Acceptable front camber difference
 

Hi-

I'm a noob when it comes to wheel alignment.

I did do a search before posting though -no joy.

What is the acceptable camber difference between left/right front?

I was in an accident and they had to replace almost all (all?) of the front right suspension.

Car drives fine but left front camber is -.3 and right front is -.9
Front toe is .08 and right is .1
Rear left camber is -1.7, right -1.8.
Rear left toe is .12, right is .15
Total rear toe is .27
There are no entries for front caster.

Please be kind/patient. Appreciate your comments. Thanks in advance.
Bill

Max camber delta per spec is .55*

Thanks-

Is the spec in the FSM or elsewhere?

Mgr when I picked up the car and when I looked quizzically at the sheet said it was the best that they could do.

I'll take it back for another alignment ... anything I should have them check, also how serious is .55 difference and mine (.6)??

TIA-
Bill

http://i576.photobucket.com/albums/s...alignment1.png

If you don't notice any issues with driving you are probably fine.

The 370 doesn't come with the ability to adjust front camber, so there's not a ton they can do (easily)

Thanks --rep'd

Acceptable front camber difference
 

Sorry OP, not trying to thread jack, but this seems similar In topic. I understand that going with more negative camber than specs will improve performance (but eat up your tires more) but at what point does it start to hinder performance, or is that a more complicated question involving the type of suspension etc. reason I ask, I'm trying to figure out if I need to get camber arms after swifts. I don't care if I'm out of spec as long as it's not adversely affecting performance. This is my current set up with swifts and adjusted as much as possible without getting new camber arms. http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/12/20/begase6e.jpg


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That's pretty typical for lowering on swifts, it's fine.

Camber really only wears tires if you spend most of your time in a straight line. If most of your driving is dynamic, you'll often see worse wear with a stock setup as the tires are rolling over and have very little contact patch mid corner (esp up front).

A camber kit wouldn't hurt but it's certainly not essential.

Well, the tradeoff is if you add a ton of negative camber to get perfect traction when the car is laid over in a hard corner, your straight-line grip in the front goes down. I suppose rolling evenly down the road or accelerating in a straight line this doesn't matter too much (aside from tire wear issues), but where it will matter is straight-line braking performance. In that scenario you're headed straight, but you're mostly using front tire grip to slow the car down, and you just won't have as much of it with the outer edges lifted out. Suspension compression under braking load may push the camber out flatter (I'm not sure), but it certainly won't totally correct the problem.

One of the ways you can ease (but not eliminate) the tradeoff is by trading some static negative camber for increased caster (caster being the way the forks lean backwards on an old-school chopper type motorcycle). Caster doesn't do anything to camber in a straight line, but makes the car tend to add more dynamic camber while in a corner. So maybe (random made-up numbers here) if you ideally wanted -4.0 camber in the corner, but that's too much for your straight line braking, maybe you can go -2.5 or -3 on the static camber and add a degree or two of caster so that it still pushes out to the same level as a static setting of 4 in the corner.

There's a tradeoff with caster, too, though. As you get the caster more aggressive, the car resists turning in more - the steering feels (and is) heavier and less responsive.

wat's your thrust angle? that can't be driving straight unless your frame was twisted/bent/folded in half? :icon17:

All true, but 1.7* of camber is no where near the point where you start to get worried about that behavior. Nor is caster adjustable in this scenario.

Thanks Ken for responding-

Just got off the phone with the body shop ... car is going in on Thursday.

I expressed concern about the front delta camber as well as the incomplete measurements. The attached form, in an atypical format from what I normally see here, is what I received from the body shop.

Car tracks straight, no problem. Car does not pull on braking.

Comments are appreciated.

They have a dated system for doing alignments. I am slightly concerned about the math being done on front camber delta:icon17:

A thrust angle of .02 is likely not noticable for the type of driving it sounds like you do. It's not ideal, but also not notably problematic. You can make a stink and demand a "fix" or be happy with the car as is, neither option is "wrong." Some of that decision may be made based on how well dealing with insurance has been going and whether you want your car back now.

I would ask them in which world ".9 - .3 = .5 though":icon17:

i usually like to keep my camber within 0.2 and toe even. unless the tech notices my car is dog tracking, then he can adjust the toe a little bit to get the thrust angle at or near 0.

also, who knows when that alignment rack was last caliberated... if it drives fine for you, and dont see weird tire wear, that's wat it all matters at the end.

Oh I agree, I was just running off in left field on the tangentially raised question:

I'm just clarifying for those that may not realize that. I know you know:tup:

red_zed- :shakes head: go setup your camber on your bicyle.


:icon17:

I tried but it messes with my derailleur

My driving: Mostly around town, within speed limits but slightly aggressive on acceleration and in turns. Occassional "spirited" driving on back roads. About what you would expect from a chronological 65 year old but with Bob Durant courses way back. Other cars were 5 Z's, starting with '77 280Z, NSX, considerably more expensive sports cars, and high performance (?) sedans like the BMW 54o series, Audi A6 4.2L, numerous Lexus including my last car an IS350 which I traded in (5200 miles) when I passed a Nissan dealership and asked myself "why not". Always loved the Z car (only missed the 350 series)

For my style of driving, how would you set up the car?

I LOVE this car. Like all cars, it has its idiosyncrasies. The oversize mirrors for the vertically challenged particularly at acute angled intersections is certainly one and was a strong contributory factor in my accident. NEVER, EVER saw him until I hit his left rear tire (F150). Low speed impact all on front right. It took forever for the front bumper (torn off car) to land. Funny, almost. My fault clearly. Shook me up a bit for quite awhile as I no longer trusted my eyes/brain. The car WASN'T there until it was. Only my third accident in 45 years. Oddly enough, my car for the first time hesitated from the stop sign. The ONLY time it has done this. If it hadn't, I would have been t-boned and you wouldn't be reading this.

Anyway, depending on the angle of the intersection and the relative speed of the cars, it is possible for a car to hide in the c-pillar blind spot (multiple glances/looks) as you approach the intersection. When your eyes rotate to the front preparing to stop, a car can sneak by the passenger window. Then in the final look, the car is now obscured by the passenger mirror. I went, and you have the alignment results.

I post the above as a caution to all Z owners, although close calls have been reported here before.

Still love the car. Thinking about Swifts next.
Bill

We had a thread on mirror adjustments once a long time ago. If you switch over to a different way of adjusting/using your mirrors, you can eliminate the blindspots in the nearby lanes. It takes some getting used to, but it's basically this style of adjustment: How to Set Rear . When you do it that way, even on the Z, a car passing you on either side is always visible as they move from rearview to side mirror to visible through the window directly.

The downside you have to pay attention to is that there's a new blindspot behind you a little and 2 lanes over. So under this setup, don't trust your mirrors for a full 2-lane change. Re-check after a lane if you haven't looked manually.

I was not referring to mirror adjustment. I was referring to the blind spot created by the design of the A-pillar and the close proximity of the over-sized passenger mirror. If your eye height is low enough, a substantial blind spot is created by the combination of these two items. This has been documented before many times on these forums. If you are tall, this potential blind spot is less significant as you can more easily see over the mirror.

No, I get the oversized mirror to the front thing, I was referring to "it is possible for a car to hide in the c-pillar blind spot" - if you adjust the mirrors differently, it isn't.

just get the CS mirror and both issues are cured.


but new issue... whole in wallet. :ugh: