Suspension and Tire help needed
 

I have a 2013 Base/Sport. Im in a bit of a predicament and need help. I will list my mods that I just installed and explain.

Nismo struts all around
H&R Springs
15mm H&R spacers front
20mm H&R spacers rear


I have 14k miles and needed new tires. With this suspension installed, I loved the car on my stock Bridgestones and thought it was great. However, my rear tires were already on their way out, so I had to replace them.

After some reasearch and a good ebay deal, I chose a pair of 285/35/19 Hankook Ventus Evo2's. The tires grip well, but now I have this unsettling crabwalk. Its as if im on slicks. I understand these are softer and have a softer sidewall then the OEM Bridgestones and could be the issue.

So heres where I am.
Do I find hankook evo2's for the front and hope that matching all 4 will make the car happy again or cut my losses and buy all 4 of something different?

New tires need to break in, don't drive hard for 500 miles or so. Also, get your alignment checked.

I did do an alignment. My toe was brought back to spec as was caster. The front is dropped and the camber is about 2.1, which is just out and the rear is 1.7 which should be just in spec.

you really shouldnt mix tires. the hankook's are directional, and the potenza's are non-directional. it doesnt make that big of a difference, but coupled with the fact that our cars are RWD, makes things really unsettling when you mix the tires that way. suck it up and buy new front tires.

also, yes, tires need to be worn in. give it a few hundred miles and see if it improves. if not, then you will definitely need new front tires that match

I do need new front tires anyhow, so im not upset about having to buy some. Just asking if I should stay with the hankooks I guess.

hankooks are cheap and get the job done. if you are just DD'ing your car they're more than enough! theyre grippy, relatively quiet, and last relatively long. so i hear anyway

I have BStone S04s on the front and Hankook Evo1s on the rear. The car feels planted and stable, rain or shine. If your alignment truly is close to spec, then something else is off. Have you, or anyone else messed with the sway bars?

You know, its funny you say that, cause I wondered the same. I havent touched the rear sway bar at all and crawled under my car today to check. The rear bar and endlinks seem to be fine. The front endlinks are part of the strut and were a pain to get off when I installed the suspension. Everything went back together fine though and the front sounds and feels great.

The reason I mention that, is that I blame improper sway bar installation for my accident. I had no rear traction, the car felt like I was sliding around, and I burnt through a set of rear tires in a month or so. Eventually, the car let go in the rain and I crashed.

When I installed my sways, I did it with the car in the air, which was recommended against in the guide. I didn't think it would matter. I was wrong. I have since adjusted my sways at ride height and all is well.

My issues didnt happen till I put on the hankooks, but I will certainly keep that in mind when I do eventually get sway bars.

What's your toe setting on the rear?

Get your toe settings to zero front with a touch toe in out back (1/16" total toe in is what worked for me). The OEM toe specs don't work too well when your lowered. OEM specs are toed out in the rear. I had the same issue after switching tires.

Front left to right

front toe. .07 and .09
rear toe. .12 and .16

all in spec per oem standard

Pretty sure you're toed out front and back. They should be able to get your numbers the same side to side too. Most racks read positive numbers as toe out. Toe out in the back had my car all over the place. The rear end would kinda snap out when cornering if I hit any change in road surface. Don't let the alignment guy use OEM specs to go by. They tend to center you up in the middle of spec numbers. Which puts you with way too much toe out. I went through this several times before I figured out what was happening. I was going to a regular auto service place for alignment, they don't get it. Find a race shop or someone that can think outside the box...
I'm running .0 toe in front and a touch toe in, in the back, -1/32 ea side. If you do some reading here you'll see most lowered cars run similar toe numbers.
Good luck:driving:

You can't adjust caster. You mean camber? Cause you can't adjust that either on the front.


What machine? Positive on a hunter is toe-in.

Sorry, you are correct. I was getting ahead of myself. Toe in the front was adjusted but camber and caster remained the same.

Not sure what type of machine was used. They threw it on a lift, put some reflectors on my rims and numbers popped up. Lol

So those are the correct numbers then? Both are positives? Is that in degrees?

Front toe is positive.
it says my steer ahead is -.01. Not familiar with that

rear toe is also positive. .12 and .16
total toe .27
says my thrust angle is -.02. Also not familiar with that

That might handle funny depending what that machine calls +/-.

I like slight toe-out in front and slight toe-in in the rear. If both yours are + then I hope you have toe-in. Toe-out in the rear isn't great.

Yup...:iagree: A touch toe out in the front turns in a little better. I was finding I got more tramming with the toe out up front. It's pretty crucial to have a touch toe in out back though. I'd almost be willing to bet, he's toed out on both. I went through this trying to get aligned at sears. They were the go to place for lowered cars in town because of the low rack they have. They kept setting me in the middle of the OEM spec numbers. Which ends up being toed out (the OEM specs are toed out to start with). The machines can be used 2 ways. With the OEM specs as the range on the monitor screen or from a true zero as the range... You want them to use true zero. The camber numbers pretty much read the same no matter how the machine is set. As I said before, the regular auto service places don't seem to get it. They are used to aligning SUV's mini vans, and pick ups. LOL.

The car seems to feel a little better after a few days, but def still not what I want. I do plan on replacing the front tires in the next few weeks. When I do that, I will install my rear camber arms and perhaps front camber arms as well. Then probably head to jacksonville to get it aligned at a pro shop

^^^There you go... Go ahead and put the front a arms on too. Unless you want to drive to J'ville again and pay for another alignment. The front's not very hard... It doesn't get outta whack as much either. The rear end gets weird easier when switching the camber arms. Did you get lock out bolts for where the camber arms connect to the chassis? You want to eliminate the eccentric bolt that's there now. it becomes redundant with an adjustable arm and can slip. It will be fine after a proper alignment. I was so frustrated when I was trying to get mine to drive right again. I was considering getting something else... She's good now.

New tires should not take 500 miles to break in. The only breaking in tires need is enough to scrub the mold release off the tire. This is a VERY thin layer of substance left over from the tire molding process. If your on dry pavement and going freeway speeds I wouldn't expect it would take more than 100miles.

well, if you're talking just removing at layer, yes... will only take a few miles tops.

but if you want the tire to break in to the car's alignment setting, then it depends how you drive. that can take a few hundred miles if the driver is pretty mild with his/her car.

my new RE11's were broken in within 5-10miles :stirthepot:

Tire Rack says 500 miles. I'll go with that, even if it is an overestimation.

Its more then just the tire in my case. The alignment has def thrown the car off as well.

Regardless, I have found a pair of front tires and will install them next week.

Need to find those lock out bolts as mentioned for my camber arms.

And heavily consider the front camber arms

yah, some tires last 40k miles.... lol for those rock tires, it might really take 500miles to break in properly with grandma driving.

Manufactures also say don't go over 4k rpm on a bike and take it easy on a new car. All are very wrong! Both need broke in hard and brake pads need set. A manufacture could never tell you these things though for liability reasons. Could you see our moms setting pads from 60-10-60-10 etc etc going WOT to almost a full 100% brake and back over and over till brake fade? People would be dying left and right and sue.

Finally installed the front tires amd it has made a world of difference. Car is neutral in cornering and no longer crabwalks when shifting. Lesson learned : do not mix and match tires on a 370z, it does not like it at all.


Full suspension mods are still coming together though. Missed out on a deal for front camber arms, so im still searching.