Wheel Alignment issues, help!

potzman · Post by **potzman** » Thu Jun 23, 2011 12:03 pm

Got some new tyres fitted to my NA at tony's tyre service, new store on great north road, and had them do an alignment to some specs found in an MX5 book I have as per below:

front
caster +5 deg
camber -0.7 deg
toe 1/16 inch total

rear
camber -1.2 deg
toe 1/16 inch total

needless to say they spent a good couple of hours holding everyone up with no luck getting the rear camber under 2 deg.
The initial settings were around -0.5 deg rear camber but toe was well out ( hence my bad rear tyre wear) but once they played around they found the rear left would not adjust below -2 deg??
In the end i had to go but they wanted me to bring the car back for the day some other time to have another go.
I'm off on a road trip to taupo this weekend so will see how car goes but i think with -2 deg camber i will end up getting camber wear on my tyres.

On the drive home i found the rear tyres to be alot noisier than before the alignment and the steering wheel wasnt even straight??
Is there something these guys are missing or should i go to another shop to get this sorted?

zippy2 · Post by **zippy2** » Thu Jun 23, 2011 2:30 pm

have a look here - http://www.miata.net/garage/align.html
for some settings.

If the car is set up correctly the steering wheel should be straight (if the wheel has not been taken off and put back incorrectly)- if it is on a level road. if there is any camber to the road at all then the steering wheel will be slightly off center - this is a sport car after all.

aidwano · Post by **aidwano** » Thu Jun 23, 2011 6:17 pm

Ive got more than 2 degrees camber and I only have minor camber wear. Toe is the tyre killer

Gravelben · Post by **Gravelben** » Thu Jun 23, 2011 6:21 pm

Is it really low? Not sure why else it would be struggling to get less than 2° camber unless something is bent.

From memory I run mine around 1.6° negative camber on the rear and 1.1° front which is nice for all round use. You could easily run more camber for track use but I don't think there would be much point on the road.

SLYDIT · Post by **SLYDIT** » Fri Jun 24, 2011 9:10 am

is your car lowered?

potzman · Post by **potzman** » Fri Jun 24, 2011 9:59 am

yes my car is slightly lowered but the initial alignment figures before they started adjusting it show the camber was originally -0.5 each side on the rear and the toe was high like 2.5 or something.
So with that one would assume they should be able to get the camber back down to where i want it at -1.2

Like i have read somewhere else, they may have to loosen off other suspension bolts and maybe jack the wheel up to get it at the right angle?

Euen · Post by **Euen** » Fri Jun 24, 2011 10:28 pm

I try to use the Lanny Chambers alignment numbers from Miata.net but find it quite difficult to get some of them dialled in. On the rear I am currently running 1° 30' (1.5°) camber with about 1mm toe in. Lanny's spec is 1.75° and 0.8mm toe for the rear. It is possible that something is bent if you can't get below 2°.

With regard to the steering, make sure that your rack is set up on the centre for wheeels pointing straight ahead. You should get the the same number of rotations from straight ahead to full right as you do from straight ahead to full left. With a power steering rack it is just over 1.25 turns each way.

mr_pool_pool2000 · Post by **mr_pool_pool2000** » Sat Jun 25, 2011 10:07 am

Front

Caster: Maximum
Camber: -1.5°
Toe out 1/16" per side

Rear

Camber: -2°
Toe in 1/16" per side

had my alignment done to these settings they'r great but do wear the inside of the tyres a bit on the back mostly.

dose anyone know if there is an incar adjuster that can be adjusted while driving, because i do about 450 k's a week of moterwhey driving and about 80k's of aggressive hill driving a week witch is what my alignment is aimed at?

im running re001 adrenalin tyres <seem to be the easiest to get hot quickly of the tyres i have tried

Ian · Post by **Ian** » Thu Jul 07, 2011 4:36 am

front toe out is not conducive to good handling!

zero toe for the track is ok, otherwise at least a small amount of toe in is required.

mr_pool_pool2000 wrote:Front

Caster: Maximum
Camber: -1.5°
Toe out 1/16" per side

Rear

Camber: -2°
Toe in 1/16" per side

had my alignment done to these settings they'r great but do wear the inside of the tyres a bit on the back mostly.

dose anyone know if there is an incar adjuster that can be adjusted while driving, because i do about 450 k's a week of moterwhey driving and about 80k's of aggressive hill driving a week witch is what my alignment is aimed at?

im running re001 adrenalin tyres <seem to be the easiest to get hot quickly of the tyres i have tried

Wheel Alignment issues, help!

Wheel Alignment issues, help!

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