Alignment with Hotchkis Springs
Alignment with Hotchkis Springs
I went to West Covina Nissan today to do an alignment on my car. I have Hotchkis springs, 19x9.5 and 19x10.5 rims. My advisor said they couldn't get it back to spec but I've always thought that with Hotchkis, getting it to spec was possible. Has anyone had experience with this? I'll post up my spec sheet after I get a good picture of it.
This is my alignment sheet. I tried to figure it out but I have no idea what I'm looking at. How much did my alignment actually change? How come the left and right are so different? Arghh should have looked at it more closely when I was at WCN.
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Hmmm.. that looks weird to me. I have the Tein Mono Flex on mine (just installed). I "believe" my drop is more than the Hotchkis standard drop, although the Tein is adjustable. It's definitely dropped 1" +. I got mine aligned and although they could not get it into spec, it's closer than yours appears to be. I'm running about -1.7 in front, and -2.2 in back (camber). Nor do I have the large differences in cross camber. Something smells IMO.
Not to diss Westco, but I'd go to a dedicated aligment place. There should be no reason why you can't get your alignment back if you do any of the lowering springs out there.
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Atleast you won't have to worry about the right front..
I had my car dropped on the tanabe gf210s.. I had to get some rear camber arms to get the rear back into spec.. My fronts were ok though.
I had my car dropped on the tanabe gf210s.. I had to get some rear camber arms to get the rear back into spec.. My fronts were ok though.
I have the Hotchkis and ny alignment is bad. The inner rear tire tread is about gone after 10,000 miles. I am rough on it. But I'm still looking into some alignment kits now. Got to pay to play.
Thanks for the reply guys. So did my alignment actually change from before? From just looking at it, it seems like the camber got worse! Has anyone with Hotchkis gotten it back to spec? I seriously thought, through research, that it would be CLOSE or even completely back to spec. Help~!
Originally Posted by Triple8Sol
I've had my Hotchkis/D-Spec combo aligned back w/in oem specs a couple times...so it's doable.
Something is WAY OFF. According to the alignment the left side of your car is way out of wack. There's no way your rear camber was originally -3.1 on the left and only -1.3 on the right. My drop was almost twice yours in the back and I had only -2.6 degrees of camber on both sides.
Hotchkis Specs.
F Drop: 15mm (.6in)
R Drop: 19mm (.75in)
My drop on Tanabe gf210s was
F Drop: 25mm (1in)
R Drop: 30mm (1.2in)
Needless to say I got a rear camber/toe kit and I'm back to OEM in the back. With your springs and drop you shouldn't need a kit. Also on stock Z fronts you can NOT adjust the Camber or the Caster ONLY the toe.
Get your money back and take it to another place.
If the shops setup doesn't look anything like this (PTuning) I wouldn't let them try to align my Z.
BTW ... who installed your springs?
Before alignment and rear camber/toe install.
After, back to OEM spec.
Hotchkis Specs.
F Drop: 15mm (.6in)
R Drop: 19mm (.75in)
My drop on Tanabe gf210s was
F Drop: 25mm (1in)
R Drop: 30mm (1.2in)
Needless to say I got a rear camber/toe kit and I'm back to OEM in the back. With your springs and drop you shouldn't need a kit. Also on stock Z fronts you can NOT adjust the Camber or the Caster ONLY the toe.
Get your money back and take it to another place.
If the shops setup doesn't look anything like this (PTuning) I wouldn't let them try to align my Z.
BTW ... who installed your springs?
Before alignment and rear camber/toe install.
After, back to OEM spec.
Last edited by dutchboy350Z; May 11, 2007 at 11:18 AM.
Originally Posted by bugsbbunny
^Thanks for your reply man. I thought something was totally off...from just looking at it, it seems like it got worse. I will contact West Covina Nissan for this.
I talked to WCN, the rep said that on some Z's, the left and right side just don't align and they don't know why. Has anyone had issues with this? I don't have any camber arms or bolts, dropped on HOtchkis. I'm going in tomorrow to get another evaluation.
I got a re alignment. They still couldn't get it back to spec but it was a lot closer. I still don't understand why the first alignment was so off. They said it could have been because someone bumped into the alignment machine while they were doing it causing it to have errors. Who knows...does anyone know how I can figure out my alignment at home? Tools? Eyeing it? Rulers? lol
Originally Posted by bugsbbunny
I got a re alignment. They still couldn't get it back to spec but it was a lot closer. I still don't understand why the first alignment was so off. They said it could have been because someone bumped into the alignment machine while they were doing it causing it to have errors. Who knows...does anyone know how I can figure out my alignment at home? Tools? Eyeing it? Rulers? lol
http://www.automedia.com/DIY/Alignment/ccr20021201ay/1
You can also buy gauges to check your camber and toe like these:
http://www.racerpartswholesale.com/align.htm
I read somewhere that the subframe on most cars can be loosened and moved a bit from left to right to affect the alignment settings. Maybe the front or rear subframes need to be slid left or right?