Wheel Alignment Options

[Howard]

When I put the street tires on Suzi for Moab, noticed some uneven wear on the Azenis. So went to local shop for a quick alignment. Great gadget, good price ($75) for 4 wheel. Recommend highly. Printout follows. What do you gurus thing of these settings?

[Dave_Darling]

Understeer is what I think of them. You've got just under two full degrees more negative camber in the rear than the front!! Unless you've got some mighty stiff springs in the back, I'd think this car would push like a Honda Civic!!

If it were my car, with my suspension, I'd set the front at a half-degree closer to zero camber than the rear is. If possible--it may not be, depending on the exact chassis, ride height, etc.

--DD

[Aaron Cox]

more camber in front...

i have mine....

im running -2 in rear.. and almost -2 in front (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Joe Ricard]

Tune for the tires. New Azenis are pretty grippy. 1.0 negative camber front 1.5 rear The one angle I don't like is rear toe of the passenger side. it is toe'd out. Pretty easy to fix right in your driveway. Just put a ratchet strap around the outside end of the rear suspension mount loosen the three bolts and carefully crank the end fwd tighten and your done.

[Dave_Darling]

The one angle I don't like is rear toe of the passenger side. it is toe'd out.

That was the "before" pic... The seetings were changed to those in the "current" image.

--DD

[Howard]

The alignment was done with the street 195/65's on American Racing VW offset wheels. They stick out further than the 205's on Fuchs and exaggerate the camber.

180# rears with Konis, Bilsteins up front, swaybars F/R. With the previous alignment and Azenis, I didn't have the HP or courage to break the fronts loose, so back would come out pretty easily, the way I like it.

But car tracks/rides better and steers easier with the new setup, some of it due to the higher profile tires of course. This is the setup to drive the almost 2k miles for RRC.

Camber aside, what about big changes to toe, caster and thrust angle? When I get back will probably put the stickies back on and re align.

Joe.. he couldn't do much more on right side due to tire rub issues that won't be there with the Fuchs. What is ideal rear toe? And don't be a smart ass AAron...

[Dave_Darling]

So the right-rear really is still toed out? That's not so good. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

Ideal toe angle depends on a lot of things. For the street, you want "a little toe in" all the way around. It helps keep the car nice and stable. A little toe out in the front can help the initial turn-in, but at the cost of making the car feel quite "twitchy". Good for an autoXer, not so good for a daily driver. Or even for a track car, for that matter!

I'd be a little worried about the difference in caster in the front. It's not a big deal, but it's better for it to be even. And it shouldn't have been difficult to change.

Not sure what the "thrust angle" is measuring, but I would assume any issues there would go away when you got toe-in on both rear wheels.

--DD

[Aaron Cox]

1/16 toe in is good

[John]

I would prefer to get the thrust angle to zero. (This is the angle that the rear wheels are pointed toward compared with the vehicle centerline) When both rear toe angles are equal, the thrust angle is zero. This would want to drive the car in a straight line and not drive down the road crooked or dog legged.

I think just a bit more toe in in the front. Less negative rear camber, more negative front camber.

Your caster numbers look good enough. (Camber and toe angles are more critical)