omg....

 

I was told that an alignment was not really needed, although you could certainly benefit, which is fine.


I was REALLY surprised by the handling being WAY worse, and I mean way..... A minor drop should not be that Bad, you know. But I will just drop it off to STS in the Mornin'.

 

On some cars this is ture - but not on all. An Evo certainly is not one of those cars, simply due to the amount of drop most of the springs on the market give. You have to let the springs settle for a few days of normal driving, and then have it aligned.

Why not just bring it to the dealer if all else fails?

 

.

 

Tomorrow I have an APPt. with STS, I will go then...


I will also submit my before, my after, and my opinions on the handling.

 

************UPDATE**************UPDATE************ *****UPDATE****************UPDATE*****************


OK, I just got back FROM STS. I have to hand it to those guys, atleast my guys, and have spent $28,000 on a completely new aligment system.

They attached the usual aligners but they had GIANT reflectors on each wheel. They they shoot out 4 lasers that reflect off the wheel reflectors. Up on the computer screan showed a real time settings, any slight movement showed up on the screan. It also stated Evolution VIII 2003, so the correct software was in play.

The first thing I noticed was the rear toe was WAY off, I asked them to adjust the front camber, they said no because is was right where it was supposed to be, the toe wasn't so bad off in the front. He was my....

BEFORE

Front : Left Front : Right
-0.7 Camber -.04
3.5 Caster 3.3
-.003 Toe -0.06



Rear : Left Rear : Right
-1.3 Camber -1.4
0.29 Toe 0.15


As you can see. the rear Toe was WAY off, and even showed on the machine, as the screan displayed a set of virtual wheels, and the rears were shown as thus...

/ \


For the new settings the front camber is identical, the Toe was 0'd out and the caster was the same.


For the rear, Camber was set to 1.4 and 1.5

Toe was 0.00 and 0.01 which made a great difference in handling, My only complaint was that they did not give the front end a camber adjustment, because the machine had it in spec ,and wouldn't allow an adjustment, I bet a 1.0 or greater camber would allow even better handling, but the STS guys said that all 4 wheels sit flat and tire wear will NOT be an issue, car certainly handles better, amazing what a lil TOE in the back can do to the car.

I still have the all season Ultra High Performance tires on the car so I am sure that effects handling, So I will put the Stock wheel set on shortly with about 50% rubber all around and just destroy them this summer.


BTW all the Sevice tchs love my car, the Manager himself drove my car on the rack cuz he wanted to see it for himself, he love the car, and said "VERY NICE" ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh Everybody wants my Nuts.

 

What are your driving impressions?

 

Honestly Stock felt better, I would probably need a rear strut bar to keep it as stiff as stock now.

The car is deceptive, the rear seems less planted but fing holds at way faster speeds. Basically the car probably handles better ultimately, but it sure feels finicky in the rear now.

 

should have just bought coil overs = ( Mmmmm JIC woo woo

 

I had a alignment the other day and I felt the same way. The *** seemed to want to swing out. I took it back today and he added some negative camber and a little more toe in the rear and it seems alot better now. I think the car feels like it wants to roll more now. Almost like it's top heavy or something.

I'm saving my pennies for some coilovers ASAP. I don't think my car would look right raised up with my wheels on it so I'll deal with it til then.

 

I have H-Techs and the handling is awesome. I also have all the Cusco braces. My alignment is about (don't have the paper with me at work):

Front -2.5
Rear - 1.8

The car handles great, I really like it. Also, I run Kumbo 712s and after 12,000 miles the tires do not have uneven wear.
I do not have any swaybars, the understeer is gone, so I figure why mess with it.

 

The way you guys are describing your cars afterwards should almost be expected.

Saying "The ***-end feels lighter" is most likely true. Almost Every set of springs sold lower the front of the car more than the rear, and while this looks good, it transfers more weight to the front of the car, essentially making the ***-end lighter even though the weight of the car never changed.

Saying "The car rolls more, and feels more top-heavy" is also most likely true. Since when you lower a car, the roll center and center of gravity tend to move apart, lengthening the roll-moment arm. This makes your car have more grunt when twisting your swaybars making it easy for the car to roll in a turn.

- Steve

 

So I guess some after market strut braces, crossmembers, and sway bars could help out this problem?

If so......any suggestions?

 

I installed my springs after the bars.
I went with Cusco, just because they seem to have all the different bars for the Evo, good quality, and they are middle in the price.
I think the handling with the H-Techs is better than anything else I have driven. Understeer is not a factor, and oversteer requires heavy throttle input. Most of the time, the car is rock solid. Also, I am not nice to my car, so if there was a handling issue, I would have found it.
I'll quote ryanmcd, the guy always getting in trouble here.
"You drive your car like and idiot."
As ride goes, I just took a five hour drive with my girlfriend and her parents and they thought the car had a great ride, even on two lane country roads. (A few times I was driving like an idiot, had to do some passing).
The point, I think the alignment is everything. I had my alignment done at the local Subaru dealership, one of my friends works there, and they spent over 5 hours on the car, getting it perfect. The manager would not let the guy take the car of the rack until he was happy with the results. Also, the manager has driven in the mountains with me, and we have discussed driving styles. I think this helped.

 

umiami80:

you'll notice a huge difference when you go back to the stock advans!.. all seasons also make for a weird handling combination...

i just did, and it's night and day!

you'll see.