Taking the car in for an alignment. Are there any specs I need to know before I tkae it in?

 

General check up or are you trying to to something other than what's on the car now?

You don't NEED to know anything technical as long as you trust the alignment tech and can communicate what you want.

 

Most alignment shops will set the alignment based on the Manufacturer's specs, which are very broad. There are different specs for how you drive your car, and how important handling vs tire life is.

My Z06 was set for performance handling from Bowling Green(actually aligned very good) but I wanted more tire life, and since I don't track my car, being able to pull 1.05 G in the school parking lot, was not important to me.

See http://www.pfadtracing.com/blog/wp-c...-alignment.pdf

I had my alignment set about middle ways of "Performance Street" and "Performance Street-Track Use with Street Tires", but with as close to 0.0 degrees toe, front and rear. Absolutely with no toe out.

 

I also used the Pfadt numbers for my car. Since I autocross it and have it out on the track once or twice a year on street tires, I went towards the aggressive side of "Performance Street - Track Use with Street Tires". My car is set for -1.5 degree camber and 0 toe in front and -1.0 degree camber and 1/16" toe-in in back. My tires are wearing very well with no inside tire wear that I can see. My car will follow grooves in the road though.

Go to a shop that will put the numbers "on the money" rather than just close. It will cost you a bit more, but I think you'll get much better results.

- Mark

 

The stock specs will work for most folks. Any alignment tech worth his pay will adjust to the desired settings. (center of the span) Later! Frank

 

Took mine to a shop that also does race cars and had the latest Hunter machine. Told them what I wanted...and it was perfect...but -- with a warning "do not drive over 125 with this alignment".

 

An alignment with a speed rating? Please explain their logic. Later! Frank

 

I did the same. Happy with it so far.

 

i want specs for longer tire wear. my last tires were balk on the inside at 6k. the dealer even gave me a new set free.I just bought 4 new tires and dont want to wear out fast as i dont race the car. thx

 

If the toe is off, you'll cup the tires.

If the camber is off you'll wear the inside/outside edge but not with cupping.

Caster doesn't really kill the tires that I know of.

So, set the toe to 0 on all 4 wheels (+/- 0.0)

Set the camber to 0 on all 4 wheels (+/- 0.0)

Set the caster to stock.


What do you use negative camber for? Think about it.... You want the tires to present a flat foot print on turns, yes? No? When they want to go really fast in the turns, the camber is set to a higher negative number, yes, No?

I suggest "yes" to those 2 questions. So, what does negative camber do to a tire that is running straight down a superhighway? Think on it a sec.... It ***** the wheel to put more pressure on the inside edge of the tire. Where is the "bad" wear the horror stories have complained about? The inside edge of the tire is "down to the belts" and the rest of the tire is great. Sound familiar?

Yeah, yeah, 0 camber is horrible!!!

Think about this... A solid rear axle has how much camber? I'm thinking 0. Does a solid rear axle wear out the inside edge of the tires? I'm thinking, no.

So, in conclusion and before I put on my asbestos suit, I will set my toe to 0, my camber to 0, and the caster to the stock number. I'll continue down life's superhighways in ignorant bliss with the top down and a smile on my face.


When I go racing, pylon crushing, or X-Cross, then I'll crank in the negative camber, -2.0 or whatever, and go for it!


Here's the "stock" settings for our cars. It says 2007 but it applies to all of the C6s




Elmer

 

 

This is what I did. Unless you Autocross, or road race you will probably never know the difference. Your tires will tho, especially while you are cruzing down the interstate.

 

Frank - it could have been "tongue in cheek" or perhaps he meant just not to track it, but he did know that it had been up to 125 previously.

 

anyone have an issue with the car pulling to one side, taking it in for allignment, setting everything to factory specs and the car still pulls to the right. have had the car aligned 5 times in 20k miles and replaced the front tires but the car still pulls right. I hit a pretty big pot hole at 4k miles which I've told 2 dealerships now and they can't seem to find any damage that would cause this deviation from straight ahead....any help would be greatly appreciated

 

I have had a personal experience on my C5 with a rear tire causing a pull. Cross the rear tires long enough to see if that changes anything. Later! Frank

 

PUNISHERC6 – I’ll be sending you a PM.

Thanks,
Laura
GM Customer Service

 

My experience on three Corvettes over 145,000 miles; is that a modest amount of negative camber, say about .5 negative, produces only a little bit of inner edge tire wear.

Toe-out, however, will wear the inner edges in a hurry and also tends to make the car twitchy.

I use 0 toe front & rear, .5 negative camber front & rear. Works well for me.

 

don't think it has anything to do with ther rear since I can actually hold the wheel where it's supposed to be to go straight and if i let it go, the wheel will start to rotate to one side and the car will just pull into the next lane. I'ts really frustrating and the car is just not fun to drive any more.

 

checked my tires today after flushing and filling the clutch reservoir AGAIN lol, right tire is doing ok, left tire is starting to show some real wear on the inside....I wanna go to Michelins so bad but I'll be damned if I buy a whole set of tires just to still have the car handle like crap!