Going to get my suspension dialled in - what settings?

[someonestolecc]

Hello,

I'm going to get my car suspension aligned for the first time and my rear camber upper arms just arrived too!

Next mission is to get them installed and everything aligned.

I have some sort of tein adjustable coilovers, camber tops, adjustable tie rod ends and the aforementioned rear upper arms.

My question is.... for a good compromise between touge styled driving (ie street), some weekend circuit warrior and some drift days what settings should i ask for?

Currently the camber is set up "all the way in" - to a point where even there are only 2 screws on the top holding the shock in (ie the pair on the outside of the car) so they could dial more camber into it!! **** me dead, I'd prefer less camber and all 4 screws in as it was designed!!

Starting point-

Front

toe in/out = 0

camber = 3 degrees

Rear

toe in/out = 0

camber = 1 degree or .5 degree

What other settings are there? Do I need toe in/out ? Is this good/bad/ugly?

I'd like to have reasonable tyre wear but we can't have it all so I'm prepared to wear the tyres and if I find I'm going through tyres too much I'll just get more conservative settings I'm just interested in keeping my AWD like handling.

Right now the car handles like a demon (well) and really slinks round the corners (good). The rear seems to "sit up" a little more than I thought it would after I tightened up the rear strut so perhaps but it seems ok. I just know the cars out of whack so needs to be aligned!

Suggestions please? (PS: it has struts/sways of some sort as well, is lowered (at highest height setting) and usually wears 18x8.5).

[someonestolecc]

PS pedders said it'd cost $104 or something to do a front n rear wheel alignment for coilovers.. why is it my local payless tyres says $40.... sounds to me like pedders are talking shizo.

What's a reasonable price just for the wheel alignment?

How long would it take a place to install rear camber upper arms assuming no complications?

[Sydneykid]

PS pedders said it'd cost $104 or something to do a front n rear wheel alignment for coilovers.. why is it my local payless tyres says $40.... sounds to me like pedders are talking shizo.

What's a reasonable price just for the wheel alignment?

How long would it take a place to install rear camber upper arms assuming no complications?

Payless will adjust the toe and send you on your way. Pedders should (SHOULD) adjust the camber, caster and toe. If you are in Sydney, then take it to Heasmans, StGeorge Steering, or East Coast they WILL adjust the camber, caster and toe. And check out all the suspension components at the same time.

You do get what you pay for, if you go to the right place.

[someonestolecc]

Ah - thanks S-kid! Will give heasmans a ring first thing. Might even be able to make the silvia nsw cruise tomorz since Sydenham is kinda close to Liverpool!

Any thoughts on the first part? I guess it would have already been discussed a hundred+ times over but noone has seemed to mention a compromise between circuit/touge styled driving and drift..

Thanks again.

[Sydneykid]

Any thoughts on the first part? I guess it would have already been discussed a hundred+ times over but noone has seemed to mention a compromise between circuit/touge styled driving and drift..

Thanks again.

That's because there is no compromise setting.

* Road, circuit and drift all need lots of caster on the front, as much as you can get. It really helps with the turn in. So that's OK for all three

* Circuit and drift need lots of negative camber on the front, around 3 degrees is a good place to start. Then use the pyrometer to optimise for each circuit. But on the road you will be replacing the front tyres very quickly.

* For circuit and drift a little front toe out is sometimes necessary, to improve the mid corner control. But on the road the tramlining will drive you crazy.

* For circuit around 1.5 degrees negative on the rear is a good place to start. Then use the pyrometer to optimise for each circuit. But on the road you will be replacing the rear tyres fairly quickly. For drift you don't want too much rear grip, so around zero camber is a good place to start.

* For circuit use zero rear toe is where I would start, for drift a little toe out will help the turn in rear instabiity so you can get the tail out easily. On the road a little toe in best for stability under braking, over bumps and in the wet.

If you are serious about doing it right, you should get a camber gauge and learn how to adjust the camber yourself. You will be changing wheels I assume, so adjusting the camber is easy while you have them off.

I would also suggest a set of adjustable stabiliser bars, you can adjust them while the wheels are off as well. Lots of rear anti roll for drift, not so much for circuit and lots less for road. Then use the front bar adjustment to tune the handling balance. Less anti roll for drift then road or circuit. If you are doing any drags I would suggest a softer pair of rear spings will help the times a lot. They will also be OK for the road but you will need a severely high rate in the rear for drift, with something in between for circuit.

Hope that helps:cheers:

[Roy]

The cheapest camber gauge i have been able to find was about $450, mind you i havent looked that hard, and i suppose it would pay for itself pretty quickly:(

Id suggest staying away from 3deg camber if you drive your car everyday. With 3.5 deg my front tyres they lasted about 5,000kms then onto belts:(

Pity because on semi its handled really well, but on road tyres it would tend to understeer around Wakefield...So another thing you may have to consider is the tyres you are running?!?!?!?!?

My experience, get a sporting street setting and enjoy it everywhere, so about 1.5 deg front and 1.0 rear with 0 toe and 5-6 degrees camber. (Sort of thing)

LOL i tried to play / experiment with settings and typically went backwards...at least i found out what didnt work:) Part of finding what works is occassionaly finding something that doesnt work so well, and you have just wasted entry, fuel tyres etc stuffing around with something that was better/easier to drive with basically your street setting

I dont know im dribbling, definiely think you should talk to ppl that specialise in susp and set up club/sprint/tarmac rally cars etc:cheers:

[dangerous_daveo]

Well I got 1.9* on the rear, and 1.2* or something on the front, and the outside of my tyres (on the front) is weird, I think I need a bit more camber on there, and or pull some of the toe out, out of it.

On the rear tho the tyre wear is pretty much even.

So guessing your car is set up similar to mine in terms of gear on there Id say something like 1.5* on the rear, and 2* or so on the front. Maybe go a bit more with some toe in to even out the tyre wear.

[someonestolecc]

Thanks guys I appreciate all the help.

That will definately be something I discuss at the suspension place!

Right now I'm leaning to the circuit/drift setup and where there is a compromise a bit toward the circuit setup. This is simply cos for the road sliding everywhere isn't practical, whereas gripping is.

Also with a set of smaller tyres on there with the mech diff and the foot even a little bit down on the accell it's not hard to powerslide - so it has plenty to drift.

Thanks alot - I will let you know what I ended up with.

[someonestolecc]

Heh - should have known. None of these places are open weekends.

Just out of interest is it hard to install rear camber arms myself then take it for a wheel alignment?

I'd like to save the extra $100 or so.

[Sydneykid]

Heh - should have known. None of these places are open weekends.

Just out of interest is it hard to install rear camber arms myself then take it for a wheel alignment?

I'd like to save the extra $100 or so.

Simple, juts remeber to adjust the arms to the same length as the standard arms. That way it will have the same settings as it does now and won't hurt to drive it around for a few days.

[someonestolecc]

Sweet as - Thanks.

It doesn't make sense to me now but i'm sure if I look at it hopefully it will

Apperantly the garage 13 things come with grease nipples.. I didn't notice any but I will now look for some.. along with the jade monkey..