When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Here is some info about DSCsport's take on alignment. In particular, the more 'racy' the car and driver, the more camber is recommended. More camber also scrapes off the inside of the front tread much faster. Your car has more camber cranked in to the GM spec than the base C7. I also hear that changing caster (and maybe even camber) requires special tools and a very competent tech. Use special care with your choice of shop.
I am getting an alignment tomorrow on my Base C7, and aiming for nominal GM spec values.
Edit - As patternday states in the next post,, I agree those numbers are a mess. Seems best to find a very competent shop, go for GM spec numbers, then do any further changes after you have a decent baseline.
Last edited by kensredvette2; Mar 25, 2019 at 03:25 PM.
The alignment is an absolute mess. All they did was adjust the toe in.
For a street car, every single spec here except caster on the right front and toe in, is screwed up, and its absolutely no surprise at all that it wont hold a line at speed.
Front caster is adjustable
Something to consider, when I went in for my first alignment (FE6) my rear caster was off from the factory, -1L and +1R, had them use the proper tool and set it to 0 both sides. My car was wandering around at speed before the first alignment, found the front was off as well and had excessive camber and wide gap L/R cross caster in the front.
Find a chevy shop with the proper digital gauge and get the rear caster checked and re-align the entire car while you are there.
Yeah, that's a really crummy alignment job. See if you can get your money back, but don't let them touch your car again.
If you like spirited driving and are willing to accept more tire wear, try to get the camber (F & R) about in the middle of the ranges. Caster should be close to equal on both sides and within the range.
For longer tire life, go with less negative camber. The Z06/GS design may force you to use more negative camber than you like but not hugely so.
Toe should be very slightly in, or 0. Yours is ok now.
Negative camber improves cornering but wears the inner edges of your tire sooner. Still, a little is ok.
Negative toe (out) eats the inner edges of the tires much faster than camber, and also makes the car twitchy. Use 0 toe or slightly in.
The C7 is one of the very few cars with adjustable rear caster, which requires special tools to measure and set. It can not be measured or shown on the alignment printout. Find a dealer or shop that handles this kind of work and talk to the Tech or service advisor to be sure they aren't giving you the old "sure, we can do it" routine. The Tech should hand-write those numbers on the sheet when finished.
I went to my Chevy dealer and wanted a street alignment and also had a problem with the rear caster settings. I read a while back here where a forum member mentioned that at higher speeds when he hit a quick small dip in the road it felt like being in a boat and a wave hitting the side, the car would slide side to side. I mentioned this to my service writer and he proceeded to explain the caster setting and how it worked. I knew right then these were the right guys. Ask whoever you take it to to explain a caster setting. If they can properly explain it and have the proper tools to do it they’re your guys. I think there are very few cars that have this setting, like less than 10.
Last edited by TXSteveF; Mar 25, 2019 at 04:02 PM.
When I ran R888R at the track, I got near perfectly even tire wear across the tire with their track/street compromise settings. For tire wear on a track car, that's obviously good. For performance, it means I need more camber because the inside should wear faster than outside at optimal performance (it should wear evenly in turns, which means it wears the inside on straights- I'm obviously wearing the outside more on turns, enough to make up for inside wearing more on straights). On the street it seems like wears acceptably. No huge difference over the past 6k miles.
You're going to "wander" or "track" on the highway a bit with a more track oriented alignment. I can't remember if it's toe or camber that does it, but I *think* it's camber.
However, it looks like they pulled specs from base/z51 cars, such as FE2,4, etc. Below is a screen shot for the 2016 model year.
From your pic in the first post, it seems FE6 or 7 would be for your car.
The tolerances on their report reflect the spec values shown below for the FE1-4, as noted on their report.
Check your car to see what suspension code is yours.
However, in any case, you have CONSISTENCY among the wheels, which was definitely missing before.
The FE1-4 settings are good street/track combinations and may have better tire wear. You may prefer the FE6/7 version if that is what your car is supposed to have.
Update w the alignment spec from a different shop
will need to do some driving to see results. He said it was a total mess as well
Big improvement. I would have went closer to zero on the camber settings, especially since your complaint was the car wouldn't hold a line at speed, but this is much better.
From: The line waiting to see Santa Claus stretched all the way back to Terre Haute, and I was at the end, Indiana
St. Jude Donor '08-'09-'10-'11-'12-'13-'14-'15-'16-'17-'18
I picked up my '17 GS in October and haven't had much on road time, but at 15k, I'm noticing some uneven wear. I plan to have it aligned in the next few weeks. I had my '12 GS aligned to "street" specs at about 4k, and I can tell you that the car handled MUCH better and I got good life from the tires afterward.
Guys I am still having a swirving front end, I really don’t know what it could be now. I’m debating on changing the front tires out now, could it be something else ?
Do you have a buddy with a Z06 or GS you could switch wheels with for a few hours? That could eliminate/confirm wheel or tire problems.
Using non-standard wheels & tires sometimes causes weird handling problems.
Do you have a buddy with a Z06 or GS you could switch wheels with for a few hours? That could eliminate/confirm wheel or tire problems.
Using non-standard wheels & tires sometimes causes weird handling problems.
thats a good idea 💡. I actually do have a friend with a GS I can maybe borrow the wheels for a few miles or
test drive
I’ve read that some people issue something with the steering rack which causes the front end to wonder around. I think my vin has the power steering loss recall but I’m not loosing power steering. I’m going to switch the wheels and tires and try the OEM spec. I never had this issue when I first installed these tires and I’ve gone through a few sets
i wonder if the steering rack in internally going bad
Last edited by ArnoldZO6; Mar 26, 2019 at 10:55 AM.
If you re-read the last paragraph of post #6, you'll see that the C7 has adjustable rear caster that requires special tools to measure and set, and can't be measured on an alignment rack. Find a dealer or Corvette specialty shop that has the tools and knowledge to check/set rear caster.
I suspect your problem is more likely related to the non-standard wheels & tires, but getting that rear caster checked is worth while either way.
C7 alignment help !?
