If you're not going to corner balance, find an air-bag kit. Best bet for a street car, find a set of springs and shocks that give you the ride height and performance you want, and be done.

 

Most people do not know about getting your car corner balanced or even know what it is. But they generally understand getting shocks and springs will provide a stiffer and lower ride. In addition many want the look while spending the least amount of money so they purchase non-adjustable shocks, if any at all.

While getting corner balanced is highly recommended, I will not say it is a must. But the alignment is.

FWIW after getting coilovers, I got corner balanced and an alignment so I very much agree with you on having it done. I just do not think it is a must. We may be splitting hairs here with the word "need".

 

I think it you spend the bucks on getting the coilovers you're leaving a lot on the table by not taking advantage of the opportunity to corner balance the car since it's part of capability you're buying.

As Kris mentioned if you don't want to take advantage of the coilovers you might as well buy the spring and shock combo and be done for cheaper.

 

Many people buy used coilovers for less than new shocks and springs. Also not all coilovers (like shocks) are adjustable which means you can not get corner balanced.

Again I am not advocating not getting corner balanced.

For a daily street driven car though an alignment is more than enough.

For lots of spirited driving and track days then getting corner balanced is highly recommended.

 

I can be convinced to agree with you on the "not a must" bit. Sorry, that's just one of my pet peeves. Buying performance gear without any intent to maximize it, or for "bling" purposes only.

 

Either way we're straying from the conversation.

Here is another place in Seattle that my neighbor who autocrosses recommended.

http://www.trulineseattle.com/Default.asp

 

+1

If you are ever in Portland and need a good shop for an alignment and or corner balance then send me a PM

 

I second University Mazda for problems.

Group 2 for performance mods requiring racks and tools I do not have.

my garage for everything else.

 

^ I vouch for Patrick's garage

 

well, having coil-overs that don't have a full range of adjust-ability is just stupid, you just blew your money... nice job! :D and with 3-way adjustables should always corner balance your car whether its for street or track still needs to be adjusted.

I still haven't even put on my coilovers yet or my exhaust... infact I just sold my rx8 exhaust, to put a full ti exhaust on my K6 600 ... yes a motorcycle.

I thank you all for the input on the shops! of coarse, keep the list coming and discuss experiences with the companies!

 

For dealer problems if you live in seattle, I agree. University is #2 in service care scores, and there sales is like #3 so they do very well. If you live a little south, Milam Mazda and Jeep has the #1 service department in care scares and alot of technicians that have been there for 20+years, there literally the oldest mazda dealer in the west region.

 

So, it appears that KAS does not to suspension alignment or corner balance, but group2 is where they send their customers.

Does anyone know specs for alignment... like setups that race teams are running or anything of the sort. If you know your settings and you could let me know them... coil-overs or just springs I would appreciate it!

 

So has anyone gone to GT motorsports? I heard they work on alot of jdm cars... but I have a feeling its like hondas

 

My car is at Tru-Line today. They are aligning it and including driver weight in the car when they perform the alignment. The guys seem very knowledgeable and gave me some additional recommendations above and beyond what I've read here. I'll let everyone know what they set my car at and how it drives.

I gave them guidelines of:
-1.5 to -2.0 camber in the front
-1.0 to -1.5 camber in the rear
5-6 caster in the front
0 toe -He recommended slight toe in for high speed stability. it will affect my tire wear but I drive 5K miles a year so I'm not worried.

 

I just got my car back from Tru-Line. Their service was excellent. They took the time to walk through everything they did for my car and gave me a run down on my suspension and tire condition.

They were not able to give me the -1.5 in the front on the stock springs so they gave me as much as they could evenly. So I have -.9 in the front on both sides. Then they dialed in as much caster as they could so I have 6.87 on the driver side and 6.92 on the passenger side and zero toe in the front.

In the rear he gave me more camber than in the front. -1.3. He thought this may make it understeer a bit but to let him know and bring it back if I need to.

Top notch service and knowledge!

 

Yeah, I would expect that to push a bit, but should be good for countering brake induced oversteer, especially with that much caster. It'll be interesting to hear your impressions.

 

yeah, sounds like a decent set-up but I am not a fan of more push than stock...safer driving I suppose though

 

hey Shaun... which tru-line did you go too? the one is seattle or the one in belevue? just curious who actually did the alignment and who you talked too.

 

I went to the Tru-line in Seattle. The guy I spoke with was Doug.

I was hoping for more camber in front but that's all he could get with the stock springs. I'm definitely not looking for more push. He said if I didn't like it I could bring it back and he'd adjust it for me.

 

so I wanted to see what different spring and shock manufactures settings where for alignment, I have only received one response, from Racing Beat, the chief engineer wrote:


Sorry for the delay in my reply, I have been out of the office for
the
past 2 weeks. We always test at Mazda's stock specs for the sake of
consistency. However, 1 degree additional caster is helpful and,
depending
on tire selection, 1 to 2 degrees negative camber usually helps
slightly.
Unfortunately, anything over 3/4 degree of negative camber usually
accelerates tire wear. No free lunch ..........

Jim Mederer


anyone know the stock settings?

 

shaun how much did you pay if you don't mind me asking... I asked truline for a quote and they are asking almost a grand for just install! Nucking Futs! or you just did alignment there? just for that they asked 150

 

Both those quotes sound reasonable. If you have the space and tools, do the install yourself.

 

My alignment was $200 all said and done. I did just alignment. More expensive than the dealer but then again they align with driver weight in the car and will do more than set it to stock.

$1K is expensive for just installing shock/springs or coilovers. It should be about $500 to install shocks and springs alone. If you're talking coilovers, sways, corner balancing and alignment then 1K is probably about right. You can do the install yourself and then just have them adjust it.