Just got done doing my own alignment... learned on my own car, so I'm somewhat proud of my accomplishment (I am service advisor / sales manager for a Las Vegas based car repair facility)...

Anyways, it was slow today, so I decided to get my hands dirty and tackle my alignment, even though it had just been done 3-4 months ago...

Surprise surprise when I first check settings, they are WAY off of what they were supposed to be (when I had it done prior, I specified settings). None were even close, except front camber...

Now, we're back to a little more than I originally wanted, and I guess I am being a test dummy with my settings, as I can find no direct information of what works good on these cars...

I went from basic performance alignment, to what I consider a almost raceable alignment, going off of recommendations, and how I felt the car would handle the best... (the car is on supra tt struts and Tein S-Tech springs), so total lowering is about 1.5-1.7"

Front (all are in degrees)
-1.8 camber
+3.5 caster
+.02 toe
Rear
-2.5 camber
+.24 toe per side (+.48 total toe)

caster was maxed out with the stock adjusters, even though they claim +5 is possible... the added camber in the rear should help the feeling of the car wanting to oversteer badly... it was previously set at -1.0 with the fronts at -1.5, even though I had asked for -1.5 front and -1.8 to -2.0 rear...

there is a ton of room for adjustment with these cars, I was very amazed at that...

From everything I know, the car should handle beautifully, and tire wear should be accelerated, but not horrible... I will report back after a days worth of driving...

tire/wheels are listed in my sig... (KDW's)

 

well, the verdict is in... the car handles amazing right now... long sweeping turns feel more confident, turn in is definitely quicker, and, best of all, oversteer is much more controllable when it does happen...

 

yeah i think i'm gonna redo my alignment too, i tried to have everything zero'ed out, but i'm gonna go for more negative camber in the rear like that. would you have gone more then -2.5?

 

I actually set it at -3 while doing the alignment, and it looked like it was crazy neg. camber... too much for me (I immediately thought "ricer didn't lower the car right")... went back to -2.5 and it looked more normal, and still handles beautifully...

some important things, no matter how much neg camber you run, you need to keep the rears toed in between .44 and .50 degrees, and the fronts close to 0, or with .05 degrees toe out... this is the majority of tire wear, and just a few hundredths of a degree will affect how badly the car wanders, follows grooves in the pavement, and initial under/oversteer...

 

i dont get it.. why more camber in the rear? usually you want more out FRONT don't you?

 

That's a lot of rear toe in, will wear the rears pretty fast that way.

 

stock is .44 degrees... I wanted a little less understeer so I added a few tenths of a degree... should be no more wear than stock from toe...

 

my car oversteers pretty easily... to get less oversteer, you need more camber in the rear, I added more neg camber to the front as well...

now, after more days of driving, I couldn't ask for a better handling car, given my wheel/tire and suspension setup...

 

...and less toe in.

 

I'm raising this thread out of the grave because today I (sort of) did the alignment on my car. I say sort of because I didn't even finish The front (the caster is all &*^!#$ up) and didn't even touch the rears. So when I go back on Wednesday to finish, I want to know how I should align it(for performance) with decent tread wear. These are the specs this guy used:

Now What I've done so far(on 5sp_jzz30's recommendation for camber and this guy's toe reccomendations) is:
-Italics mean I adjusted it

Front
Camber: -1.5
Toe: +.03
Caster: Don't think the rack was even accurate because it was saying -.05 left and +.15 right yet it's not even pulling unless it hits a bump.

Rear
Camber: -1.8L -2.0R
Toe:Can't even remember


So, I know I really like the -1.5* camber in the front. It drives really nice, but I also noticed a lot more body roll. Is this right?. Maybe I will get the daizen roll bars before the coilovers.

The other problem was that I got the left side Caster nut loose finally, but I can't add any more caster past 0* wtf? Is it the bushings causing this or is it possible I didn't measure the caster properly?


To recap, I need:
-performance DD Alignment settings on a stock ride height
-why cant the driver side caster go past 0 deg?

 

I think you might need a little training on that alignment machine to understand caster fully...

to properly measure caster, you have to do a caster sweep, which usually entails pressing a couple buttons on the alignment machine, then turning the front wheels side to side as it displays on the screen...

after this is done, caster readings are a guess by the machine, so, what is displayed is an educated guess performed by the alignment machine... until you do the caster sweep again, that is, then it is properly updated... the live caster readings are only to give you an idea of where you are headed...

keep in mind on the front that caster and camber will affect each other... adjusting one usually affects the other at least a little...

 

I know how to do a caster sweep, but I was in a hurry and so I did yhe first sweep, maxed out the bolt, and tightened it without doing a final sweep. That's probably why it's got such strange readings when I don't really feel it pull at all

 

I'm at -3 all around with tein flex. i push the car HARD tho. It drives like it's on rails. this is the rear...




the fronts are pretty bad too.

I'm getting the offset camber correction bushings, they adjust up to 2 degrees. I'll either run -1 in the rear or -2 and raise the UCA upwards to take away a bit of camber gain.

 

What's your Toe at? Toe is what's mainly responsible for wear. I thought my tires were bad lol. Is that from a drift sesion? Haha

 

my tires looked like that before an alignment when the car had -4.5* camber in the rear.

right now the car has -2.5* camber in the rear. it handles great. doesnt oversteer much and when it does it is very predictable.

i would rather run about -2.0* in the rear but that required a camber kit or raising the car a bit. i think i will raise it. that whole "im gonna slam my car and look super cool" is over.

-2.0* camber in the front is fine.

as mentioned above 5* caster in the front is not possible. the most i have ever been able to get, and its consistent all the time, is a bit under 5*. more around 4.6-4.7ish.

as mentioned above....toe-in in the rear gives the car a bit better stability but i run zero toe all around.