[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]I have a question in regards to alignment specs. My 06 MCS has h-sport springs, 19mm rear sway bar and front and rear stress bars. I am going for an alignment tomorrow and was curious what specs I should be looking for. My car is a daily driver, but I tend to drive pretty aggressively and would love to get the best set-up possible. Any assistance would be appreciated. Walter[/SIZE][/FONT]

 

-2° camber up front, 0° toe. -1.5° camber in back, 0.05° toe-in. You have camber plates and adj. control arms, right?

 

No camber plates, no adj. control arms according to sig.

Ain't much you can do other then get it close to factory. No real camber adjustment there much beyond -1° and the back will only allow as much as the eccentric bolt back there has. No where near the -1.5°.

Walt, you need to get over to Plano for an afternoon in the TSW World HQ to empty your wallet..errr get some camber

 

I did not think there was too much that could be done without adj control arms or camber plates. Thanks for the confirmation Nathan.

 

how does -2 camber up front translate to tire wear? I do probably 70 - 80% highway driving occasionally hitting the twisties and getting into it hard. I'm just a little scared that -2 is going to wear the insides out way to prematurely. Also running Azenis' aren't helping in my favor either with a 200 treadwear. Right now i'm currently running -1 up front and -1.5 in the rear and the handling is amazing!

Also wanted to ask about rear toe adjustment. The Hunter machine we used say we needed a Mini special service tool and it seemed correct as it was a major pain in the @$$ to adjust and ended up leaving the rears at .15 each. I'd really like to have the rears at zero or even a little negative but without the tool it seems almost impossible. Are the shops you're bringing it to using this tool or what? I noticed when I went for an alignment at STS in May they didn't touch the rear toe and now I know why (lack of tool). Any suggestions??

 

Special service tool? First I have heard of that... If you search around NAM, there's a thread on the proper way to adjust rear toe using the rear subframe.

As far as camber goes, if you rotate your tires every 3K miles you can run -2 up front with no issues. You might want to dial in -1.2 in the rear at the same time. We run -2.7 on the street in the front and -1.5ish in the rear all the time and with regular rotation notice no undue wear...

 

the place I went to said that there were 3 bolts in the rear that needed to be loose for the adjustment. It was hard for them to dial in the toe and have it stay while tightening the bolts. Everytime they dialed in the toe and tightened the bolts the degrees changed drastically. They spend close to 1 hour on the left rear.

 

Ok my $.02

I ran my settings at -2 camber 1/16" toe out on the front and -1.5 camber 1/16" toe in on the rear. I take my baby to an alingment shop that is very reputable and allows you to "be there" when they do the work. As for the rear toe adj it is the top 3 bolts that have to be loosened for the adjustment but there's a trick to it, they have to be barely loose, just enough to make an adjustment with heavy force without causing damage. The adjustment is even easier with 2 people. Rears should take about 5-10 min a side if done correctly as stated previously. The tech just cracks the bolts loose and a few raps with a rubber mallet on the trailing arm and torque em down. I never heard that an adjustment could be made with the sub-frame could you elaborate.

Adjustments for front and rear camber on a stock car is much more difficult. for the front basicly loosen all suspension connections and with some help pull the bottom and push the top of the tire to get the most available camber from the manufacturer's tollerances. Then simply start at the top and tighten your way down to the toe adjustment which is the last adjustment you make. The rear is much easier simply loosen the wheel end of the lower control arm attachment and pull the bottom of the tire out and tighten down and as far as I know thats all that can be done to gain negitive camber on the rear (aside from doing the top control arms but theres no built in adjustment on those attachment points so your talking manf. tollerances of an insignificant nature). As for tire wear I wore out a set of Azenis (I used them only to autox with but I have to travel 360 miles round trip to do it with them on) and tire wear was pretty much even. I ran a set of BFG g-force sports (340 treadwear) for a couple of years and noticed some slight cupping on the inside before they were done.

Hope this helps.

 

My rig was set up with nearly 2 deg neg camber, but with as little toe in as possible without being zero, for about 100,000 miles. I rotated my tires about every 3,000 - 7,000 miles with very little excessive wear.

I too drive mostly highway...second time around for my driving venue, 1.5 deg neg should work just fine.

Excessive toe settings will cause accelerated wear without doubt!

 

YES that is exactly what was happening to us.....EXACTLY. We spent almost 40 minutes on one side and another half hour on the other. With regards to the special service tool, this tool was to combat exactly what TJACK said. Its supposed to hold something in place while you tighten the bolts down so that the settings don't go all out of whack while tightening. So what I think I'm going to do is what GOTCURVES said....just loosen a little bit and force it into position. I'm going back on the rack tomorrow so I'm gonna bring the front camber to -1.5 and get rid of any of the toe out in the rear and bring it close to zero or a little toe in. What are your guys opinions in regards to the ratio between front and rear camber if any??? In other words does it benefit to run more in the run than the rear or the opposite or what about equal. The reason why I'm asking is because I have the rears at -1.5 right now and if I bring the fronts to the same will the mess with the geometry of the car? Thanks to everyone who responded, its all been very helpful

Steve

 

Well... stock config is about -0.5deg front and -1.5deg rear camber... those with camber plates switch to running MORE front camber than rear, typically. I'm running -1.8deg front and -1.5deg rear. I could probably run a little LESS rear, and may in the future. I know some folks run closer to -1.0 or -1.2 deg in the rear. Folks with adjustable plates often run front camber over -2.0deg.

You would reduce rear camber for the same reason you'd add a stiffer rear swaybar - to make the rear end rotate more readily when cornering. But reduce it too much, and you'll induce snap oversteer in hard cornering...

 

Does anyone else got any input on this? I'm going to be getting realigned this afternoon and would love a few different opinions.

Thanks,
Steve