Alignment Numbers

[Norm Peterson]

Once again, my recommendation is basically manufacturer's specs, it's precisely in the middle of Ford's range. You want to say that choosing a Mustang wasn't the best choice because I'm recommending the center of Ford's specs??...that's laughable. It still handles great during corning. And btw...I never made a claim that camber alone actually wears tires. However, it's common sense that it'll wear on the insides over time. I did claim that too much camber will cause wearing on the insides as apposed to outsides.

Which is true if as an overall average your driving is too mild (too Camry-like/too minivan-like?) for some specific camber setting.

So my opinion is "too much" isn't great because what i experienced. You'll have half tread life left on the outsides while the insides will be bald. That is a fact that the tire will wear like that. This is why i said too much isn't good, that's my opinion and what i experienced.

Try to understand that while "too much" applies individually, it has no absolute definition here. Not even with Ford's preferred numbers as a basis. So unless you know for solid fact that somebody else's driving is very comparable to your own, there is zero guarantee that alignment settings that are as mild as what you prefer are going to be much good for another Mustang owner. Like for OP here in this thread, who you advised to go straight to Ford's factory-preferred settings with no further explanation. That's no better than the alignment tech who stops adjusting things the instant the last number just barely goes green.

If you understood alignment as well as you think you do, you'd at least provide some sort of caveat. Something like "-0.7° has been working for me. You may want to try something closer to that, keeping in mind that your driving may need cambers that are more negative camber than I prefer", as opposed to "This is NOT okay" with a blinders-on call to "adjust the front camber to -0.7 on each side".

As for the value of random testimonials at the online mass-marketer sites . . . chances are that many of the respondents there know even less about alignment than you do. Never mind that what got any of them to buy any sort of camber correction may never be known.


Norm

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[Elp_jc]

Everything is a compromise. I like pushing my sports cars in the corners... but I probably can do that in maybe 10% of the miles I have to drive it (live in the freaking desert, which doesn't help). If I adjust my camber to fully enjoy those 10% of miles, I'd destroy my tires way earlier than they have to. So you have to draw the line at an acceptable compromise. Having said that, I don't know what my Bullitt has right now, but it corners better than I expected, so I'm happy with whatever settings it has. We'll have to see how my tires wear, but I can clearly see the rear ones have very aggressive camber, so probably closer to -2 than -1.5, which is the base number. I think the front ones should be around -1.2. With a stagger, we can't rotate them, so what I'll do is wear my tires the way they are now, and when it's time to replace them, check how they wore, and decide if I need to change alignment, and by how much. That's probably the best way to deal with it, especially for us street drivers.

 

[Elp_jc]

I'm really curious how much my car has, but not going to take it to a shop now just to find out. It might have more than -1.2 at the front, since it feels quite good, and that's why I saw no need to mess with it. Car feels quite stable, and tracks straight, and live in a crappy city with no good shops around, so even less inclined to mess with it. Curious what other Bullitts have from the factory, to have an idea, but with the wild factory tolerance, 2 identical cars could be quite different, although I don't think that's the case. If there is a recommended cheap tool to measure camber, I'd get it .

 

[K4fxd]

Most places will put it on the rack and tell you what you're at, at no charge. At least then you can make an informative decision as to whether you need to change things or not.

Stay away from the lights green places even if they give you the initial numbers.

Win align is the worst thing to happen to performance driving since the CAFE standards

 

[Norm Peterson]

I'm really curious how much my car has, but not going to take it to a shop now just to find out. It might have more than -1.2 at the front, since it feels quite good, and that's why I saw no need to mess with it. Car feels quite stable, and tracks straight, and live in a crappy city with no good shops around, so even less inclined to mess with it. Curious what other Bullitts have from the factory, to have an idea, but with the wild factory tolerance, 2 identical cars could be quite different, although I don't think that's the case. If there is a recommended cheap tool to measure camber, I'd get it .

How curious?
This curious, under $50 for something you'll most likely use more than once and maybe for other things besides this?

That, and the right wrenches is all you need for setting camber yourself. Any resulting toe change can be measured using parallel strings and a small scale.


Norm

 

[Elp_jc]

But you need a perfectly flat floor. Since my car feels great now, will wait until either that changes, or need new tires. Then once I learned the current settings, depending on tire wear, we can modify it accordingly. Remember I don't have any shops I trust here, so not going to bother. The last time I check alignment here was on supposedly the best machine in town, and they managed to scrape both wheels and spoiler on the new Nissan GTR, but I had to do it to keep warranty.

 

[Norm Peterson]

But you need a perfectly flat floor.

There are ways to determine flatness, and ways to correct out-of-flatness / out-of-level. Or you could measure the out-of-flat / out-of-level and account for the "out-of's" as corrections to your actual car measurements.

Since my car feels great now, will wait until either that changes, or need new tires. Then once I learned the current settings, depending on tire wear, we can modify it accordingly. Remember I don't have any shops I trust here, so not going to bother. The last time I check alignment here was on supposedly the best machine in town, and they managed to scrape both wheels and spoiler on the new Nissan GTR, but I had to do it to keep warranty.

There's no reason you can't make the best measurements you can, noting where you set the car's wheels. When I first started to do my own alignments back in the early 1980's, I was using this because nothing better was readily available.

Norm

 

[Excelerater]

here is where I ended up after doing an entire new suspension under my 2015
I added sways,shocks and struts,endlinks,caster camber plates cradle lockout
and a few other odds and ends

 

[Bear380spin]

Hello I was wondering if my aligment was done properly? I feel like they left too much negative camber.
It would be a huge help.
I have eibach lowering spring and maximum Motorsport camberplates this car is only daily driven.

 

[bnightstar]

Hello I was wondering if my aligment was done properly? I feel like they left too much negative camber.
It would be a huge help.
I have eibach lowering spring and maximum Motorsport camberplates this car is only daily driven.

If is for a street car that is a lot of front camber that's why the setting is marked in red. Especially since they fixed your rear camber and made it 0.8. Ideally you want around -1.25 camber all around for the street.

 

[Bear380spin]

Thank you. It was odd they couldn’t fix it because I had camber plates so I thought it would have fix it.

 

[bnightstar]

Thank you. It was odd they couldn’t fix it because I had camber plates so I thought it would have fix it.

Besides camber plates there is an adjustment for camber at the struts base with an bolt maybe yours are on a wrong alignment point and that is limiting how much your camber plates can help. But still if camber plates are installed correctly you should be able to get factory specs. Overall I suggest you look for a different alignment shop preferably one that specialise in Mustangs.

 

[Bear380spin]

the aligment shop mention something about a bolt but they said that aligment was good but it seemed sketchy. Imma go to a different aligment and see what they can tell me. Thank you for your help.

 

[Ewheels]

the aligment shop mention something about a bolt but they said that aligment was good but it seemed sketchy. Imma go to a different aligment and see what they can tell me. Thank you for your help.

I bet that shop only did adjustments from under the car (like normal cars) and didn't touch the strut mount at all. You just need to tell them they need to loosen the strut mount and adjust front camber from under the hood.

 

[K4fxd]

If you push the car that camber is fine. It's toe that wears out tires.

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