Alignment After Steeda Springs/Dampers.....This Ain't Right

[Scooter MGee]

I had a set of Steeda Progressive springs, Pro-Action dampers, bumpstops and camber bolts installed today. I was told by the shop owner that he could not get the rear camber any better than -1.9 both sides. All required bushings were "clocked". He has suggested adjustable rear control arms. I have driven the car and it is rock solid and steady with no weird handling traits. Below is a shot of the current alignment. Is the alignment too wonky as it sits now or should I get the additional parts to correct the rear camber?

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[moffetts]

What is “better”? More or less camber? Rear camber is adjustable, but some shops either don’t know how to do it or don’t bother.

 

[kz]

Change the shop. I have -2.5 degree rear camber on standard rear suspension parts with only difference being Magnaride Handling Package springs installed (and stiffer bar but this isn't relevant).

But another question is why do you want more if you have -1.7 in the front ?

 

[Scooter MGee]

For aggressive street settings the rear is said to be set at -1.5 or so. The front should have a bit more camber than the rear, which I do not have at the moment. He said he had someone pry down on the rear suspension as he tried to set the camber. He stated that was the best he could get. The owner knows what he is doing. He warned me up front I would probably need the adjustable upper control arms to get the rear camber correct. Everything I had read here was no one had any issue getting the alignment right after installing Steeda progressive springs.

 

[Scooter MGee]

I don't want more negative camber in the rear. I asked the car to be set to -1.5 rear and -1.7 front

 

[kz]

For aggressive street settings the rear is said to be set at -1.5 or so. The front should have a bit more camber than the rear, which I do not have at the moment. He said he had someone pry down on the rear suspension as he tried to set the camber. He stated that was the best he could get. The owner knows what he is doing. He warned me up front I would probably need the adjustable upper control arms to get the rear camber correct. Everything I had read here was no one had any issue getting the alignment right after installing Steeda progressive springs.

Why do you think it's wrong though ? Rear is a bitch to set since toe and camber adjustment are dependent - only thing I see that's not right is you have more in the rear than in the front but that should be entirely doable. I am struggling to understand the problem - did the shop set too much rear camber vs. what you asked ? I am sure they haven't claimed they couldn't set it to a lower number.

 

[Scooter MGee]

I asked the rear to be set at -1.5 camber. I was told they could only get it back to -1.9. After the suspension install and before the alignment the rear camber was at -2.3 on the left and -2.0 on the right. The closest he could get the rear to -1.5 is -1.9.

The specs I asked for was as follows:

Front
-1.7 camber
0 toe

Rear
-1.5 camber
.12 toe/.24 total toe

This is strictly a daily driven street car. The shop owner said I would probably see inner tire wear with him not able to get the rear camber right.

 

[Scooter MGee]

Is the -1.9 in the rear acceptable for a street driven car tire wear wise? Should I bring it back in to add a bit more negative camber to the front?

 

[Troy Carter]

My car is lowered about 1" in the rear and I was easily able to get rear camber down to roughly 0.5deg with stock parts (drag setup). Did they actually know where the camber adjustment is on the car?

 

[myblkshadow19]

well I'll keep an eye on this as i am in between suspension mods or LTH's.

 

[SteedaTech]

I had a set of Steeda Progressive springs, Pro-Action dampers, bumpstops and camber bolts installed today. I was told by the shop owner that he could not get the rear camber any better than -1.9 both sides. All required bushings were "clocked". He has suggested adjustable rear control arms. I have driven the car and it is rock solid and steady with no weird handling traits. Below is a shot of the current alignment. Is the alignment too wonky as it sits now or should I get the additional parts to correct the rear camber?

Scooter, you can get 1.5 in the rear no problem. He needs to work a little harder at it. No adjustable arms needed.
Steeda Tech

 

[Bluemustang]

It could be right. I ran into an issue with the rear camber on one side where it would not go below yours. Verify that the mechanic understands how to adjust it properly and if so they could be right. Adjustable rear camber arms would fix you up.

 

[Norm Peterson]

It's at least possible that when the tech started adjusting the rear camber that the toe adjustment had been taken too far in one direction or the other originally, to suit a first cut at camber. When a significant amount of crosstalk exists between rear camber and rear toe, it's possible for the setting you're not adjusting yet to end up limiting how far you can take the one you are working on. In the usual alignment sequence - camber, then toe - I wouldn't be surprised to hear that the tech concluded that he'd flat run out of camber adjustment if to then adjust the toe started pulling camber the wrong way.

I think that at least, the alignment guy needed to center the toe adjustment before touching camber directly. Kind of what I recall from alignment discussions over on Camaro5/6 where a similar situation exists..

In the case of lowered cars, the toe setting might even have to be intentionally started offset the other way.

Can't hurt to suggest that the shop try this; the impression I get is that this isn't exactly common knowledge.


Norm

 

[Scooter MGee]

Good feedback from everyone, I appreciate it. I will be taking the car to another shop I feel comfortable with and have them give it a shot with this info in hand. No need for them to touch the front.

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