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^You'll want slightly more camber in the rear than what you have listed there. For a factory alignment spec'd 2IS, if you set everything at 1 degree, you'll be good.
^You'll want slightly more camber in the rear than what you have listed there. For a factory alignment spec'd 2IS, if you set everything at 1 degree, you'll be good.
It's been a year plus since I started this thread, time for a little update. So far this year I have a new set of wheels, new rear tires, F Sport sway bars, and I did a bit of alignment work again.
The wheels are Enkei PF01s, 17x8.5 et 40 on the front, and 17x9 et 35 on the back. These are light (18.25lbs for the front, and 18.7lbs for the rear on my scale), relatively cheap, and have a reputation for being pretty strong. I seriously considered the RPF-1s, but I think these look better, and a lot more modern for a ~1lb penalty. I wanted the black version, but black is something Enkei only does every once in a while so there was no stock of the 8.5" version when I ordered these. Crappy pictures of the wheels:
As for the sway bars, I ordered the complete set front and rear and installed them. I managed to break the rear links in the process, my car is an '08, and I doubt these bolts have ever been loosened. Since my car is still at stock ride height I couldn't just order a new set from FIGS as was my first thought, so I jumped on Rock Auto and found these:
Cheap, beefy, lifetime warranty, and F Sport blue bushings to boot! We'll see how they hold up...
The F Sport blue sway bars don't quite match the Megan Racing blue, but hey, you can't have everything:
Also someone was asking how the Megan front camber arms hold up over time, these are about 15 months installed, and I drive the car through the snow in the winter, so without even a hint of rust on the bolts, they holding up better than I expected. The rear arms aren't holding up as well with some surface rust on the jam nuts and arms. If and when I re-do the rear end I'll be finding some stainless or titanium nuts to replace these.
On to the alignment, new tires, and why those Megan arms above are on my front room floor. This is really what I wanted to show in this post. I have a co-worker who happens to have a SmartStrings alignment setup, so I borrowed it to do my own alignment. Yes, you read that correctly, I did my own alignment. I doubt many, if anyone who frequents this forum has seen such a setup so here is how it works: You find a stable place to hang the hardware off the front and back of the car (in this case you can see I had to remove the front engine cover):
Stretch the strings between front and rear, center the apparatus, and make your toe measurements between the wheels and the taut strings:
Sounds hokey if you aren't familiar with this, but LOTS of racers both amateur and professional use similar setups. Its portable, and with a lot of practice guys become faster and just as accurate as the computer setups most people are familiar with seeing. I'm no pro, so this was a tedious, frustrating, exhausting day. I set the rear to as near 0 toe as I could, the front I left at ~1mm. I'm no expert with this setup so I will likely take the car to a professional for some confirmation and maybe some fine tuning now.
Now, about the new tires and the rear #1 adjustable Megan arms that I removed. Look closely at the picture above and you will notice that the tire is pretty much bald. These were a set of 245/45-17 Pilot Super Sports that I wore out in a bit less than 5,000 miles. Not good. I am speculating a bit here, but I think for my setup the adjustable #1 arm was hurting me. I think they were adjusted incorrectly, and were contributing to some excess bump steer in the back, which in a nutshell means the car was a bit skittish, and the toe was constantly changing, contributing to the tire wear. So the rear end of the car now has Megan camber and toe arms, and is now sporting a set of Michelin Pilot Sport PS2s in 265/40-17. I'm hoping that the wider width, along with the elimination of some bump steer will be kinder to my tire tread. At any rate when these are worn out I'm probably done with Michelin. I got a bit of a deal on these because of the treadwear warranty on the PSSs, but at over $300 per tire these PS2s are NOT cheap. That and the racetrack near me looks to be closing this fall, so I'm thinking the next set of tires will be some Continental EXTREMECONTACT DWs in 255/40-17 front and 275/40-17 in the back.
The wheels are Enkei PF01s, 17x8.5 et 40 on the front, and 17x9 et 35 on the back. These are light (18.25lbs for the front, and 18.7lbs for the rear on my scale), relatively cheap, and have a reputation for being pretty strong. I seriously considered the RPF-1s, but I think these look better, and a lot more modern for a ~1lb penalty. I wanted the black version, but black is something Enkei only does every once in a while so there was no stock of the 8.5" version when I ordered these.
Great choice on the wheel selection (Though I might be biased since I have a set of 18" PF01s)! I also faced the same dilemma as you when it came to choosing either PF01s or RFP1s. I read somewhere that the PF01s can handle a bit more lateral g's than the RFP1s plus the more modern look of the PF01 was worth the additional 1lb penalty vs the RFP1 as you mentioned.
Like you also mentioned, it's difficult to obtain a set of black PF01s (I tried and failed) so hyper silver was the only other choice which I don't mind now (except for when my brake pads cover the wheels with dust so it's easily visible!).
Im installing my camber kit this weekend. I have negative camber in both front and rear. But i only got the rear upper#2 arm would that be good enough for the negative camber? Ok about installing the kit, for the front, its just one bolt on each side correct? Do i have to remove my the coilovers before taking the arm out? Im asking because i feel itll be alot of trouble taking the coilovers out if i dont have to so i can get to the bolt. One more question, for the rear upper arm#2, its only one bolt for each end correct? Do i need to put a jack stand under anything before i take it out? I dont want anything to fall if you know what i mean. Please any input would be great thanks!!
12-21-14, 04:14 PM
(Though I might be biased since I have a set of 18" PF01s)! I also faced the same dilemma as you when it came to choosing either PF01s or RFP1s. I read somewhere that the PF01s can handle a bit more lateral g's than the RFP1s plus the more modern look of the PF01 was worth the additional 1lb penalty vs the RFP1 as you mentioned. 
Please any input would be great thanks!!
