MashinA

iTrader: (20)

what is roll couple? i did notice when i went into a curvy road going 70mph it felt a little bumpy...

lobuxracer

iTrader: (2)

Roll couple is the distance between the roll center and the center of gravity. The greater this distance, the more spring you need to counter the roll (or the more you need stiffer anti-roll bars).

As much as I find discussing suspension theory and practice, I'd rather keep this thread focused on results from setting up the factory suspension at standard ride heights. Much of what we learn from this will help with lowered ride height, but as you can see from your numbers, there are limits to how low you can go without suffering unusual tire wear issues.

I'll be posting some new pics later today. I've got close to 15k on my front tires now and it's time for a photo update.

lobuxracer

iTrader: (2)

So, here's what I'm seeing at 14,199 miles from installing the new tires. Looks like zero toe is the best for long tire life. As I recall, I'm at 1/16" toe out. I'm still seeing more inside wear than outside wear. These tires have zero track miles, so there's no confusion about how they're wearing.

Right Tire



Right Tire



Right Tire



Right Tire



Right Tire







Left Tire



Left Tire



Left Tire



Left Tire



Left Tire



Left Tire



Left Tire

hahahaf

iTrader: (2)

great thanks lobux
its appreciated

KJH

Had this done, along with some other suspension work, this past week. Will report back on tire wear over time. It looks to me that, if your car is lowered, you might very slightly miss some of the values contained in Lance's pdf, at least I did up front. Lance, any input here? In the rear, I have the FIGS Engineering MEGA rear control arms and adjustable toe links. As a result, hitting the desired specifications in the rear is a piece of cake.

lobuxracer

iTrader: (2)

The biggest concern is toe. If your camber is less than -2.5, you likely not have any wear issues if the toe is correct. I'll be watching the current set to be sure they aren't corded any time soon. Also, since I know how much adjustment I get from the rack ends on a "per turn" basis, I can make small adjustments if I really want to change up what is happening.

KJH

Camber is -1.54, LF, and -1.57, RF. Toe is 0.03-inches on both LF and RF. This is on Swift Sport Lowering Springs with a one-inch drop in front and 0.6-inch drop in the rear.

m3twof

iTrader: (6)

Wow holy cow! thats bold! Lol! I had mine changed 18,000 due to inner wear..

CCColtsicehockey

iTrader: (3)

Wow I need to get an alignment before I get my next set of tires now. I only have 12k miles on my tires since they had just put new tires on when I got my F from Lexus Certified. Hoping I will at least be able to make it another 5k but they already look like yours or worse Lobux.

CCColtsicehockey

iTrader: (3)

Well guess we will find out whether zero toe works out cause I just dropped my car off at Lexus and after looking at the tires last night I am having them do an alignment along with the oil change now. Told them I want the front set at zero toe. We will see if they actually do it when I pickup the car and get the alignment sheet.

Here are what my tires look like after just under 12k miles.

Drivers Front






Passenger Front












The tires are Continental ContiSportContacts. The passenger front tire seems to be wearing much worse than the drivers side although both seem to be riding on only the inner 1.5 - 2in of tire and the rest seems to be like new almost. Yes I know I should have taken pictures with a penny to get a better gauge on the depth but there isn't even really a grove to put a penny in on the inside edge of the tires. I wish I could switch the left and right tires side to side but the tires specify which edge goes on the inside. Hopefully I can at least get 3-4k more miles out of them though.

IS350atWOT

iTrader: (1)

Why does Lexus set the alignment this way? Does it give us better performance at high speeds?

lobuxracer

iTrader: (2)

No. The car turns in better with toe out. Autocrossers often run a LOT of toe out to get the car to turn quickly.

IS350atWOT

iTrader: (1)

Cool, I've always wondered that. My first car was an '88 Chrysler Conquest and it did the same thing. I never did understand why though.

weswork

iTrader: (4)

O.K., this may sound like a crazy question (and Lance I appreciate the info you gave me via PMs prior to this) but, is there an adjustment on the F seperate from Toe for Caster/Camber? The reason I am asking is that I just had the KWs installed on my car and the shop that the alignment was farmed out to reported back that only the Toe was adjustable on the car. I included Lance's (thanks Lance) spec sheet from this thread for alignment purposes after the coils were installed. I did ask for the car to be lowered 1" from stk in the front and 0.6" from stk in the rear.

I really don't think the alignment shop is just clueless as the same two places handled the KW install on my Supra last week and the Supra was aligned according to provided specs with no issues.

Any input would be greatly appreciated as I would like to get this wrapped up tomorrow.

Westley

FIGS

iTrader: (11)

There is only toe adjustment on both teh front and rear from the factory. The front also has 3 part numbers for caster adjustment.

If you want adjustability you will need a set of my control arms and toe links, upper arms and TRAC links in the works as well. For the Front I am making a new upper control arm with both caster and camber adjustments.

http://www.figsengineering.com/suspension.htm#arms