Performance alignment thread

My search-fu must not be honed in today, but i swear i had seen a thread with a suggested "performance" alignment for stock suspension cars. Can anyone point me to that?

 

Thanks!

I'd do max negative camber and 0 toe (stock, the rears are only toe adjustable). If you get a good shop, you should be able to get it slightly past -1 degree. Camber bolts are cheap and can take it further.

yes to max out stock negative camber.

Toe out in the front will improve steering response feel, but if you go too far it will destroy your tires. (check for feathering of the tread)

I just had an alignment done on my '08 with Epic springs/Koni inserts. Max he could get was -0.8* front camber, zeroed out toe on all 4 corners, and rear camber was static at -0.9*RL and -1.2* RR. I could tell a difference as when it went in front camber was ~-0.4* and the toe on the left side was definitely out. This is with all stock hardware. YMMV.

 

-Steve

Related thread jack:

 

I just installed the Whiteline rear camber kit and have them eyeballed pretty close to each other right now but need to get them actually aligned. Should a chain shop like Sears or Meineke be able to figure out how to adjust the rear, or is it worth the extra $100 for the local performance shop to do it?

go to a performance shop. all the chain shop wants to do is set your front toe and send you out the door

Related thread jack:

 

I just installed the Whiteline rear camber kit and have them eyeballed pretty close to each other right now but need to get them actually aligned. Should a chain shop like Sears or Meineke be able to figure out how to adjust the rear, or is it worth the extra $100 for the local performance shop to do it?

 

No way in hell will an average alignment shop be able to figure that out. They can't even figure out a stock car most of the time. Needs to be a performance alignment shop that knows Subarus. Which is ridiculous because it's really not that hard.

 

As far as numbers go, -1.5 to -2 is a good range for the front, -1 or slightly more is a good place to be in the rear.

 

Getting that much front camber needs some extra work like bolts or slotting the lower struts. Definitely worth it though to get a little more front camber.

So if one were to change struts on the front, would an alignment really be needed? The only thing that should change is camber. If one were to max out the stock hardware, would that be sufficient or would an alignment be recommended, just to check things out??

When the camber changes the toe also changes, so yes you need an alignment.

Maxed the front out to -1.5 the rear to -1.0 with the whiteline kit and achieved 7.3-4 degrees of caster and zero toe front and slight every so slight toe out in the rear.

 

Car has great turn in and rotation out of the turn.

Makes no sense to mess with stock alignment unless you are tracking the car. If you are tracking the car, adjust camber to the specs suggested by the tire manufacturer -this will mean mega negative camber (-2 to -3). To get this, you probably need coilovers and adjustable control arms in the rear.

IIRC a vendor on here posted these when I was looking. you are going to need a front/rear camber bolts

 

camber

front -2.0

rear -1.5

toe 0

 

camber wear wont be very noticeable until the last 30% of tread life, and with the -2 deg camber there was not much camber wear.

 

some say run -1.5 front and -1 rear camber and 0 toe

Related thread jack:

 

I just installed the Whiteline rear camber kit and have them eyeballed pretty close to each other right now but need to get them actually aligned. Should a chain shop like Sears or Meineke be able to figure out how to adjust the rear, or is it worth the extra $100 for the local performance shop to do it?

 

Which kit? Found 2

 

Tc Davis

KCA399

 

What'd you find? I wasn't aware they made another option besides the adjustable arms.

Yeah there's an offset bushing for the upper arm or the link set which replaces the toe and camber arms.

if you use the offset bushing in conjunction with the arms, you can actually increase the rear track width a little.

Maxed the front out to -1.5 the rear to -1.0 with the whiteline kit and achieved 7.3-4 degrees of caster and zero toe front and slight every so slight toe out in the rear.

 

Car has great turn in and rotation out of the turn.

That's similar to my alignment specs and really happy with the car's handling.

 

I'm at:

 

Camber -1.5F/-1.1R

Toe 0F/0R

Caster 6.4 (that was maxed out with my car's setup and the WALK)

Should i go with offset bushing, or bolt?

 

Tc Davis

if you use the offset bushing in conjunction with the arms, you can actually increase the rear track width a little.

 

What arms?

 

Tc Davis

If you have a 2011 the parts are a little different. Cusco makes a nice adjustable LCA and then whiteline has offset bushings for the upper a-arm. Those bushings are a huge pain to install.

Noticed after buying the whiteline bushings for my 5th gen, it looks nothing like 4th gen:eek: so where do they go?

 

Tc Davis