I have Milo's old Tein flexes on my car. The Flexes have the stiff upgraded springs on them. Also the ride height is the same as Milo had on his bugeye which is a bit low. Question is with stock sways and endlinks and those coilovers, am I inducing even more understeer than factory? I've had an alignment and I'm eating the inside treads on my tires pretty bad. I dunno if it is a bad alignment, the crappy Perrin ALK, or bad understeer. The alignment machine said 0 toe on it and the camber for the fronts was like -1.4 I think but don't quote me.
It depends how you have set them up and what spring rates you are running. FYI having a large bar on the front of your car will induce understeer however it will give better your turn-in. Have you ever taken your car to an autox or track day and dialed in your coilovers and sway bars setup?
No I haven't. I have stock sway bars and endlinks right now. I'm trying to decide if I need upgraded bars. More than anything I'm trying to figure out why the hell I'm chewing up the inside treads of my tires though. The alignment shop said it's in spec but I'm not too fond of their old machine. Also one of my Teins is pushed in more than the other. The alignment guy said he had to do that to get it in spec? That made NO sense to me at all.
Do you have the dampers set too stiff? It might take a little playing around to find the right setting. If you are running street tires, you would have to run it soft enough to be able to utilize all the camber on a turn. I usually set the front about 4 clicks softer than the rear. Also, have you had them corner balanced? I don't remember but did I give you the original springs? If not, I'll look around for them.
"in spec" means absolutely NOTHING. I could put cars 'in spec' all day long and they'd come back within 10~20k miles with chewed up tires. 0 toe also means nothing...was it 0.9 toe? was it -0.9 toe? Or was it 0.1, or -0.1? Those are 'big' numbers...and will eat tires in no time. Every WRX/STi/RS/whatever that I've done an alignment on with coilvers etc etc gets put to 0.00 toe front and rear (+/- 0.02) unless the customer specifically requests something different. On the cars that I set to 0.00....I've had zero issues with tire wear. Even on cars with as much as -3.0 camber. -1.4 camber up front is not enough. If you want uncompromising grip, you'll need AT LEAST -2.5 camber and +7.5 caster. With anything between +3 and +6 caster, you'll need -2.8~-3.0 camber. Start with -1.5 rear camber.
Your top plates don't have to be even for the car to be in spec but it can be done by using the cam bolt on the bottom of the strut. Also any more than 1 degree negative on the front camber eats the inside shoulder of the tire pretty quickly.
Nope I don't have the original springs. Setting are about half way right now. The car felt best there. No corner balancing done. No one around here does that.
Again, when its just 'in spec' is doesnt mean anything. The 'in spec' range on alignment machines have a large range.
Problem with that is Will is 5 hrs from me. Being in SC sometimes sucks. For a spirited daily driver, what should all my settings be at for optimum tire wear yet decent performance?
Go here http://www.scsportscar.com/modules/newbb/ Post up something about looking for a performance alignment shop in or around Florence, SC. Somebody in this SCCA region should know of a decent shop in your area.
What are the springs rate on the F and R? Otherwise...start with: -2.5 front camber, 0.00 front toe -1.5 rear camber (acceptable range is -1.2 to -1.8, as long as you are within 0.4 front side to side) with 0.00 rear toe.
No, not unless you adjust the caster, then do not adjust the toe with it. Adding caster gives toe in.
I'm thinking the toe in is incorrect. I had NO issues until the ALK. I had the alignment after that but it's not correct. I'm waiting for my GTSpec ALK to come in (a week or so) because the Perrin is a POS and then I'm getting it re-aligned. There's a tire shop in Florence I used to go to that was good with my DSM's. They also are lowered/body kit friendly since there isn't a ramp to drive up on. They have the step down pits.