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Had my car aligned at the stealership last week, $210. The service manager said this was the best he could get the caster set. He said it's probably due to my car being lower and or I may need to swap tires left to right? Does this sounds right?
It is hard to say without knowing how much adjustment range is available at the lower control arms after the car is lowered. To get less caster and to keep the same low camber settings the mechanic would have had to push the front of the lower control arm outward to increase negative camber and decrease positive caster. To offset the increase in negative camber the mechanic would then had to pull the rear of the lower control arm inward which would reduce negative camber and reduce positive caster. It is a balancing act between the two adjustments and can take time to get right. This is one of those things where you need to be there talking to the mechanic while they are doing the job so you can make sure you get as close to possible to what you want.
From the factory, the cars come with two shims behind each dog bone bolt on the upper control arm. Some mechanics will adjust the number of shims to correct issues if they can't get sufficient adjustment out of the lower control arms. However, doing that can get tricky and very time consuming due to how inaccessible the shims are.
I notice they didn't touch the rear alignment and didn't measure rear caster. You paid about twice the price of a dealer alignment in the Charlotte area.
The car won't want to turn away from straight ahead as easily as it would with a lower caster value. However, it isn't that much more and it will provide some additional negative camber gain when turning the car. Your real issue is you don't know what the rear caster value is. GM specs. 0 degrees plus/minus 0.8 degrees. I had my first track alignment set at a dealer shop that didn't have the rear caster measuring tools. When I was finally able to purchase my own tools to measure rear caster I found the driver's side rear caster to be +0.5 degrees and the passenger side to be -0.4 degrees. Sure it fell within the spec but I was able to get it so both sides read the same within the accuracy of the gauge I was using.
The car won't want to turn away from straight ahead as easily as it would with a lower caster value. However, it isn't that much more and it will provide some additional negative camber gain when turning the car. Your real issue is you don't know what the rear caster value is. GM specs. 0 degrees plus/minus 0.8 degrees. I had my first track alignment set at a dealer shop that didn't have the rear caster measuring tools. When I was finally able to purchase my own tools to measure rear caster I found the driver's side rear caster to be +0.5 degrees and the passenger side to be -0.4 degrees. Sure it fell within the spec but I was able to get it so both sides read the same within the accuracy of the gauge I was using.
Bill
Same here, the dealer does not have the tools to measure rear caster. I currently have a light pull to the right.
IMHO, a .2deg difference in caster isn't going to hurt a thing. It 'may' cause a slight drift to the right but road crown does that anyway so I doubt it will be a problem.
A little extra caster is not bad thing on the street especially when it’s equal like here. If your intent is track days that’s too much. I would be happy and drive it. As far as the price the guy did what he could to look out for you. Is that worth paying for someone to take their time and do it carefully? You paid for about 1.5 hours of a top tech’s time. Sounds good to me.
We do a few corvette and other sports car alignments at our Ford store Quick Lane. I have tools to measure the c7 rear caster. I tell the customer we will be slow and careful but it will be right. The job is done by the hour and not with an entry level tech. We tell them to expect a few hundred dollars. Knowing that up front no one has ever complained about the price.
Does This Alignment Look Right?
