Alignment settings for the lowered

[rick82]

Hi

I am taking my car to be aligned as i have been getting fast tire wear on the insides, they have been fine for years but recently the wear has become worse to the point where i drive 10 mins down the road and the insides are hot to the touch.
It is lowered quite a bit so i expect the insides to wear more but not that quick.

Anyway, the garage has asked if i can get the settings for the alignment as its lowered as all they can do is set it to stock.
Is there any kind of information on this?

[Confused]

If you're scrubbing tyres, then this probably indicates that your toe is incorrect.

This shouldn't change, whether you are lowered or not, and the toe settings should be adjusted all round to the correct values.

The main change when lowered will be camber. As this is unable to be adjusted greatly, and probably not to the standard values, then instead ensure that the camber is equal on both sides.

I would tell the person that you will not be happy with it simply being "in the green", but you want it dialled into the same values each side, or you will not be accepting the vehicle back! Getting it spot-on takes only a couple of minutes more than getting it "into the green", and shows a level of pride in your work by doing so!

[Merlin]

Aligning the wheel son the Lude is easy as the settings are simple. The factory settings are below:

Front:
Caster = 2°40' (+/- 1°) not adjustable (well only through adding shims to increase negative values)
Camber = 0.0° (+/- 1°) not adjustable
Toe = 0 straight ahead (+/- 2mm) or 0 (+/- 0.08")

Rear:
Camber = 2WS 0.45° (+/- 1°) not adjustable For 4WS 0.45° (+/- 30') which is adjustable.
Toe = -2 (+/- 2mm) or -0.08" (+/- 0.08")

As has been said camber will not be correct but that will not be the cause of the issue you describe. Like Confused says it wil be your toe that will be the issue.

[Confused]

Ah, what I forgot to add is that a sudden change in tyre wear could indicate damaged suspension or steering components.

Have you driven over any bumps or potholes quickly or hard? Bumped off any kerbs when turning a corner or parking? Parked close to the kerb and applied full lock to get out from a parked position, causing the rear wheels to hit the kerb (assuming you don't have a poverty-spec BB4)?

Before paying to get it on an alignment machine, either have a good look at the suspension yourself, comparing everything on both sides for signs of damage, or an obvious difference in shape, or get a garage to do so. Also jack the wheels off the floor and see if you get any movement/clunking when rocking it from side-to-side (grab at 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock) or up/down (grab at 12 o'clock and 6 o'clock).

If any suspension components are damaged, get these checked/replaced first, then take it for a full 4 wheel alignment, preferably using a Hunter machine, as these are the best. Most places won't be able to check or adjust the rears correctly (and they assume that they are correct), and then these incorrect rears will be used as the basis for adjusting the front, which can end up with equally bad results.

[rick82]

Yes i thought is was a suspension component to be honest. sometimes on full lock at slow speeds i get like a skidding from the front. i have just replaced the inner lower arm bushes, drop links, top mounts and lower ball joints although there wan no movement in the wheels in any direction. I have been trying to figure this out for a while now, i haven't hit a curb or anything but probably hit a few potholes so maybe that has put the toe out.

I have spoken to 2 garages and the one previous and they don't think they will get it onto their ramps, so i think i will do a string alignment to give me a rough idea if it out, and how much by, then take it somewhere who has got a ride on ramp

[Confused]

You can get a pretty good result from a string box alignment - I replaced a track rod end on my Legnum, did a string box alignment, and then put it onto a Hunter machine - and was only a few minutes out.

With the Prelude having alignment settings so close to dead-ahead, simply ensuring you have an equal distance from the front of the wheel to the string, and from the rear of the wheel to the string, will get you pretty darn close!

[rick82]

I have just set the toe to 0, took it out for 10 mins and the insides of the tyres are still hot, along with the rear tyres as well? In a more concentrated area.

Do you think it needs to have a bit of toe in to compensate for the car being so low and the camber increasing?

before I set it to 0 I did measure how much toe in there was and one side was 5mm and the other was 7mm, I don't know if this is a lot but obviously it needs to be the same.

[Confused]

Is your steering wheel straight, or does it need to be turned to one side in order to get the car going in a straight line?

Do you have a roughly equal amount of thread showing on both track rods?

Did you measure the rear, too? Do these have an equal amount of thread? Do you have 4 wheel steering, or not?

Was the car driven straight forward, on a level surface, and not reversed or jacked up prior to setting up the string box?

[rick82]

It's not 4ws model, I rechecked the front again and noticed the rear near side has about 4-5mm toe in and the other side is 0.
How do I adjust the toe on the rear? I see what looks to be a track rod but it's bolted to the chassis?

[Confused]

The bolt holding it to the subframe looks to be an eccentric bolt - you would loosen the nut slightly, then with a spanner, rotate the bolt (as shown here) to adjust the toe. When it's in the right place, tighten up the nut again.


(Photo stolen from here)