Modern/updated alignment specifications

Just pulled the trigger on 600 front springs. I don't have corner weights but will ask Sean, I'm sure he does.

 

Ok I had my car aligned today and this is the print out they gave me, can someone explain to me if this good or bad, the car drives straight, at 80 mph, handles and corners really good. My car is purely a street car no t a track car with 17x8 front and 17x9 rear.

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Gosh Mike. It looks like they didn't do much other than set the front toe.
They definitely didn't lay a finger on the rear suspension.
Looks like they did add some shim to the front arms.

 

Really is that all they did, ut is the alignment number ok though? if I bring it back what should I tell them?

 

I guest it depends what you're after. Its not to spec but its close to Steve's best tire where numbers. It will probably drive fine and give excellent tire wear and life. Unless I'm missing something.

Where did the numbers the shop set come from? Do they do Ferraris so they have numbers they like?

What you the numbers mean?....a little low on caster which will make steering effort a little lower (along with a little less high speed stability). More front camber along with less rear camber means it will likely also have a bit more front grip so less understeer which might not be bad unless it enough to get you to oversteer territory.

 

Thank you so so much fellas! I do tried to follow Steve’s recommendation and give them this spec;
Front Camber (-1 deg)
Front Toe (1.5 to 2mm)
Rear Camber (-1 deg)
Rear Toe ( 2 to 3 mm)
Did they get it right or at least close to what. Wanted?

 

It looks pretty close to me for what little that's worth

 

Thank you and so sorry I’m just barely learning how to read this alignment chart thing, believe it or not this is actually the first time I had my car aligned in 15 years of ownership.

 

Sean's
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Cambers = close enough, but the toe was supposed to be for "total toe", not "toe each side" (so about 2X too high at both ends).

 

Yeah, thanks for that mk e.
Sean is actually a friend of mine and lives close by.
He had texted me the pics on that earlier this morning.

 

I have to admit I have never had my 328 aligned in the 12+ years I have owned it. Maybe I should but I have never seen abnormal tire wear or anything other than good straight-ahead tracking.

But re that, the post asked about "modern, updated" specs. Why would there be "modern" specs? IOW, why would the alignment specs themselves be different now than they were when the cars were produced?

 

Tire size options and technology change with time. Also many have updated shocks, springs, maybe sway bars which also change how you might want the alignment set a bit. I think all these apply to the OP but to your point the OEM specs work just fine for most people.

I am hoping this is finally the year I drive mine again and eying some very sticky tires that provide no real benefit until camber is increased to about -3 deg....which will cause fairly high wear rates in normal use....but they are soooo good in the turns which is why I have the car in the first place. They are a perishable item so I'll hold that thought until the car is actually running and driving well. Not the right choice for normal people but likely one I'll make when the day arrives.

 

and you didn't post it? thanks man....

Your car shouldn't be much different. We should probably do a thread on "aggressive" suspension setup to share springs, shock graphs, swaybars, alignment, tires for competition type use vs street/bolt-on use. I'm kind of sway bar shopping right now.....

 

Thanks for bringing that up Steve, so I'm bringing it back tomorrow to readjust the toe settings, anything else? By the way is that toe out or toe in?

 

Total Toe In (at both ends) -- the toe symbols on your form are too small to make out well. The steering column on the front toe symbol shows it presently being 4.1mm total toe-in (so just too much, but the right direction), but I can't decipher the toe symbol for the rear -- if it is presently 5.1mm total toe-out that would be too much and the wrong direction.

I think they could get the rear cambers to be more equal on both sides

 

Ok so I took my car back to readjust the alignment and basically had to redo all four corners and this time I’m happy with the results as you can see it’s much much better almost spot on to what I wanted and to what Steve suggested. Car still drives straight, corners and handles really well, and steering wheel is straight.

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Maybe shows that none of this really matters too much . Can you post an enlargement of the little figures for the rear toe -- I'm still not getting how they convey toe-in and not toe-out.

 

I see what you mean....it looks like they set toe out in the rear?????

 

Is this what you meant, it does seems it’s towing out doesn’t it? Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

It could be that a positive number is toe-in and a negative number would be toe-out (at both ends), but it does seem like the figure for the front toe has the opposite "sense" of the figure for the rear toe. Could just be a poor form layout (I can't imagine any vehicle wanting to have toe-out at the rear).

 

I don’t understand that either, I will question them about this tomorrow Steve and see what their explanation is.

 

Based on this thread, and the fact that my 328 tracks just fine, I don't think I'll EVER take it to be aligned!

 

Hi Steve! The alignment tech said since there’s no tie rod on the rear and since only the bottom A-arm has the shims and none on the upper A-arm, he could not adjust the rear toe but only the camber. I think he is inexperienced with our 308 and didn’t know he could adjust the the toe by adjusting the shims from front to rear of the lower A-arm. Since they’re only warranty it for 48 hours, it’s too late now for them to adjust it for free, I have to this myself.

What do you think about me doing this, taking a shim from the front and transferring it to the rear to bring the rear out a little after all it’s only toed out 1mm and if I do this, will it affect the rear camber?