Day & Night Better

bigdog1250

So back on black Friday I bought myself a bunch of goodies for the Z:

- SPL camber arms
- White line sway bars
- White line rear end links
- SPC toe bolts
- 25 row oil cooler

And didn't get around to installing them until mid December. I ended up not putting in the toe bolts because I was running low on time and needed my car finished right away. Mind you I was doing this in my parent's garage which is an hour away from where I live, so I had to mind their time.

Long story short, after the install I knew I had to get the car realigned so I booked one at a local shop the next week. I drove home in the car (40 miles) and while it felt different, it wasn't good. I knew the toe must have been pretty off as it was very uneasy over bumps. On smooth pavement it was fine though.

I brought it into the shop the next week only to find out their hunter machine was broken, so they'd have to try and do it by hand (gave me a major discount). I thought i'd might as well get it closer to spec before I could do a proper alignment with a functional, laser hunter machine. They went through the suspension parts I installed to make sure they all looked good and did help correct the toe a bit, but not by much since we tried to eliminate as much camber as possible first. Should have done something more balanced thinking back.

So again I drove home and the car still felt sketchy on bumps and was unnerving. I was starting to think the sway bars weren't worth my $ or time. I wasn't able to schedule another alignment until just yesterday. I only drive on the weekends for fun, so it wasn't a priority rush item for me.

I finally brought the car in, the reduced the rear camber from -2.6 to -2.0 (I'm dropped on Swfts which is why there is so much camber) and were able to bring the toe back into spec without having to install the new toe bolts....

MAN fixing the toe made my car an entirely new beast. This thing is amazing now! I spent 2 hours after the alignment just attacking random mountain roads and it was glorious.

Moral of the story: get your alignment done right, right away! Toe will **** **** up.


Thanks for reading

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350z / 40th 370z / C6 Z06 / BMW M4 / V10 R8 / C7 Grand Spot / 997.1 GT3 / S2K / Camaro ZL1 / 718 GTS / 991.2 GT3

kenchan

yah, alignment is critical for suspension setup.

DarkJak

I remember when I installed swifts on my car. Going to the shop was the sketchiest drive every. The rear would keep swerving around, like really bad tramlining or minor hydroplaning. But jerky. Sure enough the toe was out by quite a bit.

Have you played with the whiteline stiffnesses much? Just wondering how much of a difference that makes with Swifts.

bigdog1250

I haven't played with the settings yet, I'm on soft front (20% stiffer) and medium rear. Feels great right now, I'll drive on these settings for a while to see how I Iike them. Likely wouldn't need stiffer unless on the track which I'll be doing in Spring

__________________
350z / 40th 370z / C6 Z06 / BMW M4 / V10 R8 / C7 Grand Spot / 997.1 GT3 / S2K / Camaro ZL1 / 718 GTS / 991.2 GT3

GrooveStyle

Sounds awesome, I'd love to do this this coming spring!

Zoren 370

whats numbers did you get in adjusting your Toe? Frnt and Rear?
I do have the swift but I havn't installed my whiteline.
Is it a big difference with the whiteline vs the OE sways?

bigdog1250

Sways don't effect your toe, my new camber arms did. The difference is that the whitelines are stiffer, but it's a useable stiffness. A lot of people on here think they are the best track/street bar available for the Z. I know the front is 20% stiff just on the soft setting, I forget what the hard setting brings it up to.

Other bars like hotchkis are too stiff for the road and actually take away some grip since the car can't flex enough.

__________________
350z / 40th 370z / C6 Z06 / BMW M4 / V10 R8 / C7 Grand Spot / 997.1 GT3 / S2K / Camaro ZL1 / 718 GTS / 991.2 GT3