Nithmo

Ok, hold on... I had to put the arms in and set them so that I could drive to the alignment shop. I couldn't pay a shop to install arms that I can readily do myself. It's like 2-3 bolts per arm- not exactly difficult. There's a number of users on here who must have bottomless bank accounts, judging by how much they dump into their cars. I unfortunately don't have the same opportunities. Seriously, I wish I did. I'm kind of sad I don't I guess the other part of it is... stuff is way more expensive north of the border than it is south... I'd be paying a shop $150/hr to put those things in.

I went with the Z1 arms.. FUCA, RCA and RTA... I'm sure some of you will say I didn't spend enough on getting the greatest suspension pieces out there (SPL), but again, they are complete overkill for my purposes. I wanted to lower my car an inch, and as such, I'm now expected to pay over 2k [CDN] in suspension pieces just to make it work just for SPL? I dunno, that's a bit crazy. The Z1 kit is cheap and they're basic arms that expand and contract. They look very well engineered and come at a reasonable price. As mentioned, I also do not want solid bushings. I've ridden on them before and seeing as I have my wife in this car, I still want some no-rattles, no-harshness, no-additional NVH, at least for her sake.

Ok, now moving forward- the mistake I made was in thinking that the traction arms were for adjusting toe. That's at least how Z1 markets the "whole kit". Or so I suspected. What I failed to realize that as already mentioned, it was the toe bolts that just needed to be adjusted. As soon as I realized that, I was able to get my rear toe to a much more natural state.

Anyway... I took the car for an alignment yesterday and everything is perfect in the back now. Everything is on point. The front is a different story. They adjusted the toe up front (I believe), but left the camber/caster because they ran out of time and didn't want to start separating ball joints, etc. in the limited time they had.

That being said, my camber isn't bad. It's actually in spec (at least at each corner). But, my caster is way out to lunch now. I'm thinking of booking myself in for another alignment for just the front, to get it perfect. I know they can get the camber a bit better (I think it was out by just over 0.5 degrees from left to right... something like -0.86L and -1.38R), but the caster is out several degrees.

Is this normal? I've noticed my front sway bar squeaking more at the rubber bushing points- I've read guys just slap some Teflon lube in there and it goes away.. but I think it's pointing to a bigger issue- if the caster wasn't out by so much, that squeak would likely not be there. The guy at the alignment shop was saying he would have to remove the FUCA in their entirety and fiddle with them to get everything in spec... I was hoping they would just separate the FUCA at the ball joint and that's it.

Anyway, long story short:
1. I thought the RTAs were used for adjusting toe... which is not the case. Lesson learned

2. Everything is back in spec in the back. I didn't even have to drill out the holes for the SPC toe bolts in the back.. didn't even need them due to the modest drop. I'm glad, to be honest... stuff seems to rust rather quickly in these parts... I'm always wary in exposing metal, even if recoating it again.

3. Front caster is way out to lunch. Is it possible to get it in spec again, or is it a product of lowering a vehicle? If so, I will book my car in again to have the front properly dealt with.

4. No one died. And before I went on any open roads, I made sure the car was safe enough to drive by doing some test runs around my home (20mph in some areas).. and then even so, it was a direct drive to the alignment shop before anything else.