took my fd in to get an alignment today. running rs-r race springs.. ~1inch drop.

the shop had a hard time doing the alignment on the front LH.. here are the measurements, can someone tell me if the settings are okay? thanks

FRONT
--------

Camber L/R: -.7/-.3
Cross Camber: -.4
CASTER L/R: 8.6/7.6
Cross Caster: 1.1
TOE L/R: .03/.08
Total Toe: .11
SAI L/R: 14.0/13.5
Steer Ahead: -.02

REAR
-------

Camber: -1.1/-1.1
Toe: -.04/-.02
Total Toe: -.06
Thrust Angle -.01

 

and im running stock 16's on 245/45 tires.

pettit alignment specs since someone will probably want to post it:

 

Dude take them that setup sheet. They havent done it right. But by the looks of your caster there is something not right about the car, but i cant remember if caster is adjustable on these cars - i donmt think it is. IF not, car might have had an impact.

 

Caster is certainly adjustable, and is a bit high in this case.

I feel like a broken record in here sometimes. I constantly put forth the advice for people to take their cars to a REAL shop to get a proper alignment and they keep taking it to Joe Blows.

That alignment is crap. The tech was too lazy to match camber, toe, and caster up front, which is inexcusable!

Go to a REAL shop, get the Pettit Long Track settings for 16" wheels and be happy. Those settings work great for "aggressive" street use and occasional auto-x/track.

 

i had this done at firestone for the lifetime alignment program. the manager was cool about working on a lowered vehicle. he mentioned that his son had a miata that he used at the track and was always getting custom alignment settings done there. he was happy to do custom settings, although i explained i didn't have the information with me, so recommended that I bring it back some other time if i ever needed it set. the tech did spend a while trying to adjust the front to spec. another tech recommended i get camber plates for the front from racing beat, he owned a fb.. said the camber was off because my front was lowered too much?

 

sevensix,

I think what you just said illustrates rynbergs point about bringing it to a good alignment shop.

The FD doesn't need camber plates as it has a complete race car suspension. It has all of the hardware to adjust the camber. Again camber plates are not needed nor made for the FD.

Make them do it right or bring it to another shop.

 

i just called them up. explained it to them, i'll be going back soon and they said they'd take care of it. i'll b taking in the pettit alignment for long track as recommended

i have heard mixed things about firestone from some of my friends and also from forum members. i took the chance so if they can actually get the alignment done right, $140 for a lifetime's worth of alignments is great.

 

$140 for a lifetime's worth of SHITTY alignments is NOT great!

 

 

A Firestone shop with a smart/experienced alignment guy could be great. But if they are recommending camber plates on a car with a double wishbone suspension, you haven't found that Firestone. I am not sure that one exists.

My local Sears has actually done a reasonable job of alignments on my car a few times. But I had a Discount Tire do it recently and they missed the fact that my rear toe was adjustable (despite the can't-*******-miss-them turnbuckles) and gave me -2.2 degrees of camber to get the toe right. Next time I will take it to a real alignment shop.

-Max

 

I just went through this and boy was it frustrating. Some shops there range of setting on there machines database is almost twice what Mazda specifies, then you've got the "tech" who doesn't know or doesn't care to know, how to set the alignment to an exact setting. (Sir, if the bars on the computer screen are green, that means it right.") Long story short, I did some research and did my alignment myself. Just to be sure I did it properly, I took the car to a shop that was recommended to me by a circle track racer to have it checked. After they set there machine up, they said the left front camber was over 1/2 degree off from my settings. I told them I didn't think I could be that far off and there must be a problem with there machine, they wouldn't listen or offer to check there equipment. So I walk up to the car and immediately saw one of the bars in the wheel sender was bent, like it had been dropped. They did apolagize and told me they'ed call me when they got it fixed.
The moral of the story, you are going to have to shop around untill you can find someone that will work with you to get it right, or do it yourself. Thanks for letting me vent.

 

What equipment did you use to do your own alignment? It seems like there are many DIY tools out there, but it is always interesting to hear about people's experiences using them (or using their own home-built stuff). If you don't mind sharing, I'd love to hear about your experiences.

-Max

 

I made my own tools from stuff I had around the shop, I'm a building contractor so I've always got bits and pieces hanging around.

The alignment tool for camber and caster is some 3/4" aluminum channel and the module out of one of my levels. I can also check total toe with the same fixture on the opposite rim.

The turn plates are two pieces of acrylic with a thin layer of grease between them bolted to a piece of melamine. I had the same kind of thing under the back wheels but it was not bolted together. The whole thing was up on blocks that were carefully leveled and high enough for me to get under the car.

Toe was checked with mason line strung parallel with the car and a tape.

The actual alignment for camber and caster is suprisingly easy, once I got the math figured out for the caster. I found the toe the hardest to get right.