I got my car aligned today, and have a question or two about the specs I recieved when I picked up my car...

The front camber, caster (can anyone explain caster?) and toe are very, very close on each side. No problem there.

Rear
Toe -> Zero (as I requested)
Camber (Left side) -> -0.86 degrees (-0.75 degrees is stock spec, so that is very close)
Camber (Right side) -> -1.99 degrees (seems very excessive. -2 degress is highest/most camber within spec)

Total rear camber -> 1.13 degrees.

My question is the rear right camber. Negative 2 degrees? I know this is within spec, but barely. From my understanding, because the rear right camber is more than the left, the car will be aligned slighty off-center, right of center. On smooth, flat roads (even after this alignment) my car pulls slightly to the right. Slightly, but definitely noticeable. Is this camber reading odd? It's hard to believe that for no particular reason there's 1.13 degrees MORE camber on one side of the back end.

 

Anyone?

 

 

That's weird... did you buy your car new? Was it ever altered before?

One thing I can think of is your S-03 tires (195/50/15?) changing the camber by default of smaller overall tire/wheel diameter...

 

My camber is -2 deg on all 4 corners. Exactly where I wanted it. I don't know how much you track your car, but if you're doing autox and HPDE frequently, you could use some more negative camber. The problem is that the rears are so far apart. All 4 of my wheels were within .4 deg of eachother. (Tein HA though) You have a rather large difference in back.

 

Stock suspension. Can you adjust the camber with a bone stock suspension?

Cosworth - I'm the first owner and nothing has been changed/replaced, save for the S-03's.

 

1107, those readings might not be accurate. Don't put too much focus on those numbers. They *probably* took the readings after lifting up and down the car several times, didn't give enough time or drive to make the suspension fully settled.

As long as the toe settings are what you want, don't worry too much about it - especially there's nothing you can do with the camber with stock suspension with no camber kit.

 

Toe is right on. So is caster and front camber. I would think 2 deg of camber would be visually noticeable. My camber appears the same (or close) on each side. (when I have had it jacked up, and when sitting on level ground in the garage) I suppose I could take some measurements, but unless it gives me trouble I'll leave it alone.

Thanks, Wai - see you sunday!


[Modified by 1107, 10:33 AM 10/18/2002]

 

you should definitely notice -2 deg camber just by looking at it. Besides, there is very little way of adjusting the camber with a stock suspension

 

So if it (the so called -2 deg rear right) is no more noticeable than -0.45 (or -0.86 in my case, drivers rear) degrees of camber, maybe it is a misreading of sorts, as Wai stated. I falsely stated in my original post above that the stock spec was -0.75. It's actually -0.45 degrees.

As cosworth stated above, I think the smaller profile (S-03, 195/50) tire adds a slight bit of camber. When i first got the S-03's, my first thought was that they had a bit more camber than the re-010's had. If you can't visually see this -2 deg camber and the car's characteristics are only slightly off (worn tires, rotation, bad streets), then maybe it's just a bad reading and this worrying is in my head.


[Modified by 1107, 10:50 AM 10/18/2002]

 

Chris, I'll bring my camber gauge this sunday and check out your readings.

 

Thanks much.

I'll try and remember to bring the car.

 

The specs they listed on the print out for my alignment were off a little from side to side too. With the passenger side having slightly more camber. I was thinking maybe with the weight of the driver in the car it will be just about even out? I'll bring my print out this weekend and we can compare.

 

Sounds possible.

Sounds good. I'll bring mine. The printer for the alignment prog was out, so they took pics on a digital camera and gave me the pictures. Wierdos. See you sunday.