Spring Installation Question #20020
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yes.
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I would have it checked for sure. It's cheaper than a set of tires.
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my yokohamas have feathered since my lowering.
contrary to popular belief, there is a camber adjustment, but a slight negative camber isnt necessarily a bad thing, nor will it necessarily eat your tires noticeably faster. the toe is another story. lo bux came by the other day and i mentioned to him what was happening. toe. so, yeah, i guess in my case a trip to the alignment rack at radial tire is in order.
contrary to popular belief, there is a camber adjustment, but a slight negative camber isnt necessarily a bad thing, nor will it necessarily eat your tires noticeably faster. the toe is another story. lo bux came by the other day and i mentioned to him what was happening. toe. so, yeah, i guess in my case a trip to the alignment rack at radial tire is in order.
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To add to Damon's post, when you lower the car, more than camber is affected. The geometry is designed to change camber and toe as the car rolls from side to side, so lowering can impact both camber and toe (sometimes even caster depending on how the geometry is set up, and McPherson suspensions can be affected in all three ways).
There's a lot that goes into engineering suspension, and you can't just change ride height and expect everything to be OK, especially if you are a performance oriented driver. Autocross and road race both have specialized alignment requirements, even drag racing can benefit from a custom alignment.
There are entire volumes devoted to suspension optimization for motorsports. I've read a few of them, and it is a combination of art and science. It's not simple at all.
There's a lot that goes into engineering suspension, and you can't just change ride height and expect everything to be OK, especially if you are a performance oriented driver. Autocross and road race both have specialized alignment requirements, even drag racing can benefit from a custom alignment.
There are entire volumes devoted to suspension optimization for motorsports. I've read a few of them, and it is a combination of art and science. It's not simple at all.
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Yes, you will need an alignment. Those who say no are basing their answer on how the car feels or perceived tire wear and not on hard data. If you need to save a few bucks (it cost me $59) then drive it as is, the "misalignment" is not serious and you probably wouldn't feel the difference. The tire wear issues won't show themselves for some time because it's a slow process.
HERE is a copy of my alignment printout. My car had 450 miles on it when I installed the springs. It's safe to assume that the manufacturer properly aligned the car when he shipped it to the dealer, so the misalignment you see here is due to the spring install. Also, you should read the alignment procedure for the tC (see Zoltiz' site), you will see that the bolts, and their designation, have an influence on the alignment. You want to keep track of which bolt came out of which hole when it comes time to reassemble. My $.02
HERE is a copy of my alignment printout. My car had 450 miles on it when I installed the springs. It's safe to assume that the manufacturer properly aligned the car when he shipped it to the dealer, so the misalignment you see here is due to the spring install. Also, you should read the alignment procedure for the tC (see Zoltiz' site), you will see that the bolts, and their designation, have an influence on the alignment. You want to keep track of which bolt came out of which hole when it comes time to reassemble. My $.02
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A good for instance, my Supra wore out the inside edge of its rear tires in 6000 miles when the toe was set to factory spec. When I reduced the toe from 3mm to 1mm, I got over 20,000 miles on rear tires. It's easy to justify spending $100 on a good hand alignment (like Radial Tire Service does) when you increase the life of $550 worth of rear tires by a factor of more than 3.
The fronts were changed from -0.5 degrees camber to -1.0 degrees with the same toe. No change in wear patterns or service life at all, and significantly improved lateral grip from the increased negative camber. Balance is much closer to neutral now. I know LOTS of Supra owners running -1.5 degrees camber on all four corners without any wear issues.
I love good tires, but I hate the bill. A set of OEM sized tires for the Supra in '94 was $1200. The rears never lasted more than 24,000 miles. At least the tC isn't so pricey.
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It's a good idea and TRD recommends it.
Ken
Ken
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