Hi,
what are the stock alignment settings for the 04 MCS? And what are the suggested settings for spirited street driving and the occasional autoX run (car is stock, no camber plates or anything like that, so I'm not sure WHAT can be set and what not...)?

 

About the only thing you can play with is front and rear toe. For my daily driver / stock class auto cross car in the front I've gone with 1/16 toe out each side for a total of 1/8 toe out. This aids with front turn in. On the rears "0" toe is safe. Too much toe out can cause sudden over steer. Personally I have gone with a total toe 1/16 out or 1/32 each side out.

If your struts have a few miles on them and are getting worn out I highly recommend the Koni Sports (yellows). Set the rear on full stiff and forget them. Use the fronts to tune the handling.

Hope this helps.

 

That's it, uh? Ok, thanks for the info...
Do you happen to know what the stock settings are?

 

Stock toe for an '06 (don't think it'd change.. much.. between the years) is:

.15* / .15* (left / right) front
.23* / .23* (left / right) rear

That's toe in, and in degrees. Don't know the conversion to inches. Google?

 

I took it in yesterday, and to my big surprise the only thing they could adjust was front toe. Everything else - they said - it's fixed.
Can anyone confirm this?
By the way, I ended up going for 1/32 toe in, up front (factory setting should be 1/16).

 

Yes it can be confirmed, just look at the posts above.

 

The rear toe is also adjustable by loosening the rear trailing arm mounting bolts.

 

I have knoi yellow with stock springs with the following alignment, I like it a lot both on street and track. It's kina loose on the rear but it help rotate the car for corner.

Front -1.9
0.5 toe out

Rear -1.5
0.5 toe in

 

Are you saying they are adjustable, or they are not but you can still move them a bit by loosening the bolts? The place where I got the alignment done showed me that the alignment machine indicated that only front toe was "officially" adjustable...

 

They are adjustable. Where did you get your work done? My stock setting as delivered from the dealer were:
rear left toe: +0.11
rear right toe: +0.05
total toe: +0.16

After "custom" alignment:
rear left toe: -0.01
rear right toe: -0.01
total toe: -0.02

You loosen the bolts to set the angle.

 

You are supposed to be able to adjust the rears slightly because of the elongated holes. Probably a pain to do tho.

I axed last year with stock toe up front. In nov, i had a friend put 1/8 out in the front. Changed the car drastically. It will rotate out when i lift the throttle in fast tight turns. step out at anyspeed, but only rotate in tight fast turns (like 60mph in a 20 foot radius turn, using a lane and a half). Car doesnt wander at highway speeds (seen alot, unlike the highway itself), but does jossel a bit on rough roads, but only if its only one wheel that hits the bump, nothing to worry about tho, just a jerk in the wheel, dont fight it and it will go back. The first race is in 3 weeks, i can hardly wait, but i would deffinetly go 1/8 out on the front, although i now see you had your alignment done already, but for next time maybe. Oh, mines set 1/8 out at the rim (16in), so is probably 3/16 at the tires (just a guess, im too lazy to actually work it out, sorry). Hope this helps

Beecher

 

Thank you all for the info. It seems the place I went (for the locals: Dualtone, at the Balboa exit on I5, near In-N-Out) didn't know it was possible to get something in the rear by loosening the bolts. Next time I'll do it I will definitely go for 0 toe up front, or even a bit out, as you guys did.

 

actually, come to think of it, i would have to check my bently maual, but the rear toe change may not have come out until 2005, hence 02-04 are not adjustable. The manual only goes up to 04, so if its says it can be done, then we will know for sure. Ill get back to you.

Beecher

 

ok, the bently simply mentions to mark trailing arm with respect to body to facilitate later toe alignment. So, if you remove the front bolts, you should be able to adust toe slightly. Not overly easy i dont think. Although trying to get camber and toe right with all 4 rear control arms is all sorts of fun too, because moving one bar will now change toe and camber with that set up. Took us longer to set a friends car up then it did to put the arms in. I would probably leave your rear toe as is. Mine was 0 on one side a 1/32 in on the other, not enough to worry about. ) is a good number for the back anyway. IMHO

Beecher

 

Thanks again for the info, very useful...

 

oops, i feel like an idiot. My friend who helped me with my alignment just seen this posted and told me what actually happened. My toe was set at the outer edge of the time, and not the rim. We only used the rim to set up the system, and then to find what my camber was. When we actually measured the toe, it was at the outer edge of the tire.

Sorry for giving you the wrong info before, and sorry for inadvertanly accusing you of not know what you were doing Dab. Next time, just slap me, and please forgive me, my memory is not what it used to be i guess (and im only 23, just wait until i actually get old! (although im sure you will show me whos boss in a few weeks when race season starts, hahah)

Please everyone forgive me for giving some less than accurate facts. And to clearify, my toe is at 1/8 out total, and very accurate.

Beecher