After fitting my new wheels I needed to get the Geometry checked and set up as there was a lot of uneven tyre wear on the set I have taken off.

Ideally I would have liked Chris at Centre ofGravity to do it but finding the time to get to Birmingham is a struggle so decided to attempt to get it done locally.

I approached a few places in Hull and finally decided to go with Bush Tyres. I asked if they did four wheel laser alignment - YES. I asked if they had the ability to check and adjust the caster - YES.

The car was with them for about 90 mins - This is an Excel copy of the readout they gave me.


I took with me a copy of the Honda workshop settings which he believd they worked to anyway. There was however a little bit of confusion as they worked in degrees, minutes and mm and all the settings on the Honda datasheet were in degrees and minutes.

He did reassure me that the settings were all bang on with the exception of the caster. He had thought that he had found the adustment but adjusting it didnt alter any of the settings.

If possible can somebody post pictorally where the adjustment is please as he is more than willing to sort out the caster if i can demonstrate were the adjustment is.

Thanks Andy

 

Front Caster, if he tried and did not change, it may well be seized (Very common)

 

The caster is ok on one side and not far out on the other side so I wouldn't worry about this, if I were you (expensive job to sort out if the adjusters are seized and I doubt you would notice 1 1/2 degrees of difference here).

Are you sure the front camber and rear toe settings are right though (you may notice these more and if the camber settings are right - is the front neg or pos? - they are not optimum front or rear)?

 

Thanks once again for the photo Mytse I reckon I must nearly owe you a beer by now.

Mikdys - The front camber is set to the workshop settings not the optimum settings which should ideally be 0 deg 30' so within spec. I'm not 100% sure about the rear toe as Honda show it in degrees and minutes and Bush have measured in mm although their mechanic assures me it is correct.

Andy

 

I meant to ask is the front camber negative or positive (it doesn't seem to say on the print out and should be negative). Also, like you, I'm not sure how to convert the rear toe. I take your point about not wanting optimum settings and I still don't think you need to worry about adjusting the caster.

 

Those are all over the place! how does it handle!
Most places that do 4 wheel alignment have a database of the workshop settings.
Take it back!

 

Yes the front camber is negative, I just missed it out on the spreadsheet i put together.

Mikey - Thats not the sheet that Bush gave me its a rough excel spreadsheet i put together. The sheet they gave me also staes the info in the databank and the tolerances I just couldn't be arsed to put it all in.
The car seems to handle much better and apart from the caster I thought everything was well within the spec of the honda datasheet?????

 

If the front camber is 1/2 deg negative then its just the right front caster thats a small amount out and maybe the rear toe (assuming 1mm is 10 minutes it could be a bit too much - be useful to get this converted).

After all said and done if it drives OK for you I wouldn't worry about it any more as I doubt you would notice the difference anyway if you spent

 

if you are happy with it I wouldn't be!
Caster will only really affect the "weight" of the steering on turn in. More caster more weight and stable at speed, less caster lighter steering, but more tramlining.

 

The reason I asked for a piccy of the caster adjustment was to show the mechanic so he can then set up or hopefully set up the caster. I've already paid for it