I recently swapped out my factory wheels from the 15x6" with a 205/50/15 tire to a 15x6.5" +38 wheel with the same tire. No suspension adjustments were made.

The car is all over the road now, visually it seems that the camber is off. I'm not too "up", so to speak, with alignments.

Anyway, the car gets driven on the street and does see the strip quite a bit. I wanted to know what you guys would suggest as far as alignment spec suggestions? I really need the car to be handling properly again before an event this weekend.

TIA

 

The offset is the same (I believe) as the stock rim but the size of the wheel is not the same. So your contact patch is no longer in the same spot. The car will feel different than before. Might want to get a new alignment if it's been a while. And a wider treaded tire will tranline more than a skinnier one. Being your tire is on a wider wheel it ends up being a bigger contact patch.

 

stock offsets are not 38. more like 42-25.

but yeah, youre just tramlining. changes in suspension (eg. your offsets, thus track width) will do that.

when was the last time you got an alignment anyway? might as well check.

i like to set the front toe with c-hair of toe out. like 1/32, or 1/16 total. and then camber will probably be within 1.5-2.5 which is fine, hopefully less than .5 difference.

rear just set straight toe, and get whatever camber. i dont pay much attention to it.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Tyson &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">stock offsets are not 38. more like 42-25.

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You say the stock offset isn't +38 yet 38 hits right in your "more like" range.

 

Thanks everyone for the responses.

The last alignment was 1-12-06.
Nothing has changed and no adjustments were made since then besides the wheels the other day.

Front: Left Front: Right
-1.8 Camber -1.8
0.4 Caster 0.6
.02 Toe .01
1.8 SAI 10
0 Included Angle 8.2

Cross Camber 0
Cross Caster -0.2
Cross SAI -8.2
Total Toe .01

Rear was pretty much all within spec.

Like I said, the front wheels are noticeably sitting more or less like:
/ ---- \

I'm sorry if this is stupid...I just need some advice from people who have the knowledge in this area.

 

That's impossible. The hubs haven't changed angles so it can't happen. The fact that the wheel is wider and the wheel no longer sits where it used to might make it look like the toe is different.
For a street car an alignment every 6 months is always a good idea. Specially with some of the roads out there.

 

Bah...so essentially the look can be deceiving me....but the difference in handling is 100% there.

I'm used to torque steer and the like, the car just doesnt feel right. Even going into a corner at slow speed the car feels like it's barely standing ground.

It's going in for an alignment on Friday morning, so hopefully I can still make it to the event for the weekend. If anyone has any other input, it's very much appreciated.

 

Let us know if it gets better after the alignment.
I do mine at least every 3 months, but I autocross at least once a month. The alignment changes every time I've gone in to have to "put back in". ood luck.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by dvp &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">You say the stock offset isn't +38 yet 38 hits right in your "more like" range. </TD></TR></TABLE>
oops, i meant 42-45...

 

That makes more sense. I've fit a 35mm wheel but the camber angle was the only thing stopping the tire from eating the fender.

 

getting an alignment done before an event is not a bad thing anyway.

but i think its just basically the effect of widening your front track width.

and you could be very well have more negative camber than before now that the center of your contact patch is further out, thus more leverage force, making your car sit lower and more camber.

 

Hm...interesting..I don't have a camber kit being the car's alignment was never an issue before...i have a little under 2-finger gap in the front...would raising the front up a bit help out at all?

 

up

 

Yes it could but it's easier to have a camber kit for adjustments. Trying to adjust camber based on hieght would be a pain in the ***.
You could always have the shop line it up and tell you the current specs. then go from there.

 

Ok, so I threw on some aluminum hubcentric rings to replace the crappy plastic ones I had, and the car feels much better.

Still going for the alignment tomorrow, is it possible the plastic rings weren't holding the wheel to the center of the hub?