babber

Hi,

Had some new wheel bearings fitted at the weekend, and the hubs had to be removed apparently. As a result of this the cambers, etc have been moved from what power station had set them to.

The guy that did the bearings has a four wheel alignment equipment so I wondered if anyone knew what the settings should be?

Thanks in advance, Phill

Mo

Presuming you are running standard top mounts you should aim for as much EQUAL negative camber as possible on the front, somewhere just over 1 degree. If you are running adjustable top mounts then you have the choice to run much more although tyre wear will suffer as a result unless of course you car is more for fun than commuting

babber

Can you get adjustable top mounts for the backs? I have standard front and rear mounts BTW

Has anyone got all the figures, so I can give them to him please?

I just took the car out in the terrible weather up here in North Wales, and I so almost lost the car coming off the roundabout, and I wasn't really accelerating that hard..... It just goes to show, these settings really do work

Thanks Phill

Mo

All cars vary slightly so you have to ask the technician to dial in as much as possible on the front but to ensure that it is equal - sounds obvious but I have seen some bad printouts with one side running more camber than the other - you should also run a little toe-in, around 1mm per side.

If you can get it I like to run equal amounts of camber at the rear, the standard suspension will not allow you to run this much without some alteration. Camber bolts can be had for around £40 and will allow you to run around 1.5 degrees, or adjustable top mounts like those available from Noltec can be had to enable further adjustment; but they are a little more expensive. Again you should be running a little toe in at the rear to help keep things stable, perhaps a little more than the front.

Contact Mocom Racing they should be able to give you any advice you need on set-up.

Fuzz

What you doing up in North Wales Phil..
If it's a commute from Bristol then why not drop it into Powerstation and let them set it back up to what it should be?

Camber bolts are £25+vat by the way, a max of two needed as the front has them as standard.

Andy

babber

Fuzz,

I'm working in Conwy bay, and in Liverpool :rolleyes away all week. I leave Bristol early on Monday morning and arrive back late on Friday nights. Got the kids most of the weekend, so getting to Powerstation isn't an option at the moment. Anyway, I thought you had to make an appointment???

I had the car set-up about a year or so ago by Powerstation (along with four or was it three cambers bolts) and I have lost the data sheet I was given.

All I really need is the optimum settings for road use, so when I get home, my mechanic can check and set the cambers, as they were before.

My coilovers appear to have weak springs, so I wanted to replace the springs before I went back to Powerstation, for another re-alignment. Just trying to save a few quid

So can anyone just list the cambers, toe in, etc as per how powerstation normally set the car up to please?

Thanks in advance, Phill

PS I really want to avoid the type of incident that I had earlier, if at all possible. I'll drive back to Bristol very slowly on Friday night

Fuzz

I doubt very much you would have had 3-4 camber bolts...unless you twated something and the front end was bent beyond the ability of the standard camber bolts to adjust it out...

If it's an everyday car there's certainly no need to go mad with adjustable top mounts.
If you are going to be tracking it (not seen you out with the SZ lot on any of the trackdays lately??) then yes front top mounts would give you an advantage (more castor and dynamic camber) meaning you dont have to run so much static "tyre wearing" camber on the front.
No need on the rear as the camber bolts can increase to more than you will need !
(mine is running 2 degrees 18 minutes on the rear with just camber bolts for example !!!)

Being as I know you I would be prepared to take your car to work if you cant make it because of the hours??

What Coilovers have you got then? is it something PS could do all under one roof / at the same time??

I was wondering why you wanted the settings as it would have been on the printout you got when you were last here, but you've now explained why...


Oh yea one more thing ... has the bumpsteer mod been done already?

Andy

babber

Andy,

Thanks for the comprehensive reply

I've got AVO coilovers and over the past few months have noticed more and more, they sometimes seem to bottom out when I hit certain bumps in the road. I fitted a P1 splitter, following this I found I had to tip toe up and down inclines, etc in the road. When I visit my dad, I got to take my legacy, or leave the car at the bottom of the road, as I can't get up the drive....

A mechanic mate of mine had a look, as I was going to raise the height of the car, and told me it looks like the springs have gone weak, so raising the car was out the question. As it happens the coilovers are over a year old, so no question of getting them replaced. I read on here that AVO after sales service is rubbish..... So I stuck with weak springs on my coilovers and no clear way of sorting it out. Is there anything P/S can do for me?? I was going to try and get some new springs for the coil-overs, get them fitted, then come up for an alignment and a power run. Was hoping to get a little more than the last disappointing 244 BHP / 248 Lb..... Lol, my old company MY 00 was almost the least powerful turbo in the country with 204 BHP, but I think Floyd has less than mine, and that was at power engineering If you remember, this was when Floyd suggested fitting another ECU (AE801 instead of the AE802) lol, the rest is history. If only I patented that idea

I reckon I had the B/S mod done 18 months ago, along with drop links, anti roll bars, etc, etc. I think I had to have 3 camber bolts, definately 1 on the front, as he wasn't happy with the setting. I asked him to check if the car had been in a crash, and it hadn't!!!

Trouble is with going to P/S, I tend to make far to many Power pruchases, lol Thanks for the offer of taking my car to work one day, I may well take you up on that.....

Thanks Phill

BTW, is it much hassle to remove and change the heads on a legacy? I happen to have a set of STi closed deck heads on it, and a spare engine in my garage, and want the heads for my planned RB2.5 rebuild

911

I had AVO's on my StiV3 and it now has AST's.

The whole package from AVO IMHO is ...not good.

The AST's are so far ahead it is untrue.

My rears were shot after 4000 summer road miles, so they are in the attic for now.

The springs were good though (not from AVO) and had not settled too much, but why can't you raise the ride as you have adjustable platforms?

I think you may need to consider a fresh set of quality coil-overs, obvious which to have.
My front AVO's are ok (to the best of my knowledge) and the 4 springs are too. You may want to consider fitting my AVO's on your front with my 4 springs and get Powerstation or your man to align it all.
PM if you wish.

Graham.

babber

If I raise the car then surely the spring tension will be less wouldn't it? And the car will be bottoming out even more??

I now realise the AVO coilovers are absolute ****, but you get what you pay for. Think mine cost me about £700

Thanks for the offer, I'll PM you now mate

Phill

911

PM back to you.
If you wind the collars up the spring rate will remain the same, just the body will be at a different ride height.

Graham.

Fuzz

Not knowing too much about the AVO's you have babber but it maybe a set where you can both adjust the ride height and spring tension seperately. This would of course be noticable straight away by the two sets of adjusting collars on the strut.
However I doubt AVO do such a thing and would suggest it is a simple ride height adjustable set only.
If you raise the height of the platform then then the car will rise accordingly Phil. the weight of the car is still the same so the same weight will be applied to the spring..
What is most likely to have happened is the absorber is tired, which is allowing the spring to move in a less controlled way, hence the bottoming out and scraping you are experiencing. Basically a nice way of saying " I think they're ****ed mate."


Andy

Fuzz

As for the legacy heads, I'm not sure which way round you are planning things but it's not the heads that are closed deck, it's the block..
The block from the legacy is the good item if it's not **** it'self in some way.

If you are after big power then 2.5 is probably not the way to go....
Torque and drivability yes, but don't think you'll be able to screw a big boost monster out of it.

If you are just utilising the legacy heads then you will need the appropriate inlet manifold too as the RB5 one wont fit.


Andy

911

You are right on all points Andy about the AVO's.
Graham.

Fuzz

Mr_Wid

If your messing with ride heights on coilovers i suggest that you also get it corner weighted before you go for a wheel alignment