Just got back from the dragstrip and disappointed
03-26-2019, 10:23 PM
#41
Racer
Thread Starter
odds are the dealer does not have it.
If they do have it, the next problem you will run into is the factory specs are wrong to begin with... even when set properly. (for clarification, your car is not at factory spec, your car is going to be crooked is my belief. Once they straighten it to factory specs, it is still not right)
A guy here on the forum DSC Sport is a guy by the name of Mike, and he is extremely sharp. He hated the way these cars handle and he races professionally. He then realized the factory caster is inverse of what it should be (and there in lies more of the problem is some people think positive means one way, and others think positive means the way others think is negative)
So CAN you get the dealer to do it under warranty? Maybe.
Will they do it right? No, in my opinion, but i could be wrong.
Actual spacers have to be removed from the upper control arms, so that the control arms geometry is changed.
There are long threads about it here on this forum, but i can tell you, with 100% certainty, as soon as i had it done to my car, it was as if i put drag radials on my car. It just hooks now.
Your best bet is to find a shop who already has the tool instead of beg one to obtain the tool.
Those who already have the tool will be more likely to know what they are doing.
If they do have it, the next problem you will run into is the factory specs are wrong to begin with... even when set properly. (for clarification, your car is not at factory spec, your car is going to be crooked is my belief. Once they straighten it to factory specs, it is still not right)
A guy here on the forum DSC Sport is a guy by the name of Mike, and he is extremely sharp. He hated the way these cars handle and he races professionally. He then realized the factory caster is inverse of what it should be (and there in lies more of the problem is some people think positive means one way, and others think positive means the way others think is negative)
So CAN you get the dealer to do it under warranty? Maybe.
Will they do it right? No, in my opinion, but i could be wrong.
Actual spacers have to be removed from the upper control arms, so that the control arms geometry is changed.
There are long threads about it here on this forum, but i can tell you, with 100% certainty, as soon as i had it done to my car, it was as if i put drag radials on my car. It just hooks now.
Your best bet is to find a shop who already has the tool instead of beg one to obtain the tool.
Those who already have the tool will be more likely to know what they are doing.
03-26-2019, 10:28 PM
#42
dsc sport alignment for the rear caster of a c7... call shops and ask if they have the tool and know about it... if they dont say yes right away, they dont know about it.
it will cost 300 dollars and take them 3 or 4 hours to do it.
When its done, i might be your new favorite person here, because your car is going to handle like a mclaren compared to what it handles like now... it will corner much better and you can get on the gas a lot sooner.
Those granatelli bars for the rear make the job much easier, and once you have it set, if you are like me, you want to know how to do it yourself, and those granatelli bars make it easy for you to do it yourself.
Plus they keep the alignment from shifting when you hit bumps and stuff, more so than the stock bars and eccentrics do. The stock suspension does not allow the car to get to the dsc alignment specs sometimes, so sometimes you have to have the granatelli bars to get to that point of perfection.
IF it does not make you faster at the strip, i promise it will make you much faster in a curve, but .... its going to make you faster at the strip
Theres only so many variables to these cars, and i dont have DR tires, and i could beat you at the strip, so i know something with your alignment is off. Has to be.
it will cost 300 dollars and take them 3 or 4 hours to do it.
When its done, i might be your new favorite person here, because your car is going to handle like a mclaren compared to what it handles like now... it will corner much better and you can get on the gas a lot sooner.
Those granatelli bars for the rear make the job much easier, and once you have it set, if you are like me, you want to know how to do it yourself, and those granatelli bars make it easy for you to do it yourself.
Plus they keep the alignment from shifting when you hit bumps and stuff, more so than the stock bars and eccentrics do. The stock suspension does not allow the car to get to the dsc alignment specs sometimes, so sometimes you have to have the granatelli bars to get to that point of perfection.
IF it does not make you faster at the strip, i promise it will make you much faster in a curve, but .... its going to make you faster at the strip
Theres only so many variables to these cars, and i dont have DR tires, and i could beat you at the strip, so i know something with your alignment is off. Has to be.
Last edited by Mikec7z; 03-26-2019 at 10:51 PM.
03-26-2019, 10:32 PM
#43
https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...ervations.html
You dont need the controller chip... just the alignment will be night and day helpful.
After that, if you want to spend 1300 for the chip, go for it, has its benefits too, but the alignment is 8/10ths of it.
Also, have the shop who has the tool, take a picture of what your "before" readings are... just so that people here can see how these cars come from the factory. This is a serious issue when you think about it... its a shame more people don't bring it up and talk about it... it can cost someone their car and their life... its one of those "must do" mods.
Some cars leave the factory straight, so those people dont get what its like to drive a crooked car.
You dont need the controller chip... just the alignment will be night and day helpful.
After that, if you want to spend 1300 for the chip, go for it, has its benefits too, but the alignment is 8/10ths of it.
Also, have the shop who has the tool, take a picture of what your "before" readings are... just so that people here can see how these cars come from the factory. This is a serious issue when you think about it... its a shame more people don't bring it up and talk about it... it can cost someone their car and their life... its one of those "must do" mods.
Some cars leave the factory straight, so those people dont get what its like to drive a crooked car.
Last edited by Mikec7z; 03-26-2019 at 10:48 PM.
03-27-2019, 09:21 AM
#44
i guess everyone is going to boycott the reality that he needs to check his rear caster... because the cars dont pull sideways unless the rear caster is off, and when it is off, the cars dont hook up at all... which it sounds like what his problem is.
No one else is going to second this notion as likely being the main problem huh?
To the OP, you do realize no alignment shop can check the rear caster with their normal machines, it takes a special tool for our cars, which most dont have. So even if you've had an alignment done, your rear wheel caster can be insanely off, and no alignment shop will know, because most cars on this planet dont have rear caster adjustment capabilities.... so they dont know it can be off, so they don't check, nor do they have the tool to check if its off, nor do they know they need the tool to check if its off.
Find a shop who has the tool. I already told you, its not you, its the car, and if you think a DR tire is going to solve it all for you, and your caster is off, you could end up wrecking your car. I'm sorry none of the other guys want to second me on this, but its pretty important, not just for your ET's, but for your safety, and that's why i'm commenting a second time here.
No one else is going to second this notion as likely being the main problem huh?
To the OP, you do realize no alignment shop can check the rear caster with their normal machines, it takes a special tool for our cars, which most dont have. So even if you've had an alignment done, your rear wheel caster can be insanely off, and no alignment shop will know, because most cars on this planet dont have rear caster adjustment capabilities.... so they dont know it can be off, so they don't check, nor do they have the tool to check if its off, nor do they know they need the tool to check if its off.
Find a shop who has the tool. I already told you, its not you, its the car, and if you think a DR tire is going to solve it all for you, and your caster is off, you could end up wrecking your car. I'm sorry none of the other guys want to second me on this, but its pretty important, not just for your ET's, but for your safety, and that's why i'm commenting a second time here.
04-06-2019, 12:58 PM
#45
Burning Brakes
Op this maybe correct^^ i cant confirm because I have not got a alignment yet but I REALLY WANT IT! TIRED OF THE INNER WEAR ON THE TIRES, An even with my radial it will pull left when it spins (rarely but temps dictate that). I have DSC on my car forgot to mention it. My car still pulls left...or right when spinning (depends on the road I guess) but mainly left is what i noticed. I need to search for a good shop that can do it, if this car went straight when it did spin it would be much better!
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Mikec7z (04-06-2019)
04-06-2019, 01:31 PM
#46
MikeC7 is right! I got the alignment but since I don't run road courses, the tech decreased the amount of camber as opposed to the DSC recommendations of -1.2 degrees which is still a lil too much, imo for street/drag. On the street using street radials and launch control, the car stays straight on launch then it pulls out like a mule. It was easy to do, buying the end links is an option but not a must. One thing I will say is, If your rear camber was way off like mine was, we had to order some more washers from GM (20 count) and that took a couple of days. Good luck...
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Mikec7z (04-06-2019)
04-06-2019, 05:34 PM
#47
keep in mind, no alignment shop in their right mind is going to tell you the alignment is not perfect, because then its more time spent fixing your car.
Come to them with the rear bars, and youll be doing yourself and them a favor. Its easier to do the rear caster etc with those bars i linked above. They should not have had to add washers they should have been removing them on each side at the rear. Oh well. They did it the hard way
People on this forum dont realize how good these cars hook up when aligned right. I think if Tadge understood, he wouldn't have been so hell bent to make a mid engine car
Come to them with the rear bars, and youll be doing yourself and them a favor. Its easier to do the rear caster etc with those bars i linked above. They should not have had to add washers they should have been removing them on each side at the rear. Oh well. They did it the hard way
People on this forum dont realize how good these cars hook up when aligned right. I think if Tadge understood, he wouldn't have been so hell bent to make a mid engine car
Last edited by Mikec7z; 04-06-2019 at 05:35 PM.
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GhostBluZ06 (04-06-2019)
04-06-2019, 06:06 PM
#48
keep in mind, no alignment shop in their right mind is going to tell you the alignment is not perfect, because then its more time spent fixing your car.
Come to them with the rear bars, and youll be doing yourself and them a favor. Its easier to do the rear caster etc with those bars i linked above. They should not have had to add washers they should have been removing them on each side at the rear. Oh well. They did it the hard way
People on this forum dont realize how good these cars hook up when aligned right. I think if Tadge understood, he wouldn't have been so hell bent to make a mid engine car
Come to them with the rear bars, and youll be doing yourself and them a favor. Its easier to do the rear caster etc with those bars i linked above. They should not have had to add washers they should have been removing them on each side at the rear. Oh well. They did it the hard way
People on this forum dont realize how good these cars hook up when aligned right. I think if Tadge understood, he wouldn't have been so hell bent to make a mid engine car
04-06-2019, 09:58 PM
#50
odds of dealer having the tool AND doing it right are 5% and less than 1%
The bars are linked above in this thread somewhere
The bars are linked above in this thread somewhere
04-07-2019, 01:53 AM
#51
Burning Brakes
The same as the DSC except for the camber in which I think the tech did -0.5 instead of the -1.2 and left the others the same. Yes, the car is mostly straight. It'll go sideways a lil but that's normal and due to the amount of power these cars have. Can't wait to try out the Hoosiers.
04-07-2019, 02:02 AM
#52
The bars i linked earlier in thread allow all cars to be taken to the correct rear caster, and much easier than with the stock bars. So it will save time in the long haul.
If yours is already done, i would not worry about it for a year or so, but a year from now when you get the alignment done again, then i would bring the bars with you that i linked above.
04-07-2019, 02:06 AM
#53
Burning Brakes
keep in mind, no alignment shop in their right mind is going to tell you the alignment is not perfect, because then its more time spent fixing your car.
Come to them with the rear bars, and youll be doing yourself and them a favor. Its easier to do the rear caster etc with those bars i linked above. They should not have had to add washers they should have been removing them on each side at the rear. Oh well. They did it the hard way
People on this forum dont realize how good these cars hook up when aligned right. I think if Tadge understood, he wouldn't have been so hell bent to make a mid engine car
Come to them with the rear bars, and youll be doing yourself and them a favor. Its easier to do the rear caster etc with those bars i linked above. They should not have had to add washers they should have been removing them on each side at the rear. Oh well. They did it the hard way
People on this forum dont realize how good these cars hook up when aligned right. I think if Tadge understood, he wouldn't have been so hell bent to make a mid engine car
But you are correct as far as the car hooking up a lot better after an alignment.
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Harbgrogan (04-07-2019),
Mikec7z (04-07-2019)
04-07-2019, 02:13 AM
#54
at least there is a second person on the forum who agrees the rear alignment being checked is priority number 1... because if its off, it will cost you your car and maybe your life sooner or later... and you dont now how good it can be aligned until you try.
Anyway... as far as the bars go... did you watch their video? Theres more to it than just making it easier for the tech to align the car... they function better as well.
The changing of the spacer shims is necessary, but deleting one from the rear is what is supposed to be done, not adding another to the front, oh well. Better than it was im sure.
Its a must have mod IMO for people who actually corner at high speed. People who say they dont need them... are the same people who cant keep pace with me down an exit ramp, and arent willing to pull 1.1+ G the entire length of a curve on mpss on the street.
I promise if you told people they had to keep pace with myself or any of the racers here who can drive, and keep pace with them down the S curve in this video, and spike their G's past 1.25 lateral G at over 120mph... then they would make a big drama and get their cars all set up for this "event"
... well why not just get your car ready for it on the first day after you buy the thing, and now you are always good to go?
Instead, everyone is dumping money into a ported throttle body and CAI, and most of them cant drive that well to begin with, so by the time you run the equation out... all they are doing is adding 20HP to a car that already has more power than they know how to handle in a curve... so they are either letting go of the gas pedal because they are scared, or they have an extra 20hp to assist into spinning them into a telephone pole since they cant keep pace with cars that are aligned properly which may have 200hp less than they do. Brilliant!
Priorities of folks are amazing. Lets just leave a bunch of ?????'s on what the rear alignment is on my REAR WHEEL DRIVE 650hp/650tq supercar... especially after reading the DSC thread, and seeing most people admit their factory alignment was berserk... and now, 2 for 2 in this thread who took the time to check theirs, nah, i'm lucky and special, i think GM made my car perfect and only screwed up everyone elses, i bet the shims are already added/removed from my rear control arms, lets not see what my rear camber and caster alignment is... this is a fun gamble to take! Now im going to be responsible and go drive 160 
(so far, you are the one person who went and got it checked and reported back here that it helped... and for every 1 of you, there are 200 others who read this over and think they have more important things to do today and to spend their money on)
16 year old mentality "check out my CAI, i picked up 15, maybe even 40hp!!!, it set me back 600 dollars, but look, it has a cool skull on it!"
...thats their priority number 1
...Enough to make a logical person vomit
People deserve their bad days... its not an accident when it can be prevented. we are driving around in objects that can kill people and ourselves, And its like pulling teeth to get people to act intelligent sometimes. Couple more weeks of discussion here and a couple more will finally break down, and go check their cars rear caster too. Such a chore to make sure the 3500lb object that i drive at 140mph has its wheels on straight... hang on, my laziness is kicking in again... it would like to ask again "wont stickier rubber just make all of this crooked wheel stuff a moot point?"
Anyway... as far as the bars go... did you watch their video? Theres more to it than just making it easier for the tech to align the car... they function better as well.
The changing of the spacer shims is necessary, but deleting one from the rear is what is supposed to be done, not adding another to the front, oh well. Better than it was im sure.
Its a must have mod IMO for people who actually corner at high speed. People who say they dont need them... are the same people who cant keep pace with me down an exit ramp, and arent willing to pull 1.1+ G the entire length of a curve on mpss on the street.
I promise if you told people they had to keep pace with myself or any of the racers here who can drive, and keep pace with them down the S curve in this video, and spike their G's past 1.25 lateral G at over 120mph... then they would make a big drama and get their cars all set up for this "event"
... well why not just get your car ready for it on the first day after you buy the thing, and now you are always good to go?
Instead, everyone is dumping money into a ported throttle body and CAI, and most of them cant drive that well to begin with, so by the time you run the equation out... all they are doing is adding 20HP to a car that already has more power than they know how to handle in a curve... so they are either letting go of the gas pedal because they are scared, or they have an extra 20hp to assist into spinning them into a telephone pole since they cant keep pace with cars that are aligned properly which may have 200hp less than they do. Brilliant!
Priorities of folks are amazing. Lets just leave a bunch of ?????'s on what the rear alignment is on my REAR WHEEL DRIVE 650hp/650tq supercar... especially after reading the DSC thread, and seeing most people admit their factory alignment was berserk... and now, 2 for 2 in this thread who took the time to check theirs, nah, i'm lucky and special, i think GM made my car perfect and only screwed up everyone elses, i bet the shims are already added/removed from my rear control arms, lets not see what my rear camber and caster alignment is... this is a fun gamble to take! Now im going to be responsible and go drive 160
(so far, you are the one person who went and got it checked and reported back here that it helped... and for every 1 of you, there are 200 others who read this over and think they have more important things to do today and to spend their money on)
16 year old mentality "check out my CAI, i picked up 15, maybe even 40hp!!!, it set me back 600 dollars, but look, it has a cool skull on it!"
...thats their priority number 1
...Enough to make a logical person vomit
People deserve their bad days... its not an accident when it can be prevented. we are driving around in objects that can kill people and ourselves, And its like pulling teeth to get people to act intelligent sometimes. Couple more weeks of discussion here and a couple more will finally break down, and go check their cars rear caster too. Such a chore to make sure the 3500lb object that i drive at 140mph has its wheels on straight... hang on, my laziness is kicking in again... it would like to ask again "wont stickier rubber just make all of this crooked wheel stuff a moot point?"
Last edited by Mikec7z; 04-07-2019 at 03:38 AM.
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Harbgrogan (04-07-2019)
04-07-2019, 02:25 AM
#55
Burning Brakes
at least there is a second person on the forum who agrees the rear alignment being checked is priority number 1... because if its off, it will cost you your car and maybe your life sooner or later... and you dont now how good it can be aligned until you try.
Anyway... as far as the bars go... did you watch their video? Theres more to it than just making it easier for the tech to align the car... they function better as well.
The changing of the spacer shims is necessary, but deleting one from the rear is what is supposed to be done, not adding another to the front, oh well. Better than it was im sure.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIVQoXW_bJk
Its a must have mod IMO for people who actually corner at high speed.
Anyway... as far as the bars go... did you watch their video? Theres more to it than just making it easier for the tech to align the car... they function better as well.
The changing of the spacer shims is necessary, but deleting one from the rear is what is supposed to be done, not adding another to the front, oh well. Better than it was im sure.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIVQoXW_bJk
Its a must have mod IMO for people who actually corner at high speed.
Either way, it's perfect now, the rear tires are fully planted on the ground.
Last edited by GeorgeR_Zed06; 04-07-2019 at 02:28 AM.
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Mikec7z (04-07-2019)
04-07-2019, 02:37 AM
#56
what year is your car, and did you buy it new? Has it ever been aligned prior?
(im asking so the people can see that it was sent to you like this from the factory, or... they can see that the dealership aligned it wrong last time they touched it... but my guess is it was from the factory like it was)
(im asking so the people can see that it was sent to you like this from the factory, or... they can see that the dealership aligned it wrong last time they touched it... but my guess is it was from the factory like it was)
Last edited by Mikec7z; 04-07-2019 at 03:24 AM.
04-07-2019, 04:08 AM
#57
Burning Brakes
what year is your car, and did you buy it new? Has it ever been aligned prior?
(im asking so the people can see that it was sent to you like this from the factory, or... they can see that the dealership aligned it wrong last time they touched it... but my guess is it was from the factory like it was)
(im asking so the people can see that it was sent to you like this from the factory, or... they can see that the dealership aligned it wrong last time they touched it... but my guess is it was from the factory like it was)
Last edited by GeorgeR_Zed06; 04-07-2019 at 04:08 AM.
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Mikec7z (04-07-2019)
04-07-2019, 11:55 AM
#58
is yours a z07 or?
04-07-2019, 04:19 PM
#60
yeah, mpss tires should have lasted much longer. Thats a shame the alignment was that far off.