Quote:
Originally Posted by marck
They alignment guy knows how to set thing to factory specifications he does not actually know how to do alignments. He doesn't really know what to do and can't make it workable because the company doesn't really allow for that.
I've not dived into Porsche alignment specs yet but I doubt that lowering springs would prevent proper tow settings which can very much adversely affect regular driving and make it unstable. Castor, think chair castors, could be a bit crazy on lower springs I guess. If left and right sides are set equally then you could maybe get buy but yea wrong castor that could make the car a bit hard to drive. Everyone want's more negative camber so I can't see that causing the car to be unstable. Again equalizing settings left and right would help a lot but a regular alignment shop isn't going to touch it.
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I couldn't agree more. I redo a lot of alignments from national chains and other shops. We have a term for it "toe and go" meaning they set the toe somewhere within the spec and ship it. A proper alignment starts with setting the rear camber and the thrust angle down the centerline of the car. Even there you will see a range that is within spec that doesn't really work all that great for a particular car or user. A perfect example would be all the BMWs I get to redo because they wear out the inside of the rear tires due to high camber. The spec on a typical e46 is something like -1.8 to 2.7, if a shop sees it in that range they leave it alone even if it's nearing the 2.7 which will accelerate tire wear. If the customer just uses the bimmer as a commuter I set it in the 1.8 range which actually looks bad as our readouts will show it at the edge of the "green" on the dial instead of in the middle, which is what most "techs" think is optimal. You need to go to someone who understands and cares enough to make the car work right. I can rant on and on but I have seen so many cars that "dog track" right after an alignment and check out to be within spec but on the opposite edges front and rear and not even close to optimized.