Alignments

[ToadBoy]

That's right, regardless of tire wear, or handling quality; you should have your suspension up to specs. Ask anyone that does any racing and they will tell you that suspension/alignment tuning is key. So, if you're serious about the springs and shocks you put in your car, shouldn't you also care about your alignment?

[00'Civic SR]

Originally posted by Dezoris

Statement retracted, I have no clue then, there is more of an emphasis, on maintaining factory alignments, here? Or people like me harping it

I hear a lot of people saying they are ok, what does that mean?
You are saying it rides fine, my point is your alignment specs are off.
But I know I am just repeating myself sorry.

I don't think people are harping you, Dezoris. It's just that the only time we hear about camber kits is from our american friends. I myself am running 50mm lower than stock with no problems. You will also hear of people in europe running 80mm lower and no mention of camber kits.

The great thing about forums like this is that we can learn from people on differents sides of the world what set-ups we use and any myths associated with them.

Darren

[Kohhal]

Originally posted by ToadBoy
That's right, regardless of tire wear, or handling quality; you should have your suspension up to specs. Ask anyone that does any racing and they will tell you that suspension/alignment tuning is key. So, if you're serious about the springs and shocks you put in your car, shouldn't you also care about your alignment?

But why? If the car handles well, has good tyre wear, rides well and has no noticable tracking problems then why should someone get an alignment just to get some numbers in the correct range? Is there something else that I'm not thinking of that an alignment affects?
I'm sure racers do say that alignments are key but if the numbers are slightly off but you've no problems then what's the difference?
If there is a valid reason that I don't know of I'd like to know and I'd gladly get an alignment. But getting one "because it can't hurt" isn't much of a reason.

[iLLuCiv99]

Hi people. I was reading this alignment post and I need some extra info...You guys were talking about TOE and i'm not exactly sure what that is. I know the camber is related to how much your tires tuck, etc. How does the whole alignment thing work? What do they do and what does it do to the car? I dropped my car with ground control coil overs about two months ago. The ride is still great on the stock shocks even though i am going to go with koni yellows when my shocks blow. My problem is that when i got 70+mph on the highway my car starts to shake alot. I was wondering if i need an alignment or balancing? For them to do that i would need to raise my car, since the things that lift up the car dont fit under my car. After they do the balancing and alignment wont it get messed up when i take the tires off and lower my car back to where it was? what can i do?....

[Kohhal]

If the shaking you're feeling is coming back through the steering wheel then you need to get the wheels balanced. The height of the car doesn't affect the wheel balancing as they take the wheels off to do it.
If the car pulls to either side of the road when you're driving(say you take you hands of the wheel for a couple of secs) then you need an alignment to correct the tracking. You should have the car at the height that you'll be driving at when you get the alignment done or else there's no point. If they can't get the lift to fit under the car then put some planks of wood or something down on the ground to drive up on and it should give you the clearance you need.
HTH, G

[ToadBoy]

You can't just rely on the "seat of the pants" experience in driving to say that it's fine. You don't know that until you're running time trials. Sure you don't race your car on the streets all of the time, but what if you had to do an emergency maneuver? Ever bit makes a difference. Even an inch of not hitting something, or hitting something an inch less. If you think your car drives fine, then good for you. I'm concern about getting the most out of my suspension/tires, and that would mean proper alignment. You can't argue that. So, f*ck the "seat of the pants" calculations because you wouldn't want your ass doing all of the talking, would you?

[iLLuCiv99]

Thanks for the advice. Yea the shaking comes from the steering wheel so I need to balance my tires and I wasnt sure if taking off the tired and raising or lowering my car would affect the alignment. But thanks for the info it was very useful. Now i need to find a way to get on the lift so they can align my wheels. lol. thanks guys!
-iLLuCiv

[Kohhal]

True, at least now I have a valid reason to get it done.
I'll wait til I drop my engine in cos when that's done I'm gonna race it

[ToadBoy]

I guess you didn't read TheMasterG's post very well. He said to ride on top of some wood planks. Get some that are about 1.5" high. That's what I need to do to get my car on the lift/rack and to get a floor jack under it.

[Dezoris]

Originally posted by TheMasterG

But why? If the car handles well, has good tyre wear, rides well and has no noticable tracking problems then why should someone get an alignment just to get some numbers in the correct range? Is there something else that I'm not thinking of that an alignment affects?
I'm sure racers do say that alignments are key but if the numbers are slightly off but you've no problems then what's the difference?
If there is a valid reason that I don't know of I'd like to know and I'd gladly get an alignment. But getting one "because it can't hurt" isn't much of a reason.

The real reason to get an alignment is to make sure your wheel angles are within factory spec. The point of my post was to give an alternative a tighter range, within factory spec to get the most out of your tires, in the way of grip.

Whether you realize it or not, there is a big difference in performance of your tires based on your camber and toe angles, so much so that just
.5 of a degree, namely in front camber, can make your car feel totally different when your suspension is at the limit. The goal is more grip, how can you get more? If you don't have suspension mods, then tires are the nest best thing, if you have both then the next step to tweaking is an alignment, no maximize your tire angles to lay down the most contact patch of the tire under hard cornering. Then if you have a completely adjustable suspension,(ride height) you have the car corner weighed. Which is placing a scale under each wheel, and raising and lower the car on each wheel to achieve an even weight.

Sounds pretty crazy right? It is all apart of fully tuning a suspension.

Q.Why get an alignment to factory specs?
A. To ensure proper tire wear, and to assure the vehicle is safe to drive under emergency proceedures, and manageable under hard conditions.

Q.What could be unsafe about not having an alignment

A.If a vehicles toe angles are off


This can cause the wheels to follow different paths on the road surfaces, reducing grip, and making emergency handling, difficult to manuever.
As well as camber.

Q.So what are the benefits of the alignment specs posted here

A. To get the most out of the alignment process and to tighten the factory range while maintaining tire wear and increasing performance by getting the most grip or allowing the tires contact patch to more adequetly mate with the road

Questions please?

[drift]

Originally posted by TheMasterG
True, at least now I have a valid reason to get it done.
I'll wait til I drop my engine in cos when that's done I'm gonna race it

screw alignment... you wouldnt notice it after your second breakfast beer anyways

[Dezoris]

Originally posted by drift



screw alignment... you wouldnt notice it after your second breakfast beer anyways

Hey I think i heard that reponse from somewhere before?

[ToadBoy]

I think I've seen it on www.grassroot.com

Do you think he should give credit to that person? Plagiarism?


:frog: