wow.. got an alignment. look at this

[dmw319]

it was horrible! haha glad its much better now (not perfect, but much better).. check this out:

http://www.dmwacoustics.com/camaro/alignment.jpg

[Timberwolf]

I know I need to do the same thing but I would like to know some symptoms that you experienced if you don't mind. My car starts to wiggle a bit when I brake so I was wondering if that is common with a misaligned vehicle

[dmw319]

yep. i noticed that and i was pulling to the left quite noticeably. the guy who did my alignment explained to me that when its not cambered correctly the weight of your car isnt sitting directly on the middle of your tires, which causes them to wear down in the wrong spots etc. so its a good thing to have done.

[black98V6]

I had the same problem with a half degree of negative camber in the driver side. And couldn't do anything about it because the adjustment was bottomed out. Added some 1LE springs and the problem went away :D

[rhodeymark]

Even though you did save a wad of cash by putting your own Bilsteins on, you needed to schedule an alignment with that saved money. I just recently saw that was also highlighted in bold with exclamation points in the Mods Encyclopedia.

[dmw319]

.. what?

[rhodeymark]

Sorry - it was under Springs where it was written:
http://mods.firebirdv6.com/suspension.html

Also, once you have the springs and/or shocks installed, YOU MUST ADJUST YOUR FOUR WHEEL ALIGNMENT!

[dmw319]

oh yea. i know. [img]smile.gif[/img] thanks

[Camaro Dom]

hmmm... wiggling while breaking? do you mean in the steering wheel or in the car itself, cuz i have the same thing, but just in the steering wheel and its from warped brake rotors. dunno how it happens, just does i guess. but its nothing harmful, just annoying

[Camaro Dom]

haha, braking i mean

[KBeezy]

I wouldn't say you had a "pull" as much as I'd say your steering wheel was definately off-center. Your Camber & Caster readings are what cause a pull - Toe does NOT cause a pull.

Your camber and caster were not showing enough difference to cause much more than a drift.


Warped rotors happen for a lot of reasons - but thats what causes a shimmy-in-the-wheel while braking. Warped rotors can be harmful to your pad/brake life. Seen it [img]smile.gif[/img]


Camber is the inward outward tilt of the tire at the top of the tire. The closer the top of the tire is to the center of the car/motor, the more negative camber it has..

Caster is the forward striking point of the tire and is not adjustable on our cars. Byt saying its not adjustable I am saying theres no "manufacturer supplied adjustment" --- but it can be done. And it can be changed by driving too.

Toe is the forward inward outward point of the tire. Positive toe is the closer the front of the tire is/the tire/wheel pointing at/to the engine.


I know alignments like the back of my hand. ;) You all would be surprised what a nice alignment can do for your handling. I for one don't always go with vehicle supplied specs as those are for perfect conditions with perfect roads. Personally out here we have lots of crowned roads so on my daily driver I like to put a slight drift to the left so theres not so much of a pull on crowned streets being I don't spend a ton of time in the left lane it doesn't matter much on the freeway. 4x4s aren't for passing people ;)


If anyone has a suspension/alignment question feel free to shoot me a line [img]smile.gif[/img] I've had some AWESOME instructors and coworkers over the past couple years and learned TONS as well as have done TONS of alignments.

[dmw319]

wow yea. that helped me understand a lot more. thanks. something like that should be stickied.

[V6Bob]

"Caster is the forward striking point of the tire and is not adjustable on our cars. Byt saying its not adjustable I am saying theres no "manufacturer supplied adjustment"

But there is, at least on a 4th gen. The lower a-arm has two slotted mounting points. One goes side to side for camber, the other front to back for caster. The two adjustments are not independent, adjusting one changes the other a bit.

[KBeezy]

Originally posted by V6Bob:
"Caster is the forward striking point of the tire and is not adjustable on our cars. Byt saying its not adjustable I am saying theres no "manufacturer supplied adjustment"

But there is, at least on a 4th gen. The lower a-arm has two slotted mounting points. One goes side to side for camber, the other front to back for caster. The two adjustments are not independent, adjusting one changes the other a bit.

Exactly. By changing one you change the other, but theres no specific way to change just the caster on our cars without changing the camber like there is on some cars, specifically imports which have caster adjustments.

[rhodeymark]

Warped rotors happen for a lot of reasons - but thats what causes a shimmy-in-the-wheel while braking. Warped rotors can be harmful to your pad/brake life. Seen it

That is probably the number one complaint with f-bodies based on my pre-purchase research. Check out My Car Stats (input your year) and you will see a few stories of multiple rotor turns/replacements on 4th gens. Mine are still good at 30k thankfully but the OEM blanks apparently do leave a lot to be desired.