I got new tires today (Nitto Invo's) and was gandering at the factory Bridgestones and noticed the rear tires seemed cupped or feathered. So, I was wondering, when you get an alignment, what exactly is adjustable on the G35's? Can they adjust caster, camber and toe? It seems like most cars these days don't have many built-in adjustment capabilities. Does anybody know?

Thanks!

 

front toe is always adjustable, because tie rods.

other then that i haven't looked or paid attention.

 

Rear: Camber and Toe
Front: Toe

Caster is not an adjustable angle. At least, not with a wrench. A good curb smack could take care of that for you however...

 

how is rear camber adjusted? its not like the SPC kit where its similiar to a tie rod.

I think rear toe is done with es-centric bolt. the washer around the bolt makes toe adjustments. i could be wrong tho

 

rear camber is on an eccentric, just like rear toe. with the stock setup, you'll find camber is almost, if not fully maxed out. not much range to work with.

 

Here is a print out from one of my recent alignments. I have a stock suspension.

 

The front and rear toe can be adjusted as the others said, along with the rear camber (although very little).
The stock toe bolts both front and rear should be adjustable enough to get back into spec when lowering.
For the camber you'd need a camber kit unless you're willing to run some negative camber.
In reality, camber isn't what eats your tires up the most (although it does cause camber wear), the most important thing that should be in spec is the toe, as long as you adjust the toe back to spec you should be fine other than some camber wear.

 

I agree. Toe is the real killer for our cars. I went through my last set of tires way too fast. Now I have lifetime alignments at my local firestone and they keep it in spec. They do it while I'm having lunch. Since I can't rotate, I think it helps. Time will tell.

 

^+1
On my 04 I dialed toe out to 0.02 and it completely cured inside wear.
I just set my 08 to 0.00 after drop.

 

a small amount of toe is desired. hence the .00 to .08 range.

I am for .04

 

Did a search and found several alignment posts but not what I'm interested in.

Anybody else think it would be nice to have alignment info all in one place? Especially with some of us not able to do much tire rotation and lots of lowering.

I'm thinking:

best alignment settings for tire wear (sport, x and journey)
best alignment settings for stock handling (sport, X and journey)
best alignment settings for different aftermarket spring and wheel combos,
etc.

I'm just going to be flying blind on my first alignment (which i'm sure the new car will need at 22,000 miles) and will have to take the shop's computer values at middle of each range without any other experience to go on. Even though I'm sure I would prefer something different.

Anybody with spec sheets, post your numbers and the configuration of your vehicle (tires, size, lowering, springs, etc.) and how satisfied you are with the tire wear, handling performance, tracking, ease of driving, etc. If we get enough, maybe we can get it added to the DIY sticky or something?

Sorry if this is in the wrong section. Mods please feel free to move.

 

I actually just got an alignment today - I'll try to scan and post up the spec sheet

 

^ But this was not based on any alignment specs given correct? I mean you just took the computer's perceived correct values and adjusted that way right?

The idea of having and alignment thread I think is great, as I have no idea what alignment anything should be on the G. On my previous Car I adjusted and aligned nearly everything to specific specs (as tried out by fellow members)

 

There is no such thing as a "best alignment" for anything. It all comes down to how you drive your car, and what you want out of it. Add a little camber for cornering, lose a bit of straight line traction, etc... An aggressive driver will want a more aggressive alignment as opposed to someone who just likes to go cruising through the mountains. It's really all just personal preference. What someone can tell you is which direction to take for what you are looking for.

 

"What someone can tell you is which direction to take for what you are looking for. "

This is exactly what I'm hoping we can work out on this thread!

For example: I have a Toyota Tundra. It was determined by the members on the tundrasolutions.com board that the caster settings on the front should be maxed out for best highway stability of the truck. This is because the range of adjustment provided by the Toyota engineers was very narrow on the lower side. (The G settings are even more generous in this area, so you can imagine that a pickup truck could use a bit more caster range!)

So, if you decided, for example to just ask the alignment shop to set the caster to the middle of the range provided by the alignment machine computer, you really didn't the get alignment that was best driving on the highway. The same truck also had a tendency to shudder a bit if the total toe was off very much.

These are all very useful things to know going in the first time. I also learned from the same board that the best alignment machine is a Hunter machine. Now I know which shops in town have a Hunter and who knows how to use it correctly. Makes a world if difference in day to day driving!

Sure, you can always change your mind later but I think it's useful to know where to start or what direction to head for a certain type of performance you want to achieve.

When I get back to Kansas, I'll post up my first alignment specs and we can compare notes. Meanwhile, anybody else have spec sheets you can load up?