Just had a set of Hotchkis springs put on my 06' - waited two weeks and had an alignment at NTB (probably a mistake looking back).

Results:
Before -
F Left F Right
-1.1 -1.7

R Left R Right
-2.1 -3.0

After -
F Left F Right
-1.1 -1.7

R Left R Right
-1.6 -2.5


I think I’m going to take it by a more reputable shop this afternoon to see what they can do before I commit to a camber kit. Thinking that if they cant get in back in spec I may just ask them to bump the drivers side in a bit so the cross camber differential is not as drastic...any thoughts on that?

Also, does anyone have an idea on how much a 165 - 170 driver would affect the camber?

Any help would be much appreciated.

 

I would have looked at the print out and laughed out loud, then calmly with a straight face said, your not thinking about charging me for this right.

Please take the car to a different shop, your numbers just do not add up. I cannot recall a car with Hotchkis springs on that wasn't able to get alighned to within spec.

I highly recommend that you make them show you a before printout and that you tell them how they are to set front toe and rear toe and camber. Make sure they show you a after printout WITHOUT disconnecting the car from the rack. That way if they didn't do what you said, you get to make sure it get's done right.

 

Thanks, I took it to a different shop yesterday and although they didn’t really understand my explanation of the first alignment they were able to get it back into spec with the exception of one wheel. Should be OK now.

 

RSX004 - What kind of shop did you take your car to? I just got my Nismo exhaust installed at the dealership, so I thought I'd have them throw on my RSR Ti2000 springs. Looking at the service order, it doesn't even look like they touched the rear end!!!!!

We talking just a normal tire shop or what?

 

The tread title is Ideal Camber and there is only one ideal camber number for each tire model at a specific vertical load..............the purpose of the suspension is to maintain and adjust camber so that the camber at the tire road interface is constant at that number.

There is the rub the suspension cannot be designed to perfectly maintain a number as the tire goes from static [sitting still] to maximum G force from the load almost doubling.

Also the tire's perfect camber changes as the load changes and is subject to temperature and wear changes...........so the ideal is constantly changing.

Steering adds more problems and toe changes under decel and acel vs constant speed.

Important to understand that oem alignment is actually misalignment sitting still that has the best chance of accomplishing what one wants at speed.

Oem misalignment numbers are very broad to avoid warranty expense. Oem actually measure alignment at speed and reverse engineer numbers that work, unfortunately these numbers are for brand new components.

They don't consider worn deformed or durometer changed bushings nor worn changed tires. They don't consider the minute bending that takes place as the miles build up.

 

front camber is not adjustable at all from the factory, only toe is - so no surprise it did not change

rear camber is slightly adjustable, but for all intents and purposes, it's not

In order to truly align the car, you will need adjustable a arms for the front and something like the SPC rear kit for the back. This will then give you full adjustment of front camber and rear camber/toe

 

Assuming the 170 pound driver is sitting in the center line of CG and left of the midpoint one uses trig to find the moment of offest.

Anyway with less than half the weight on each outside tire you find the ratio vs speing stiffness to find body tilt from driver.

1" lowering usually increases negative camber by 0.83 degrees so at worst around 0.4 degrees more negative n driverside just from driver sitting in his seat.

Important to get the full picture of how the camber changes as the situation changes.