OK, i went to get an alignment (03 AP1), gave the tech UK specs with custom rear toe (read on here it was better) ..


Front Caster 6°45" = 6.75°
Front Camber -1.0°
Front Toe 0.0°

Rear Camber -2.0°
Rear Toe 0°20" = +0.16° *custom(+0.1° - +0.15° per side)
Total Toe 0°40" = +0.32° *custom(+0.2°-+0.3° total)

First he comes and tells me the machine is telling him i will suffer under steer.
So he comes back to me and tells me he can only get the FRONT caster to 6.0 not 6.75 because of the Toe or Camber adjustment affecting it (cant remember which one he said). He said the UK model might be different than the US, I told him it's the same, OEM car with OEM settings, but he said he still couldn't do it.

The car feels stable in turns but definitely feels loose going in a straight line at highway speeds, can this be the caster?


These are the specs they gave me.

FRONT

Camber L:-.9 R:-.8
Caster L:5.9 R:6.0
Toe L:.01 R:.01
Tot toe: .01
Steer Ahead:.00

REAR

Camber L:-2.0 R:-2.0
Toe L:0.14 R:0.12
Tot toe: 0.26
Thrust Angle:.01

How do my specs look? Is it ok that they are not exact for both sides for some of the mesuraments?


TIA

 

either your car has issues or your tech has issues. uk alignment shouldn't be hard to do and the car should feel great.

Both sides should be pretty much exactly the same. And I don't think you should have any front toe.

 

Have you ever experienced a car with 0 toe? I suspect you're feeling the effects of no toe. Is the car easy to turn and also change direction?

 

^I agree. That's the effect of 0 toe.

 

A difference of a tenth of a degree camber and caster from one side to the other is not a problem.
Your toe specs, are they in degrees or in inches? If degrees, you're good.

I wouldn't worry at all about the caster being 6deg. IMO, big caster is overrated...

BTW, 0*20' is .33deg, and 0*40' is .67deg. Which is *entirely* too much toe. But it looks like you asked for .2-.3deg total, right? That's the range I usually recommend. Too much toe handles like crap. Darty/twitchy when you wanna go straight, but won't turn in as well and understeers in steady-state cornering.

 

ZDan,

Actually I asked for less rear toe as per your suggestion in another thread I searched.

So it seems like I am ok, because in corner the car stays planted like never before, also much more smooth in bumps while cornering, which was a huge issue I was having on NJ roads.

As above poster wrote the car does change direction very easily, while commuting on highways you cant get a sense of it being stable or not, just feels like a lot of correction when going straight, but in turns it is great.


Thanks a lot