Ok, so when it comes to wheels I dont know much at all. I took my 350 in to get better tires put on and he did an alignment test and printed out a sheet. The guy told me the caster is off on the front left but its not a big deal and nothing to worry about. He also said there is no way that i could fix it, short of going to a body shop and getting it bent or something. I know how nissan dealerships can be sometimes so i figured i'd post the print out up here and hear what you guys had so say.

Is it really not a big deal? Will it cause troubles later? Is there really no way to fix it?

 

That's a camber measurement, Caster is something else. Most alignment techs don't measure caster. Camber isn't adjustable unless you buy a set of adjustable camber arms. Have you had any suspension work done lately?

 

I knew i was right, i said to him that it was camber but he insisted that it was caster. No, the car is completely stock, and has been since i bought it used. Is it a big deal that its off a bit? If i bought camber arms for the car, could i fix that offset or change the camber so it will handle even better?

Im quite a n00b when it comes to this aspect of cars so sorry for the dumb questions, lol.

 

*Bump*

 

Your camber is already pretty agressive for street tires, you are already there for performance. Unless you get R-Compounds there really is no reason to go beyond -2 to -1.5 degrees of camber. Yet, the more negative camber you run, the more inside tire wear you will have.

Your toe is set for good striaght line stablity. You could gain some cornering by adjusting the front toe out, but you will not like it for street driving, the car will try to dart one way or the other in a striaght line.

That print out is pretty cool, that should give people a better picture of what camber and toe are. I really like how they show each tires toe, and then the toe relative to each tire. Yet, the toe for each tire is really only important on the rear, as the steering will correct that for the front and only the toe relative to the other wheel is important there.

 

Cool, thanks for the information. I just figured if he was wrong about not being able to adjust it, and saying it was caster, that maybe the alignment being off slightly was more of a problem than he was letting on. I didnt see any additional wear on the edges of the tires so i guess its not a big deal.

Thanks again for the info!

 

Unfortunately alignment numbers are created to MISALIGN the suspension sitting still so that it will be correct traveling 55 mph to maximize MPG.

The forward thrust presses rearward on components that cannot be seen on an alignment rack.

The designers actually measure parameters on the track at speed to reverse engineer STATIC numbers [the wide range of warranty acceptability].

Caster is a trade off with required [parking/slow speed] steering forces and can be high thanks to power sterrong boost.

Caster interacts with camber and body height and tire angle to create the CAMBER GAIN under turning.

Important to have equal side to side camber and caster so that the camber gain curve is equal side to side.