Recommended Wheel Alignment Settings?

[V28VX37]

Hi all, I did a bit of suspension work on my R34 GTT sedan recently and got a full alignment done last week, here's the report:

• Front Camber: L -1.04, R -1.30
• Front Caster: +7.00
• Front Toe: -0.5 (to reduce bump steer?)
• Rear Camber: -1.30 (maxed out)
• Rear Toe: +1.5

The car feels great & steady and doesn't hunt/tramline how it used to.

However, the settings seem a bit different to the classic Sydneykid recommendations:

• Front Camber: -1.00
• Front Caster: 7.00
• Front Toe: 0.00
• Rear Camber: -0.5
• Rear Toe: 2.00mm in on each side
• SAI: 9.00

What I'd like to hear from the suspension experts is what these differences mean?

...

For reference, here the full suspension spec:

• BC Racing BR Type coilovers: 6 kg front, 5 kg rear spring rates
• Ride height: front 350mm hub to guard (25mm drop), rear 335mm hub to guard (30mm drop)
• ARC swaybars: front 28mm hollow, rear 25mm hollow,
• Fulcrum SuperPro SPF1869K rear camber kit: inner OEM bushes replaced with eccentric bushes on both the upper control arm and radius arm

Thanks in advance!

[GTSBoy]

There's almost no difference. You have a a half mil of toe out on the front instead of zero. Should make it every so slightly eager to change direction, a tiny bit more wandery (to invent a word) and likely to wear the inside edges of the tyres a tiny bit more.

All these are dependent on the word "tiny".

The front camber is fine.

At the rear, what do you mean by "maxxed out"? Does that mean that they cannot get any more negatove camber, or they cannot make it less negative than that? If it is set that negative deliberately, then you will wear the inside edges a bit faster and loose some longitudinal grip, but it's going to hang on in the corners nicely. If they couldn;t make it less negative, then you need to look at installing some more adjustability into the rear upper arms to get closer to the recommended 0.5deg neg camber.

The toe on your rears is also only .5mm less than the SK recommendation - unless that 1.5mm you list is total? In which case it's a bit more different. Lot's of toe in on the rear makes the rear act like an anchor, stabilising the car by dragging along behind. If you reduce rear toe it can become much more twitchy and likely to oversteer. If you are happy with the way it feels, don't stress about it.

Edited February 20, 2012 by GTSBoy

[V28VX37]

There's almost no difference. You have a a half mil of toe out on the front instead of zero. Should make it every so slightly eager to change direction, a tiny bit more wandery (to invent a word) and likely to wear the inside edges of the tyres a tiny bit more.

All these are dependent on the word "tiny".

The front camber is fine.

Thanks for the feedback!

At the rear, what do you mean by "maxxed out"? Does that mean that they cannot get any more negatove camber, or they cannot make it less negative than that? If it is set that negative deliberately, then you will wear the inside edges a bit faster and loose some longitudinal grip, but it's going to hang on in the corners nicely. If they couldn;t make it less negative, then you need to look at installing some more adjustability into the rear upper arms to get closer to the recommended 0.5deg neg camber.

Sorry, I wasn't clear: -1.3 deg is the minimum negative camber they could get i.e. it wouldn't go any closer to the target of -0.5 deg. So it looks I either need to install the second eccentric bushing kit on the outer bushes on the uprights, which I'd really rather not, or get some adjustable camber & toe arms with a better range instead. D'oh.

The toe on your rears is also only .5mm less than the SK recommendation - unless that 1.5mm you list is total? In which case it's a bit more different. Lot's of toe in on the rear makes the rear act like an anchor, stabilising the car by dragging along behind. If you reduce rear toe it can become much more twitchy and likely to oversteer. If you are happy with the way it feels, don't stress about it.

+1.5 is what's on the report so I assume that's on each side. It's not a massive difference so it should be fine.

Thanks again!