After researching alignments on the forum I took my vehicle to a suspension shop in my area to have my alignment done. I just had installed Tein S Tech springs 2 weeks before. I wanted a good performing street vehicle and will not be doing any type of competitive driving. I told the shop that I wanted these specs: Basically... negative camber up front with as much caster as he could get, zero toe in on the front, and negative rear camber plus 0.5 in the back with 1/8" toe in for the rear. These are the after specs:

Front Camber -1 L/R
Caster 6 L/R
Toe 1/16" in each side (shop convinced me to do 1/16" in on each side for wear)


Rear Camber -1.5 L/R
Toe 1/8" in each side


This shop is by no means a race shop but they do honest work. The guy spent 2.5 hours aligning the car and took it for 3 test drives. When I drove it the 10 miles home it seemed very different. It felt like it wanted to pull to the right and it followed every imperfection in the road. At braking it also seemed to pull to the right. With the steering wheel centered it still seemed to pull. I called the shop and talked to him and he told me my caster was right on on both sides. Is this normal for this kind of alignment with springs? I really do not know anything about suspension settings.

 

I know nothing of changing springs... Or really changing the alignment... But recently my 8 has been pulling to the right... I've gotten new tires, a new stock wheel (previous was cracked), balanced and rotated... But still pulls to the right... I'm going to get a stock alignment done at my local mazda dealership... But if that does not fix it than I wouldn't be surprised if we had the same problems because we have the same symptoms....

 

i think i have the same problem. but i think mine is due to the threat pattern of the tyres. kumho escata, the v-threat

 

You need to keep the setting stock.

Don't mess with alignment. Your not tracking the car.

 

These are pretty conservative settings for a dropped car. If I take it to a dealership they will give me a run around about the car being lowered and will do a half assed alignment based on factory tolerences. At least the guy that did this alignment got it right to my specs I gave him. It's winter here so I can't really drive the car to see where the problem lies.

 

That is not conservative at all!
The toe and camber in the front is killing you.
You really want no more than 1/16" TOTAL toe up there, especially if you want to go past the 0°45' of camber.
A full 1° of camber up front is WAY too much - especially for the street.
The caster is the only part of that alignment you got right.

My car is very low - beyond spec - and I'm running no camber up front, 1.5° in the back, no toe up front and 1/8" in the back.

 

that is a great set up, very save and handel well. I am using that setting my self.
the thing that making your car to pull is the camber and the uneven road. when you step on the brake it just make it worst.
If you are heavy like 180+, you will find when you sit inside the car your camber will change + or - 0.2 degree. so if you want a better alignment, you should sit inside the driver side while doing an alignment.
it is hard to tell you what is the real problem, but this is a trade off for performance alignment which make your car very fun to drive.

 

The OEM alignment is, by FAR the best and most comfortable (predictable) alignment for daily driving.

 

How and how much did you lower you car? I didn't realize there was that much available camber correction on the front.

 

Even though the manual shows about 0°46' of adjustment across the cam, there is about 1°15' of correction available front and back.
The suspension will pick up about 1° for every 2" you drop it. Mine is at 13.25", which is a good inch below the lowest spec on the chart, putting the drop at around 1.9".

 

yes , OEM alignment is very predictable, because they always under

 

Under what?
It over-steers at the drop of a hat.
If you are going to add a ton of rear camber, then it might help to add some front, but it is going to tramline like a b*tch on the highway.

 

drop of a hat, means power over.
not over steer, try again

 

So.......is this allright for some lively driving or should I go to a dealership and have it put back to the stock specs? Hell....I never drive the car as it is and after winter with all the mods it will be basically a "Sunday drive" car. The thing which has me concerned is tire wear. I will be running a 235/19 in the front and 265/19 in the rear. These tires are not cheap so if my current setting will have me going through tires then maybe I don't want them.

 

any camber more than -1 will cause inside wear faster, but if you could rotate the tire more often then it will not be an issue.
and with the RWD the rear will wear faster because it is using the rear to push the car, so the tire that will go first is the rear, because it is the driving wheel and with -1.5 camber.

 

Actually, you will find the front will wear faster with equal camber because of the scrubbing (unless you spend an inordinate amount of time spinning).

Where are you getting this stuff?

 

I got me stuff by study and 8 years of working experiance as a ase mechanic, also 5 years of race spec alignment experiance, so where are you getting your stuff from??

 

'Bout 25 years of road and track experience.

 

what about your 25 year reading road and track??

 

I'm not into the mags all that much. Why, what do they say about it?

 

Then basic question boss: why muck with the alignment at all?? If you're never going to track it and you're worried about tire wear then set it back to the original factory specs. You'll be happier and car will be more enjoyable for what you want to do with it. I have a lowered setup and the dealer had no issue aligning my car to the factory specs.

if you don't like it you can always go back to your buddy and tell him what you're looking for and let him convert that to what needs to be adjusted. You know you don't like it the way it is so just set it back and start smiling again when you drive.

 

Exactly.

 

I guess I got into reading the posts too much here. I will take the car in on Monday and have it put back to stock specs. Thanks for the help!

 

Good luck and let us know how it drives after your get it re-aligned!

 

okay, I finally got an alignment done... But the damn car still slightly pulls to the right!!!

Left Front Right Front

Camber -0.4 -0.4
Caster 6.3 6.8
Toe 0.12 0.12
SAI 11.4 10.8

Left Rear Right Rear

Camber -1.7 -1.6
Toe 0.15 0.16

The sheet they gave me also has the Front's Cross Camber, Cross Caster, and Total Toe... The Rear's Total Toe, and Thrust Angle...

So finally with all this information spilled out, does anybody have any relative idea why my 8 still pulls to the right? Am I justified by going back to the shop that did my alignment on Monday, and requesting a better done alignment? I don't understand how small increments of .1 degrees could still cause a pull towards the right at all...