I spent the majority of the day at the alingment shop. 200 bucks later and I have a problem.

I have KWs and SPC ball joints in the front.

My front is where the problem is. I have 3.5 degrees camber on both sides, no problem. 0 toe, no problem. But I asked for 6.5 degrees of caster, and was only able to get that on the right side. Maxing out the left (drivers side) only showed 4.9 degrees.
I went off a couple times this year but nothing HARD. I went off in a sandpit going 60mph, a couple 30-40mph offs but nothing that jerked the car.

Questions...
Could my LCA be bent? I did a couple quick measurements, and the two control arms seemed the same. Although its hard to measure perfectly and I realize 1/4 inch is all it takes.
Could my SPC ball joint moved? It doesnt appear that it has, but I can get 3.5 degrees of camber- if it moved I probable would be limited on that, right?


And finally, is the car "safe" to drive like this? The SPC joint is tight... but if the LCA is bent, is it safe to drive on the track? The caster couldnt be set the same on both sides, right now its 4.9 on the left, 5.8 on the right. This shouldnt effect my my handling too much, should it?? (everything else is perfect except my CASTER is off .9 degrees)

I really doubt im a good enough driver to tell the difference, id just like to hear some educated opinoins. I have some S2k compitition in TTC this weekend...

Thanks!!

 

Call it laziness if you want, but I hardly ever checked my caster all year long. And I know mine couldn't have been the same, because I was tweaking camber and toe constantly. I too had a couple offs, but nothing I would blame solely on the setup.

 

Im going to get my own alingment stuff for next year. Im tired of spending all this money at shops.

Thanks Matt!

 

hopefully you'll be more diligent than me in doing them

 

Should be safe.

I would not be surprised if the arm is bent though. I know someone who has been through 2 LCAs this year in a daily driver / autocross car. Not being able to align the car to the same specs as before is a dead giveaway.

Now this is an AS car, so I don't know what effect the ball joints will have.

 

Thanks!
I like your cars... my DD is a TDI as well.

 

What are you going to get?

I'm all in for doing my own alignments, tire mounting, and wheel balancing. That all sounds expensive, but given what an inconsistent job the places around here seem to do maybe it's worth it!

 

I drive 80 miles 3 days a week (used to be 5). Every time I look at my TDI I think about how cheap it is to drive compared to my S2000, or god forbid, my Tahoe. I guess I'm getting old if I'm thinking about those kind of things.

If traffic didn't suck so much, I'd drive the S, but what's the point of sitting in traffic in a sports car. I'm already married