Bushes, Alignment and Brake Upgrade

A

Aebous

Elite
 Okinawa
Well I finally got it all done. Went up to Pete at Autotech Telford (best shop ever!) and had the 325mm brakes fitted. I still have to fully bed in the pads but I can already tell I have more stopping power. I went with power slot slotted rotors and stop tech street performance pads. For the bushes I now have front and rear poly bushes fitted (haven't done the sway bar though). That alone made the drive nicer.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21846375@N05/5817168503/
with tire on
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21846375@N05/5817166237/


Also had an alignment done at Doseley Motors (Pete recommended them). Almost all of the alignment was out of tolerances. Which I now realize was what had caused my gas mileage to not be anywhere's as good as it used to be. For example to get there it took me over (by one mark) a half tank of gas doing 75mph when able. To get back it took me one mark below a half tank of gas, with me doing hard accelerations and occasionally doing over 75 mph. Handling was greatly increased and the car feels like new at speed & in the corner. As with the gas, I now understand why my car wasn't feeling supremely confident at motorway speeds. It was never bad enough to worry me, it was just bad enough to make me go this doesn't seem as confident as it did in the states.

They had a Hunter Alignment machine there, talked with the er tech a bit. They were very friendly and helpful. My only complaint was that he didn't really start talking/asking about the car until I sat watching them work. That sent up warning flags to me but I was really tired (didn't really get enough sleep the night before). At any rate all seems well, except I noticed that my Left Front camber is at -2.02 degrees & Right front camber is at -0.42 degrees. I asked him about this and was told it was to compensate for me/my wheel being on the left hand side. That doesn't jive with what I've seen posted on here so I'm asking ya'lls opinion on that. I did talk with Pete about this and he said that it's odd but not incorrect he can understand why he did it, but again was wondering why he didn't just set it up like they would for a UK Z4. So I'll just keep a close eye on tire wear for now.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/21846375@N05/5817731106/



On the flip side as I've said, handling is greatly increased and I think I'm going to go shake up the car a little.
 
That front camber looks very dodgy:

Z4's were made to be left hookers... Hence ze Germans should have already factored this in to the vehicles weight distribution and indeed Hunters specified camber parameters (fuel filler and battery on right of car etc. etc.).

Z4 has 50/50 weight with the driver nearer the rear - therefore the rear should have been done also, more so!

Surely you REMOVE camber if you're expecting more weight, not add it!! More weight = more suspension compression = more camber.

To me, it looks as though he'd forgot - the readings are almost identical pre/post.
 
Nice one Aebous.

Not heard of those pads, are they good for the occasional track day?

Ive got a full polybush set that im STILL waiting on from larkspeed (useless) and an alignment to get out the way and im really hoping the difference is going to be good. Didnt think the gas mileage would be affected that much :o

Cant help you with the camber query though sorry.
 
Hmm, come to think of it, would they need to remove the strut bar I have installed to change front camber? I don't recall seeing any handprints on it (it was quite dusty/dirty).

On a side note, saw them letting air out of my tire, I just figured I was a bit high and didn't think anything of it. Checked the pressures tonight and had 27psi on the fronts & 33psi on the rears. Are runflats ran on 33/36psi and non runflats supposed to be on less psi? Beginning to be too many things that aren' sitting right for me. That's what I get for not getting proper sleep the night before.
 
Dreamer, the gas mileage was bad before. It is now comparable to what I was getting back in the U.S. About 160 miles at half tank when on the highway.

I'll be giving a more accurate representation when I go down to London this weekend.
 
That sounds odd to me, and yes imho they would need to loosen the strut brace in order to adjust camber. To get -2 you would need to remove the camber pin too I would have thought.

Are you sure it's -2 as your car would look strange with camber like that on one side.
 
That alignment is most certainly dodgy IMO. Front should be near enough equal side-to-side - that's rubbish them saying they've added more camber to one side to account for the driver's weight. Yes, perhaps in a race car where tolerances are tighter I could be believe that, but for a road car an extra 80-100kg on one side isn't that critical. If that's there excuse then do they expect you to adjust the camber if you're also having a passenger?!
 
J4YMO said:
So it was you I met Thursday morning!

Brakes are looking good.
Click to expand...

LOL yep, I didn't even think to ask your forum name.


The car doesn't look too odd, and after looking again at my strut bar, it does appear that they removed it. If I'm looking at the right pin I think it's still there, which confuses me even more as I've heard too that it needs to be removed to achieve -2. Can they fake those numbers? It's too far a drive for me to just scoot up there and make em change it. I'll probably look at a closer hunter equipped garage and get them to equal up the front.
 
Oh right, rear bushes question....

After fitting has anyone noticed noise coming from the rear? Too much to be a creak, it sounds like something is rubbing. I took a look under there and can't find anything loose. It's only noticeable at speeds below 30mph and not that often. No adverse handling that I've noticed. Part of me is worried when they did the alignment they didn't tighten something.
 
i have yet to fit my powerflex bushes but at a guess I would say they perhaps did not lubricate them properly? There is a packets with lubrication in there... I am sure I read that CJ's creek too I was going to go crazy with the lube when I add mine ;-)
 
Aebous said:
J4YMO said:
So it was you I met Thursday morning!

Brakes are looking good.
Click to expand...

LOL yep, I didn't even think to ask your forum name.


The car doesn't look too odd, and after looking again at my strut bar, it does appear that they removed it. If I'm looking at the right pin I think it's still there, which confuses me even more as I've heard too that it needs to be removed to achieve -2. Can they fake those numbers? It's too far a drive for me to just scoot up there and make em change it. I'll probably look at a closer hunter equipped garage and get them to equal up the front.
Click to expand...

I can almost guarantee you won't have -2 on one side, if you can't notice a difference in stance. Sounds more like 0.2!!
 
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