Wheel alignment settings
- Thread starter Viren
- Start date
Viren said:
I do my own alignments. In theory you should use weights on the seats and fuel in the tank, but all that goes out of the window when you have a passenger and when your tank gets empty. Personally, I don't bother weighting because I have aftermarket suspension, RTAB limiter kit and uprated ARBs, which restrains suspension movement more than OEM in the dynamic situation, so my static geometry settings are less of a compromise than the OEM ones. In practice, I don't really notice any difference from any dynamic geometry changes which may occur from having a passenger or an empty tank, but I do notice the difference in handling caused by adjusting the static geometry, from say, toe-in to zero toe, or camber change, irrespective of the load of a passenger or fuel load.
UPDATE: Went to see WIM, what a great bunch of people,talk you through everything they do on your car, would defo recommend! I got the following settings;
Front:
Camber - 0.5
Toe in - 0.04
Rear
Camber - 1.4
Toe in - 0.12
Massive improvement, rear and front feel more connected! Only thing is even with pins removed the max camber I could get was -0.5 on the driver side.
Would camber shims help me get closer to -1 to -1.2?
Front:
Camber - 0.5
Toe in - 0.04
Rear
Camber - 1.4
Toe in - 0.12
Massive improvement, rear and front feel more connected! Only thing is even with pins removed the max camber I could get was -0.5 on the driver side.
Would camber shims help me get closer to -1 to -1.2?
Viren said:
I wouldn't worry too much about the camber because, in reality, you need zero camber when travelling in a straight line, and negative camber will naturally increase in the dynamic situation on the outer wheel as soon as you turn the steering because of the caster angle. To see this for yourself, turn the steering and measure the angle when the car is stationary. Because you've reduced the front toe angle, the car will now turn more readily than it would with the OEM toe angles, so the negative camber will develop earlier in a turn with reduced bodyroll. As you've said, you've obtained a massive improvement.
exdos said:Viren said:
I wouldn't worry too much about the camber because, in reality, you need zero camber when travelling in a straight line, and negative camber will naturally increase in the dynamic situation on the outer wheel as soon as you turn the steering because of the caster angle. To see this for yourself, turn the steering and measure the angle when the car is stationary. Because you've reduced the front toe angle, the car will now turn more readily than it would with the OEM toe angles, so the negative camber will develop earlier in a turn with reduced bodyroll. As you've said, you've obtained a massive improvement.
Fair point, I will probably look to shim in the future to about 1.1-1.2 negative camber upfront, before I track the car. Thanks for your help exdos!
Exdos, and Viren..
Sorry to dig up this thread, but I need some help..
After my last CSL wheel swap, the company that mounted the tires insisted on doing a wheel alignment.. anyways, the car drove like a skitchy rat after that// they changed a lot of stuff and remember watching them and shaking my head.. anyways, as per normal, they didn't listen to a word I said and were stuffing around for a long , long time with my rear toe in... anyways..
sold those wheels, now running on 19 inch CSL wheels, slightly lighter than our stock wheels, but I guess a larger final drive ratio..
I am going back to my old, old wheel shop in the next few days. and was wondering with the 19 inch wheels, will my setup stettings still be what I am after, or will the 19's change everything.
going back to what I had before..
Camber
front -1.5 rear -1.2
Toe
front 0-ish and rear 0.26 toe in
(ive since pulled the pins on the front and have been running at -1.7,)
what do you think Exdos?
cheers
Sorry to dig up this thread, but I need some help..
After my last CSL wheel swap, the company that mounted the tires insisted on doing a wheel alignment.. anyways, the car drove like a skitchy rat after that// they changed a lot of stuff and remember watching them and shaking my head.. anyways, as per normal, they didn't listen to a word I said and were stuffing around for a long , long time with my rear toe in... anyways..
sold those wheels, now running on 19 inch CSL wheels, slightly lighter than our stock wheels, but I guess a larger final drive ratio..
I am going back to my old, old wheel shop in the next few days. and was wondering with the 19 inch wheels, will my setup stettings still be what I am after, or will the 19's change everything.
going back to what I had before..
Camber
front -1.5 rear -1.2
Toe
front 0-ish and rear 0.26 toe in
(ive since pulled the pins on the front and have been running at -1.7,)
what do you think Exdos?
cheers
exdos said:You're welcome. Wouldn't I get 1500 lashes for drinking beer over there?Vanne said:Thanks mate, if your ever in Dxb, you need to let me buy you a beer (or twenty)
You'd certainly get lashed by the sounds of it... :wink:
Bringing this one back to the top.Viren said:
I'm putting my Z4 in for an alignment next week ahead of a trackday, and was looking for similar compromise settings. The above look broadly sensible to me based on experience, but I was wondering what others recommended?
Thanks. Mine's a non-M, and I've just dropped down to square (225) 17s to improve chassis balance a bit. I think zero toe might be a bit excessive with that in mind.plenty said:
What's the max camber? I do a lot of driving on country lanes, so keen for a balance that avoids me wrestling the car every time I take it out.
Not 100% sure until I do further reading, but from memory I think max camber is around 2.75 degrees rear and 1.5 front. Everyone's got a different tolerance for tramlining but I reckon you can to go to max on OE parts without substantially degrading driveability on rough tarmac. You'd definitely notice 3 degrees front camber though.
