I had an alignment done at Showcase. Apparently the rears were out a bit, so they corrected. Ever since, when I take a right curve, it feels like I'm going to lose the back end. This is at reasonable speeds (ie 75mph on the Broadway curve on i-17, 75mph on some of the curves down from Flagstaff). I'm wondering if the left rear is toed in too much, or something. Air pressures are fine - I usually run with the recommended 32 front / 29 rear.

Chad didn't give me the spec sheet for my alignment, so I will get a copy this week. Anyone else have similar alignment experiences? Any suggestions?

I'll also do a search on the board, but was looking for some local opinions. Want to get this straightened out before the Devils Hwy run.

Thanks- Dave

 

Dave,
Utah S2k sent me the info below when I was dealing with alignment issues. Not sure if this answers your question, but you can use this info to talk to Showcase about what they did to your car. I would also suggest adjusting your tire pressures, I'm using 37 psi front and 35 psi rear and have used these pressures for all my track days and street driving. I've heard that 35 front and rear works good too.

The S2000 suspesion can be adjusted for Castor, Camber, and Toe. However each of these components is interrelated. For example when you adjust toe the camber changes. Therefore you must adjust the front/rear alignment whenever you adjust camber, caster or toe. Any four wheel alignment machine (i.e. Bear) can be used and will be satisfactory. If however you are a perfectionist the Hunter is the only way to go. In short, a four wheel Hunter unit will look at all parameters on all wheels at once, as opposed to "single element calibration" used by most, it is also much more accurate. The cost of the alignment is the same roughly so why not use the most accurate method on the market today? As for the CRT showing S2000 00/01....... this is loaded and stored by the technician (most likely from a previous S2000) where someone got the data and the saved the data as "the gospel" for the S2000. It should be validated, the following are the correct settings:

Front Castor= 6 degrees 0 minutes +/- 15 minutes
Front Camber=- 0 degrees 30 minutes +/- 10 minutes
Rear Camber Angle= -1 degree 30 minutes +/- 10 minutes
Front Toe In= 0 +/- 2 MM (+/- .08 inches)
Rear Toe In= 6.0 +/- 2 MM (0.25 +/-.08 inches)

In addition the "Turning Angle" should be checked:
Inward wheel = 34 degrees 0 minutes +/- 2 minutes
Outward Wheel: 29 degrees 0 minutes (reference)

The Castor can be adjusted very easily on the S2000. If the tech couldn't adjust Camber you either had a a very hard front end wheel impact (and bent an arm) or the technician didn't know what he was doing. Another possibility is the target machine data (loaded as noted above on a previous vehicle ) was in error, therefore the technician could not "bring the car in" to the stored data baseline. The most common error made by untrained technicians is Step One.......Check Tire Pressure. On the S2000 each tire should measure 32 PSI prior to alignment check. It should be checked with a gage with at least a 2" dial face (not a pocket wand like most owners and dealers use).

With proper pressure in the tire and a valid software dataset your car will do well on any four wheel machine, Hunter, Bear, or otherwise. Did you see the technician check the tire pressure?

Best of Luck,

Utah

 

I too just had my alignment adjusted for camber. I took my car into my mechanic (non-dealer) and he noticed that my front tires were wearing strange, "cupping". He felt it might be due to an alignment problem and made me an appointment with a local Honda dealership. I took it there the same day (this past Friday the 29th) and after some convincing they checked it out. I only have 10,980 miles on the car and the tires are in good shape, except for the "cupping" or "feathering". Sure enough they stated that it was out of camber and adjusted it slightly, in addition they agreed to look into having my tires replaced under warranty. I'll find out on Monday if that really happens. I don't know the details of the adjustment to the camber right now but I will early next week when I get the "receipt"; they are waiting on new tires and a new module for my driver's side window. In the past week every time I go to put the top down the driver's side window only rolls down about an inch. So that is getting fixed too. On another issue, does Showcase offer you a free rental to leave your car with them while you wait for parts? I refused to leave mine with them till Tuesday while I wait for parts.

We'll have to compare notes when we get our paperwork back from the dealer.

Thanks,

 

Dave,

My 2 cents:

-- as Gloffer said, the tire pressures are pretty low for performance driving. 34f and 32r is about a minimum, and most seem to recommend around 36f and 34r.
-- alignment techs will often give you non-aggressive settings so that you won't complain about excessive tire wear. Non-agressive settings will also lower your cornering ability...there is a big difference between the -.8 degree and -1.8 degree ends of the camber spec.
-- if you get a chance, take the car hard through some corners you know well and try to determine if you have less grip or if the car just feels different due to different tires and different alignment.

One annoying thing about how quickly the cars go through tires is that it is really tough to get a solid feel for how the car handles. New tires feel different from mature tires which feel different from worn tires, and that all happens in 6 or 8 months.

I hope Showcase can give you a good answer,
Tanq

 

I'll call Chad in the morning. It's got to be the alignment - I had the new tires on before the alignment and it still cornered great. I agree that it's tough to get used to performance with quickly wearing tires, but my car hasn't been this unstable since I had the Kumhos on the back!

Thanks for the help, guys. We'll get this dialed - in before the weekend!

Dave

 

Fast tire wear? Are you guys nuts? Try 5-7k for a set of rears (NSX). I think the tire wear on the S2000 is great. I haven't had a set of tires last this long in 2-3 years.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by SCS2k
[B]Fast tire wear?

 

I have burned up 2 sets of rears, have a set on my OEM wheels with ~2K miles left, and just installed a fourth set on my aftermarket wheels. I figure I am getting ~6K miles per set.

I wonder how many miles I could get if I didn't do track time.

 

I'm getting 10K on the rear, 21 on the front. I'm definately not complaining - just much faster wear than the 45K I got on the Acura Michelins! The trade-off is well worth it

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by castles
[B]I too just had my alignment adjusted for camber.