So I take my car in to get an alingment after recently lowering it and installing a rear camber kit, and getting wheels & tires. And to be honest I didn't really feel it needed an alignment but I thought it would be a good idea. After I get the car back it now tracks in the road grooves a little too violently. In the rain, if I drove over a painted section of road or the reflectors (going straight off throttle) the back end wants to swap or at a minimum they are fighting each other.

This led me to believe the rear toe settings were off. So I took it back and they said they found a loose bolt in the front suspension, (odd because I haven't touched the suspension since it felt good and even got a track day in on it without any hint of trouble). The kicker... (Yeah I know I should be shot for this) it was a Pep Boys alingment. Now giving them the benefit of the doubt are Falken 452's known to track rain grooves badly? Once again I didn't notice this before the work was performed but I want to check all avenues before I point the finger.

 

get it aligned again.......stand there and watch, and ensure everything is tightend down and good..

ensure you get an alignment sheet print out....
-J

 

If you alter the suspension and get new tires the Z will certainly handle differently. Alignment may be fine.

 

there are no toe bolts in the front suspension, only the rear. Front toe is done via the tie rod

as to what is off or not off, simple - look at the printout of specs pre alignment and post. If you don't have those, then unfortunately it's impossible to give an answer

 

Oh this gets better, I forgot to say the the original spec sheet came back odd. It said everything was within spec or close (except the front camber, both were roughly -1.50 instead of the -1.25 threshold). When they comepleted it, the fronts showed -.58 and -2.28. When I went to check that out by eye (I know this is not reliable) it seemed closer to -.50 and -.50 and definatley not off or different by almost 2.00 degrees. I race and play with RC cars and have a really good grasp on static settings and their affect on the handling of a vehicle and the sheet didnt make sense.

I was considering chalking it up as a loss and taking it to a good alignment shop when I have the time to watch and note the readings myself.

 

wow those numbers dont seem right at all......better if you had an actual alignment sheet to post up??

LOL at RC cars.......

Yes........and regardless of where you go....any shop better give you an alignment print out........

-J

 

No offense taken but these little cars are some people's life's work. They get pretty intense especially at some national races. I've seen some privateer racers spend upwards of $1000 on a race weekend not to mention the $2000-5000 they spent on their equipment. Don't ask what the factory teams spend. I got away from the never ending money pit and started tuning my Z instead. Not sure which one is more expensive... LOL

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I'll post the sheet later but from what I see the sheet says the rear is OK, but the feel on the car says its not.

 

Sorry, I overlooked something on the spec sheet and the Pep boys mechanic never said a thing about it. They told me over and over again that everything was in the green but if you look at the rear toe its more than 5 times the allowable limit.

I knew there was a toe problem not a supposedly loose bolt.

 

You're toe in the rear is significantly in. You want a little bit of toe-in and as you pointed out, you have a lot of it in. What's interesting is that usually toe-in will result in the opposite of what you're describing. Cars seems to track more and wander when you're toe-ing out. Regardless, you should correct that. Alignment is all in where you go. Go to a place where they know what they're doing and actually try to do it right. Inevitably, you may have to live with some tracking because of the new wheels and tires. I assume you went with something wider and stickier than stock.

 

Yeah, I have to apologize to everyone that I overlooked this, I know I just looked at the number and thought "less than 1 degree can't be a problem" but I'm learning more about this car daily. But it still goes to show you should listen to yourself when you have doubts about something, and Pep Boys is only good for candy and cleaning/detailing stuff.