Everything is fixed.

Short story:
I went to Cobb Tuning today for a true alignment. Firestone's use of the traction rod to adjust toe caused binding in the suspension. Cobb got the car back to symmetrical and the right side dropped back to the correct ride height on the drive home.

Yay!

 

Here's the long story:

Swapped suspension parts with another car. I got:
OEM style coilovers
Front camber arms
Rear camber arms
Rear "traction" radius arms

We finished at 12:30am and left the wacky alignment the way it was. I probably shredded 5K miles worth of tires until I got to Firestone 20 miles later.

Working on the rear, I watched Firestone set the camber to -1.5 then use a combination of toe bolt and traction arm to pull the toe back into spec. One of the rear wheels ended up being 1/2" more forward than the other.

At the track 2 weeks later, the bucket arm toe bolt was found to be completely loose and the current thread was produced. Firestone was kind enough to redo the entire alignment for free. Great guys, good shop, it's just that they didn't understand the traction rod, nor do I. But nothing improved.

Went to Cobb and the initial measurements were crazy bad as far as symmetry is concerned. The alignment was so bad, they had to take my car off of the rack to reset the skid pads because they had been maxed out while adjusting the car.

The end result is an almost perfectly symmetrical vehicle and ride height being equal on both sides again. Unfortunately, I ran out of adjustment on my stock Toe bolts. I did not realize that I needed aftermarket ones because Firestone had been able to pull all my alignment numbers into spec the very next day after the suspension install. So right now I'm stuck with -2.7 camber in the rear

Hopefully I get another bonus check soon, because I would like to swap more than just Toe bolts when paying for another alignment.

 

Don't be too quick to jump on those SPL buckets.

Take out those adjustable traction arms and replace with stock.

Are you on factory toe bolts or SPC?

 

I'm very happy with my suspension after Cobb corrected everything.

I am still on factory toe bolts. I did not realize I needed them because Firestone was able to get all #'s into factory specs. It turns out that they did this by messing with the traction arms and everything ended up binding really bad.

After Cobb put everything back in place, the suspension is clearly free flowing again.

I would love to put SPC toe bolts in now, and get the camber back in spec, but I want to wait until I install my next wave of upgrades before paying for another alignment.

I hope to purchase by end of year:
SPC toe bolts, front sway bar, adjustable end links, Whiteline compression bushing, LCA bushings, rear shock mounting point bushing, and toe/bucket arm bushing.

Unfortunately, an SPL bushing anywhere on the vehicle would bump the car into Super Street Modified at an SCCA event. Someday I'll be in that category because I'll want to put Cams or FI on my car at some point. But until then, I'd like a fighting chance by competing in BSP.

 

I always watch when my car is on a rack, and tell them not to touch that traction arms

 

^ When, if at all, do you ever adjust them?

 

Yeah, great question!

Would anything other than stock length be beneficial? I imagine this is getting into a very technical realm of suspension adjustment.

Cobb tuning focused on getting my car symmetrical, I don't know if the arms are at the ideal length for AutoX / Track.

 

Very advanced, the typical person won't know what to do.

 

Sadly I have an update.

There is a sweet little chicane near my house, quick left - right turn at 35mph. Take it every day.

Well about 100 miles ago, the rear end felt suddenly weird / sloppy during the transition. Currently the steering wheel is at 1 o'clock when traveling straight. No pull left or right. It advanced to this new straight position very gradually over the course of about 10 days. This is the exact same symptom that I had at the track, just in the opposite direction, and the right rear side has been varying in ride height again.

I wonder if the oem toe bolt slipped again? Have a hard time seeing that also cause a change in ride height.

I have SPC toe bolts sitting in a box. I'm going to also order lockout bolts / washers for the adjustable camber arms. I am out of town until the 12th. I'm going to get them installed and have the car aligned again as soon as I get home so I'm ready for the long AutoX weekend.