Gardena, Chris interviewed me extensively to figure out my use case and walked me through each step of the process. It took just over 3hrs to dial everything in. He took some chassis measurements and agreed the rake was too positive (front too low relative to rear), his recommendation was 3/16in net positive rake, which meant raising the front by ~3/8in and lowering the rear by ~1/16in to ~1/8in. I happily agreed with his recommendation, since I had come to suspect that some "rebound jerks" experienced on large freeway bumps were due to full Front bump stop engagement. No way to tell for sure, just a suspicion.
Through some combination of skill and blind/dumb luck, the lateral camber symmetry from my adjustments were very good for both Front and Rear, within 0.1° side-to-side. So maybe the Front sub-frame was square after all? Who knows. The major change necessary was the rake. All accessible bushings were reset on the alignment rack. Sway bar end-link lengths were fine-tuned to be "perpendicular and parallel".
Final alignment... Front
Camber = -1.8° Left/Right
Caster = Left +7.6°, Right +7.9°
Toe = 1/32in toe-in Rear
Camber = -1.8° Left/Right
Toe = 3/32in toe-in
Note that the "caster lead" on the Right (more positive caster on Right than Left) is intentional, to compensate slightly for crowned roads. A pure "track" alignment would match casters, so this is more of a "street" setup.
The drive home was great. The car seems much happier at less positive rake and a bit more travel in Front. Having just 1/32nd Front toe-in seems to increase on-center tracking and stability vs my previous alignment of zero. But some of that sensation may also be due to the sway bar end-link adjustments.
I highly recommend West End Alignment. I took my first coilover-ed car there over 15yrs ago, and they are still doing great work.
Corner balance data sheet, measurements taken with me in the driver's seat.
James @ChpEng , here is mine. Thank you for sending me to Chris at West End Alignment, what an awesome guy.
So much fun, I learned a lot. Fun day today and great ride home.
So here is mine. My is street setup (with no expected track use or AutoX)
KWv3 coilovers, RR Racing UCAs, Modified Sway bars, Figs Adj. Sway bar links.
Final alignment... Front
Camber = -1.2° Left/Right
Caster = Left +8.4°, Right +8.6°
Toe = 1/16in toe-in Rear
Camber = -1.3° Left/Right
Toe = 1/8in toe-in
Rear is as high as KWs allow, front seems to have same fender gaps as the rear now. Great ride all together.
@Rossi Great news, glad you are pleased with results, and happy to help. :-)
Looks like the RRR UCA's give around a degree more caster.
I see Chris did "caster lead" for you too, slightly more caster on Right to compensate for crowned roads. Nice.
It will be interesting to see how tire wear is with ~0.5° less camber (mine @ -1.8°, yours @ -1.2°). I measured tread depth at last oil change a couple weeks ago and found a consistent 1/32in more wear on the inboard vs outboard channels, Michelin Pilot Sport A/S-3's @ ~8k miles. The tires are half gone now, so there is no way these things are lasting the full warranty period (which works out to 22.5k miles for Rear and 45k miles for Front in a staggered setup).
With 1/16" toe in, you shouldn't have any issues with tire wear. I run 1/16" toe out because I like the turn in better and I'm running solid rear bushings and polyurethane in the front of the LCA. Edge wear isn't much trouble at all.
01-24-22, 07:28 PM
