Steering wheel loose after suspension changes
 

As some of you know, i recently had a shop install swift springs, camber arms, spacers and do an alignment on my Z. Today i finally get to drive the car for a while but i feel the steering wheel a bit loose and not as responsive as before the install and alignment. I searched a bit through different sites and found that some possible culprits might be the caster being off, loose suspension parts or overinflated tires(which ill check tomorrow). Im also calling the shop and will probably take my car back on saturday so they can check things out, but in the meantime i would also like to get some input from the experts from the370z. What do you guys think?

Alignment would be my guess.

Thanks spooler! I hope so... :ugh2:

I forgot to mention, i know that the springs are still settling, but is that enough to affect alignment/steering feel so quickly? Service was done on saturday, i drove the car home that day and i hadnt driven it until today :confused:

I waited about a week for my springs to settle before I did my alignment. And yes it is enough to mess up the alignment.

:tiphat:

Thanks man, i didnt think id notice it so fast! I guess ill just have to wait for a few days before i take it back. Also going to talk to the shop about it, because if this is the cause, i dont know why they even bothered to align it in the first place, as i am not paying to realign it when i go back. :shakes head:

No you shouldn't need to pay them for re-alignment check or adjustment.

Do you have the alignment work sheet numbers that you can post so we can see how is your camber and toe numbers.

hey zoren, thanks for posting. no i dont have the alignment sheet unfortunately. to be fair with the shop ive never seen any shop give out this sheet in PR :shakes head:

but ill be calling them today to schedule the visit, and ill ask if they hand out the aligment sheet when i get the car realigned

the car is sensitive to ride height. chances are if your installer didn't align it, it would feel even worse today.

i would give it a week or two before you take the car in for re-alignment. :)
springs takes a few weeks/hundred miles to settle.

Thanks kenchan, ill just have to suck it for a while and see how the car feels after realignment. :tiphat:

Which brand of suspension parts are you using? I had the same thing happening when I tried using an inferior brand that had really soft bushings. I've since switch things to SPL, and back to OEM in front, night & day change. Toe becomes a bigger factor when lowered too. Zero front toe and a touch toe-in rear seems to be the most popular here and for me.

Swift springs
SPC rear camber arms
B2 autodesigns spacers 20mm F, 25mm R

So, when realigning i should ask for 0 toe up front and just a tad of toe in the back? Any idea how much? I apologize but i have very little knowledge on the subject. ill start searching and see what i find, but any input from you guys is appreciated.

Btw, car is a DD, sees very little track, i would like an alignment that improves the handling that came from stock but not as much as that it eats my tires up in a few months. :driving:

Bro! I hope you can resolve the issue haha! you never call be back yesterday... but i think you call me to consult this issue :p anyway like you said... here in PR the damn shops dont give you the alignment sheet :shakes head: Im going to align the car soon too soo im going to ask for the damn sheet to see my alignment specs.

I run "Dead Zero" front, not middle of the spec range. Some techs think that's zero, it's not.
Out back I run 1/32" "toe in" each side, making total rear "toe in" 1/16".

Try to get your rear camber around -1.75 . No camber adjustment up front if you have OEM A-arms.

Thanks norain! Ok, so in this case i should expect better handling than stock but not a lot more tire wear, right?

Camber wear is expected when you lower your car ride height but it would not as bad or fast when your toe is close to Zero degrees in front and a little toe in on the rear as Norain have stated.

Im running coilovers and the camber on my rear is -2.8 and -2.4 in front with 0.1xx toe

Awesome Zoren and thanks for the info... :tup: someone have to make a thread with the best alignment setup for our cars haha! im looking forward to see what alignment setup give to my Z:stirthepot:

Sweet Zoren, ill be sure to share ask the shop to align to these specs as suggested. :driving:

Hi Ps_Z

Want to share with you a suggestion from one of our forum member dpathfinder which helped alot with my alignment and made my Z really run very good. Read on and follow his suggestion.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Zoren 370
Hi

Im planning to change my wheels with size 19x9.5 and 19x11. I do have a 370Z plan to have Tein S springs also.
As you mentioned the front upper arm for the Z does not allow much camber adjustment.
With this type of set up do you think I need to have a camber kit bolt on in front and rear?
I do not track the car mainly on street driving with occasional wild driving.

Thanks for the input.

Dpathfinders response:

It all depends on what you want to do. If you need to bring the camber back to spec, the OEM front suspension will not allow you to adjust camber at all. The rear camber can be adusted to a certain degree in the back. With a 1.25" drop up front and a 1" drop in the rear, which is typical of most lowering springs (even Tein S, despite advertising a 3/4 " drop, my friend's drop seemed more like 1 to 1.25"), your camber will likely sit at around -1.6 to -1.9 up front and -2.4 to -2.8 in the rear. I was lowered on coilovers and I decided to get SPC camber kits front and rear to allow for freedom of adjusting my suspension as I wanted. For an aggressive street/occasional track setup, I ran the following specs: F = -2.2 camber, max castor, 0 toe, R = -2.0 camber, 0.15 deg toe in. The increased front camber actually improves turn-in response.

So, I would recommend that you allow the springs to settle first and then do a wheel alignment. If your front camber is fairly even left compared to right and if your camber is in the neighborhood of -1.6 to -2.0 then just leave it. I suspect your rear camber can be adjusted back to a maximum of -2.2 to -2.4 with the stock suspension pieces. That may cause a bit of uneven wear. Ideally, it should be somewhere between -1.5 to -1.9. So if that bugs you, you can get a rear camber kit.

Hope that helps out.

Thanks a lot for the info bro!

Peter... when do you are going to get the alignment complete bro? we can go together hahaha!!

Wouldn't lowering the car change the caster? If the caster becomes further away from 0 compared to the stock spec steering response will decrease. What is the stock spec and what did your alignment sheet say?

thanks again zoren! i do in fact have the spc rear camber kit, so adjustments can easily be made. up front is completely oem. ill be going back to the shop in about two weeks to let the springs settle, and ask for the specs suggested. lets hope they can also provide the alignment sheet this time

yes, lets do that. probably in two weeks, let me know if youre ok with that.

unfortunately the shop didnt provide it, but ill be asking for it, or the final specs, when i go back