Corner Balancing/Alignment Questions

[HLxDrummer]

Well even with a degree of camber the outside edges of my tires are getting killed. I would just add in some more.. but:

1. I want to raise the rear of the car slightly. I would do this and just aligned the rear as well but the guy I took it to a while back said the rear would be a bitch to break everything free (looks ok to me..). Not sure if I should mess with it. If I raise the rear slightly I am assuming toe will change, correct?

He said the alignment was fine back there but when I checked the alignment on the front it wasn't what he said it was..

2. I am considering corner balancing my car and obviously want to do that before I align it. How much of a difference does corner balancing make on a primarily street car? I would have to drive fairly far to get it done and then pay to get it aligned or take a day to do it myself.

Also how do you DIY guys get under the car easily to adjust stuff? I drove mine on wood last time but it was still a pain to get to everything with the car being lowered.

[Chris@Rvengeperformance]

race ramps make the rear a lot easier. The toe adjusters need a 24mm wrench and either a lot of pushing or beat the wrench with a hammer. Get them all loose and you can put the car back on the ground, set the alignment, and lift it up to tighten. The rear adjusters are easy to reach for just adjusting purposes with the car on the ground. They adjust from the outside.

[vroom4]

What tire pressures are you running? Im assuming by "getting killed" you mean while autox?

[HLxDrummer]

race ramps make the rear a lot easier. The toe adjusters need a 24mm wrench and either a lot of pushing or beat the wrench with a hammer. Get them all loose and you can put the car back on the ground, set the alignment, and lift it up to tighten. The rear adjusters are easy to reach for just adjusting purposes with the car on the ground. They adjust from the outside.

I was actually just going to ask what special tools I would need. Usually I work at my dads garage where he has a ton of tools but all I have here is real basic set (eg no 24mm wrench). Doesn't sound too bad.. The garage I have now is actually sloped so I would have to put the rear tires on blocks anyway to make the car level so hopefully that will help.

What tire pressures are you running? Im assuming by "getting killed" you mean while autox?

The tires I have have a real soft sidewall so I have to run the max - 50 PSI while autocrossing. Daily driving I usually have them low to mid 30s. And ya I meant with autocrossing. If I didn't race on them they would probably be fine.

[vroom4]

Time for Z2s

[VR4GUY]

wow 50psi while auto crossing, I would put some negative camber in the front for sure, in fact I just did this myself. I went to -2.2 front and -1.2 rear, it holds the road much better and gives a feeling that it will over-steer a tad now although haven't been to the track to push it yet.

I can't say that I can feel a difference with the corner-weigh because I always have the alignment done at the same time. As long as you don't change the ride height or weight distribution of the car you should only have to do the corner weigh once and then it shouldn't change much.

[vroom4]

Yea, Id say its much more important to get a decent static camber setting, and decent tires before you go too indepth with your alignment/corner weights.

[HLxDrummer]

Alright I just didn't know if I should corner balance now and align it once or later and align it again. I'll just throw some more camber at it for now and see how she does.

I would love to get some sweet tires since mine are shot but can't swing $800 on them this year (school is killing me and just bought a DD).

Thanks guys!

[Erron Spalsbury]

There are a few DIY write ups on the internet for setting alignment but I will offer this one trick that works awesome. Take 4 pieces of sheet metal big enough to fit under the tires and not have any rubber on the ground. Put some heavy duty grease between the two plates and you can make adjustments to toe in and out really easily. Works like a charm!

[DocWalt]

I really need to try those tricks, it's gotta be easier than rolling the car back and forth and using a measuring tape

I've found that to not wreck your tires when you're abusing them (autox or whatever) you need to run silly setups that will wreck your tires when you're not abusing them. Pick your poison