6500 miles down the road, I decided to get an alignment. I know nothing about alignment specs, so I just gave NTB some specs I found in the shop manual, but they didn't even look at it. Here's the sheet they printed out afterwards. Can someone translate this for me?

 

The settings marked with asterisks indicate those which are out of the specified range.

In your case, these settings were determined to be out of range:

- RF SAI (Steering Axis Inclination)
- LR Toe
- RR Toe
- Rear Thrust Angle

The SAI is not adjustable, and they did nothing to correct it. Unless the car is pulling to one side, or if the tires are wearing funny, or if you've run over a curb or done something else to bend suspension parts, I wouldn't worry about it.

The Toe and Thrust Angle indicate that both of your rear tires were pointing toward the right, which would have resulted in the tires scrubbing a bit while driving in a straight line, in addition to causing the car to pull to the left a bit. This was corrected.

Their report shows no range for front camber, which I believe is wrong, and I believe that your RF camber in particular (-0.4 degrees) is out of spec. If I remember correctly, factory spec is for -1.0 degrees or -2.0 degrees (depending on the setting of the eccentric bolt), +/- 0.5 degrees.

Your car has good rear camber, but if you want to increase cornering grip, the front camber should be increased to match rear camber -- a value of -1.5 degrees should be achievable by reversing the eccentric bolt which selects front camber. I wouldn't consider any value smaller than -1.0 degrees for my car.

 

What do the columns "Actual" and "Before" mean? I'm confused because actual would seem to be what they started with but before would mean before they started work. Both mean the same thing in my mind, but obviously they aren't the same thing since there are different figures.

jbrennen... you seem to know what you're talking about, please elaborate on the alignment principles and benefits.

 

"Before" is whart they were set at when you brought it in. "Actual" is after the corrections were made.

 

Hm...that's interesting. I should go look at mine since I had my friend at NTB do my alignment, but they had no specifications for an Evolution so my friend did my camber with Lancer numbers (15-inch wheels). Was that a bad idea? He adjusted everything to where it was 'green' on all areas (camber, toe, caster).

Hey jbrennen, can you look at my alignment results and tell me if they're okay? I'll try to post them on later.

 

That's what I assumed, but why would they change his front left toe from -.01 to -.02, when it was well within range to start with?

 

I don't think they did, I think they measured it twice and got two different numbers, not an uncommon occurrence. If the actual value was right around -.015, I could see that happening.

 

Interesting...I gave them some specs to work off of too and they still didn't mess with my front cambers? Is it too late to go back?