Finally got my alignment sorted out!
Finally got my alignment sorted out!
Well Folks,
After getting my 03 aligned 4 times by other shops and being P.O.'d each time with the results, I finally did what I should have done in the first place and took my car to Gran Turismo East today.
This is a very long story and I will leave out the bulk of it. I have my own camber gauge to spot check things. When i bought the car new in 03 the alignment was off, right front had about 1 degree less negative camber (1 degree more positive) than the left. Took it to mitsu, they did a little work and gave it back with a crappy spec sheet, but it was within factory tolerances.
Next I went to a local shop Mahndavi Motorsports, that had a good reputation, they did not do anything but adjust the toe a little, still had -2 on the left front and -1 on the right front. I explained the two position camber bolts to them but they said that was the best they could do. I took the car home flipped the bolt myself and took it back asking them to reset the toe. Got it back after they flipped the bolt back ... WTF Specs were still crappy.
Next I hook up with subaru of gwinnet. At the time they had a good guy that seemed to know his stuff when it came to aligment. So I explained the history to him and said they could sort it out. Took the car in, asked them to zero out the rear toe, even out the front to -2 and the rear to -1 camber. Got the car back after he said they could not get the rear zeroed out without crash bolts and the front two position bolt could infact be rotated to other positions to further adjust the camber. This time I got it back with more negative camber up front, but it was still off by 1 degree on the right front.
That is where it stayed until today. I had been planning on doing my own aligment using the strings and jack stand method, but I was a little uncomfortable given the problems I had in the past with the "Professional" alignments. I decided to do what I should have done from the begining and take the car to Gran Turismo East. This shop has been around in atlanta since before I got my first rx-7. They always did a great job but I had convenced myself they were to far away. Well, I took it in this am, got caught up with Jeff, the alignment guru, explained the history, he asked what I was looking for, then went to work.
I peaked in the shop a few times and noticed that Subaru of gwinett has wedged the camber bolt in on the right side and gotten it stuck behind the flat side stop bracket. He had to pull the wheel off and knoch the bolt out to get it put back in correctly. Jeff got it sorted out and had me come out to look at the numbers.... -2.1 LF -1.9 RF -1.1 FR -.9 RR then told me to get in the drivers seat... boom -2.0 LF -2.0 RF -1.0 FR -1.0 RR. THen we talked about the toe settings and arrived at 1/32 toe in on the front and 1/16 toe in on the rear. Finally!!!!
Now I have a good mind to go back to all the shops that said they could not do this or you need crash bolts for that and slap them all silly.
In the end I sould have know to just go to Gran Turismo in the first place.
After getting my 03 aligned 4 times by other shops and being P.O.'d each time with the results, I finally did what I should have done in the first place and took my car to Gran Turismo East today.
This is a very long story and I will leave out the bulk of it. I have my own camber gauge to spot check things. When i bought the car new in 03 the alignment was off, right front had about 1 degree less negative camber (1 degree more positive) than the left. Took it to mitsu, they did a little work and gave it back with a crappy spec sheet, but it was within factory tolerances.
Next I went to a local shop Mahndavi Motorsports, that had a good reputation, they did not do anything but adjust the toe a little, still had -2 on the left front and -1 on the right front. I explained the two position camber bolts to them but they said that was the best they could do. I took the car home flipped the bolt myself and took it back asking them to reset the toe. Got it back after they flipped the bolt back ... WTF Specs were still crappy.
Next I hook up with subaru of gwinnet. At the time they had a good guy that seemed to know his stuff when it came to aligment. So I explained the history to him and said they could sort it out. Took the car in, asked them to zero out the rear toe, even out the front to -2 and the rear to -1 camber. Got the car back after he said they could not get the rear zeroed out without crash bolts and the front two position bolt could infact be rotated to other positions to further adjust the camber. This time I got it back with more negative camber up front, but it was still off by 1 degree on the right front.
That is where it stayed until today. I had been planning on doing my own aligment using the strings and jack stand method, but I was a little uncomfortable given the problems I had in the past with the "Professional" alignments. I decided to do what I should have done from the begining and take the car to Gran Turismo East. This shop has been around in atlanta since before I got my first rx-7. They always did a great job but I had convenced myself they were to far away. Well, I took it in this am, got caught up with Jeff, the alignment guru, explained the history, he asked what I was looking for, then went to work.
I peaked in the shop a few times and noticed that Subaru of gwinett has wedged the camber bolt in on the right side and gotten it stuck behind the flat side stop bracket. He had to pull the wheel off and knoch the bolt out to get it put back in correctly. Jeff got it sorted out and had me come out to look at the numbers.... -2.1 LF -1.9 RF -1.1 FR -.9 RR then told me to get in the drivers seat... boom -2.0 LF -2.0 RF -1.0 FR -1.0 RR. THen we talked about the toe settings and arrived at 1/32 toe in on the front and 1/16 toe in on the rear. Finally!!!!
Now I have a good mind to go back to all the shops that said they could not do this or you need crash bolts for that and slap them all silly.
In the end I sould have know to just go to Gran Turismo in the first place.
alignment
You said it best the first time. Do it yourself. You have a camber gage. Why did you not just pull the front wheels off and check the ecentric bolts your self? Btw, running more that 1 deg neg camber in the front or back will cause excessive inside tire wear. I have found (10 years and 4 cars) that more than 1 deg neg will cause this. For street and road course work one deg neg front and rear with zero toe front and rear is the best all around set up with no adverse wear issues. Combine this with the Tanabe GF210 springs and rear Hotchkiss bar and you will have a killer combo. My 2 cents.