Alignment Help Thread

[Destructo09]

Looking for some quick advice.

I noticed the inside edges of my front tires were feathered and had gotten quite noisy, they have also worn a bit faster than expected.

I had -1/16th total toe in the front and -2.1 camber. Is this enough to cause excessive wear and the feathering? The alignment was done a few months ago, but i'm feeling like the toe adjustment has possibly gotten out of adjustment.

I autocross and do a couple HPDEs a year so that was the reason for the -2.1 camber, I figured that wouldn't cause too many issues, other than maybe a little extra wear. I wouldn't expect it to cause what i'm seeing, so suspect a toe issue.

The rear tires are wearing great.

[JusticePete]

Originally Posted by Destructo09

Looking for some quick advice.

I noticed the inside edges of my front tires were feathered and had gotten quite noisy, they have also worn a bit faster than expected.

I had -1/16th total toe in the front and -2.1 camber. Is this enough to cause excessive wear and the feathering? The alignment was done a few months ago, but i'm feeling like the toe adjustment has possibly gotten out of adjustment.

I autocross and do a couple HPDEs a year so that was the reason for the -2.1 camber, I figured that wouldn't cause too many issues, other than maybe a little extra wear. I wouldn't expect it to cause what i'm seeing, so suspect a toe issue.

The rear tires are wearing great.

-2.1 is too much for a driver.

Back it down to -1.25 and zero out the toe. It wl drive and turn in at least as well as 1/16th toe in and -2.1.

[Norm Peterson]

Originally Posted by Destructo09

I had -1/16th total toe in the front and -2.1 camber. Is this enough to cause excessive wear and the feathering? The alignment was done a few months ago, but i'm feeling like the toe adjustment has possibly gotten out of adjustment.

Even if your toe has not slipped, only a very, very few people would be able to live with alignment that aggressive for the daily driving portion of their overall usage.


Norm

[pbclax1]

If I change to wider tires, is an alignment necessary?

[Retro69]

Originally Posted by Norm Peterson

Even if your toe has not slipped, only a very, very few people would be able to live with alignment that aggressive for the daily driving portion of their overall usage.


Norm

What kind of behavior do you see with this kind of alignment that makes it unlivable?

[Zombie killer]

Originally Posted by Retro69

What kind of behavior do you see with this kind of alignment that makes it unlivable?

Although my Camaro is not a daily driver, it does venture out on the weekends and even with my aggressive alighnment and lots of negative camber, it still drives just fine. I see no problems with drivability. But with the wider tires the car may "hunt" and try to climb up the ruts of some of the worn out lanes but I just move over to the passing lane and that fixes that.

[Norm Peterson]

Originally Posted by Retro69

What kind of behavior do you see with this kind of alignment that makes it unlivable?

Tire wear and possibly steering feel at very slow speeds (camber) and sometimes twitchy steering (static toe out). In daily driving, very few people will corner hard enough to get out there on the outer tread blocks, which I'm guessing might take about 3/4 lateral g. For reference, half a lateral g walks away from just about everybody you'll ever encounter on the street, 0.7g runs away and hides. But the braking that everybody does will compress the suspension and drive camber further negative, reducing the size of the contact patch and concentrating the braking force toward the inner tread blocks . . . pretty much a loss with no compensating benefit for most folks.

Cambers out toward -2° might be do-able with a small amount of static toe in, but you'd still have to be the sort of driver who can't ever pass up the challenge of a traffic-free corner.


Norm

[Destructo09]

The handling of the alignment it fine, it will dart around a bit if you get a crest or something like that, but honestly it doesn't bother me at all. However the tire wear does bother me. I'm going to have the shop zero out the toe and see how tire wear goes. I really don't believe the camber is going to cause any major tire wear, a little bit from camber is fine, but feathering and the wear i'm seeing is not.

The car does turn in great though with the static toe out, maybe i'm just a much more tolerant driver than some, lol. I used to drive a old 85 K10 that the steering was quite loose on and also my wife has a jeep wrangler, neither of which handle any better than the Camaro does with this alignment.

The steering isn't that twitchy but it will turn in nice and quick when you deliberately turn, it does however want to follow up ruts and such, this isn't an issue for me though. I'm a driver and staying on top of the car doesn't bother me and keeps me concentrated instead of being some complacent driver like everybody else out there.

I'm willing to sacrifice some tire wear with the camber but what i'm seeing is excessive. I have guys that run in my class who run -2 camber but with zero toe and have no issues with wear, so that's what i'm going to go with and see how it works. I need the most front grip I can get in this heavy beast since our autox courses can be pretty tight a lot of times. Most of the members drive miatas, FR-Ss, BRZs, S2000s, etc, so the courses aren't always muscle car friendly.

Thanks for the advice though guys, i'll try to remember and report back how zero toe and -2.1 camber works out. One of our sites is pretty brutal on tires (old rough runway) so I think the camber will help the tires wear even out with the wear on the street.

[Zombie killer]

Originally Posted by Destructo09

The handling of the alignment it fine, it will dart around a bit if you get a crest or something like that, but honestly it doesn't bother me at all. However the tire wear does bother me. I'm going to have the shop zero out the toe and see how tire wear goes. I really don't believe the camber is going to cause any major tire wear, a little bit from camber is fine, but feathering and the wear i'm seeing is not.

The car does turn in great though with the static toe out, maybe i'm just a much more tolerant driver than some, lol. I used to drive a old 85 K10 that the steering was quite loose on and also my wife has a jeep wrangler, neither of which handle any better than the Camaro does with this alignment.

The steering isn't that twitchy but it will turn in nice and quick when you deliberately turn, it does however want to follow up ruts and such, this isn't an issue for me though. I'm a driver and staying on top of the car doesn't bother me and keeps me concentrated instead of being some complacent driver like everybody else out there.

I'm willing to sacrifice some tire wear with the camber but what i'm seeing is excessive. I have guys that run in my class who run -2 camber but with zero toe and have no issues with wear, so that's what i'm going to go with and see how it works. I need the most front grip I can get in this heavy beast since our autox courses can be pretty tight a lot of times. Most of the members drive miatas, FR-Ss, BRZs, S2000s, etc, so the courses aren't always muscle car friendly.

Thanks for the advice though guys, i'll try to remember and report back how zero toe and -2.1 camber works out. One of our sites is pretty brutal on tires (old rough runway) so I think the camber will help the tires wear even out with the wear on the street.

I have run -1.5 to - 2.0 camber with zero toe with no wear issues so far. Even when I run -3.0 with no toe it seems fine, but I don't drive too far like that. I usually trailer my car if I am running excessive camber and with a little bit of toe out for the weekend. Cant really say that the extra negative camber is that much of a benefit since the rear grip is usually the downfall factor for me.

[Burt]

I've driven my car with ~1.7 degrees of camber in the front, ~1.1 degrees of camber in the rear, and neutral toe all around, and it's definitely more of a handful. When I say that I've driven it, I mean every day in all conditions, including trips to see my girlfriend at school, which are a little over 160 miles each way. On anything more than mildly crowned roads, particularly in wet conditions, the car will hunt quite a bit more, and can be darty when changing lanes. I've gone ahead and switched back to a slightly more mild setup for the time being.

[cdb95z28]

Pete, what is the conversion of toe measured in inches on your current recommendations? Front and rear please, 20" 1LE/ZL1 wheels/tires. Thank you!

[pcguy2u]

Pretty daunting thread - number of posts and all.

Simple question: Is the suspension for the 2010 (which is when this thread was started) SS the same through the 2014 SS?

Or is there a point at which some of what I read in this thread is not applicable to the 14???

TIA,
Nick

[JusticePete]

Originally Posted by pcguy2u

Pretty daunting thread - number of posts and all.

Simple question: Is the suspension for the 2010 (which is when this thread was started) SS the same through the 2014 SS?

Or is there a point at which some of what I read in this thread is not applicable to
Nick

It is the same functionally.

[hayt51]

Was wondering what kind of alinment I might need for better traction . At the strip or on the street . Iam not to big into the curves. It's 2010 ss , running weld rts , with a 305/45/18 in back and 225/60/18 in front . Plan on lowering springs,probably 1 inch drop . But have not done yet . Appreciate any help .