pulsar_scott said:
Hi folks, ive replaced the std shocks with Koni inserts ( pain in the **** and a half to fit those btw) and run 17" BBS RZ wheels. nothing else done by me but the car does have RS-R lowering springs that are approx -20mm id say.
Have had nissan try to set the tracking etc and they say everything is fine except the camber.
Campbellju, you say i should aim for -1 degree instead of what nissan told me to get it right? (nissan techie said i should aim for -0.5 degrees)
Regards.
Scott.
Hello scott,
If you were using your car as a 20K mile a year commuter than 0.5 degs might make a difference but if you were that worried about your tyres you'd have bought a vectra diesel with some 14" steelies and got it setup up for 0degs.
I go into this sort of stuff in more detail in my not quite finished handling setup guide but I'll pull a few bits out:
http://www.gtiroc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=35820
Static camber
=========
Settings
Nissan OE
Front 0.45deg to -0.5deg
Rear 0.35 deg to -0.55deg
So Nissan are saying positive camber is okay :lol: :roll:
So Nissan are saying you should have more -ve camber on the back :lol: ;-)
Nissan are setting a range and the technician is pointing you to the right part of that range but treat it in its context that Nissan are selling a car that understeers slightly and doesn't kill tyres too quickly.
Toe on the other hand:
Nissan
Front toe in: 0deg to 22'
Rear Toe in: -6' to +18'
Nissan are again giving a range as practically speaking most people do not care enough about tyre life or handling to justify a technican spending hours adjusting toe to 1 minute. Practically speaking it is very difficult to measure and adjust toe or camber to 6' or 0.1degs anyway.
Nissan state upto 22' or 0.3degs toe in on the front that worst case will wear the outside edge but keep you pointed in a straight line. If its your inside edge and you are certain the front is not toeing out then it brings us back to camber.
I personally would want to see the print out as many years ago I had a problem were Toyota didn't do a setup properly and my rears used to last 6Kmiles. After a a few years I pulled out the laser alignment and found my rear toe was right on the limit and had never been corrected. Took it to another specialist and my tyre life doubled. MR2's run between -1 to -2degs on the rear too again keeping it in perspective.
What tyre pressures are you running? this will also have an effect on tyre wear and put a few more psi in will also help centralise tyre wear by rounding the tyre profile.
If you can, PM me the printed camber and toe front and rear along with what tyre pressures your're running bear in mind that different tyres prefer different pressures and your average garage system is between 5-10% accurate.
If everything is alright then it could be dynamic toe is causing a problem, meaning your ball joints, bushes, or tie rod ends could be on their way out/knackered casuing the car to toe out whilst driving forward. Now read again what I say about toe out.
It could be down to -0.5 degs of camber but if you really are killing a set of tyres in 4-6 months its is either too much right foot or you have a problem.
Cheers,
Jim