Tuesday, August 14, 2007 - 08:35 pm, by: Ian Kane(Active)
Just put a new set of tyres on today and got them to do the wheel alignment as per the specs. However when I picked up the car the guy who did the alignment said that the Caster setting of 3deg 05min (UZZ32) couldnt be right so he has set to 2deg 48 on the left and 2deg 25 on the right. Will this make a difference to the performance and wear of the tyres
Wednesday, August 15, 2007 - 06:39 am, by: Matthew Sharpe(Madmatt)
Isn't the caster setting the TOTAL caster? IE, 3 degrees across both wheels? So you should have around 1 degree 30 minutes on each wheel. If he couldn't work that out I'd be taking it somewhere else as he's obviously hit himself on the head one too many times with a spanner.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007 - 12:43 pm, by: David Vaughan(Davidv)
Matthew, you are thinking of toe or camber, not caster. Caster should be as near as possible the same on both wheels but neither is in relation to the other.
A change in caster will have little effect that is important. It will make no practical difference to tyre wear. There will be some impact on camber effects -- when cornering, caster tends to increase negative camber on the outer wheel, which is usually a good thing. The car may also feel a little more sensitive in a straight line because there is less caster to create self-correction in the steering.
See how you like it and talk to someone else as well.
Did he explain why he could not or would not set it to 3.05? Is that the factory spec (save me looking it up!)?
Friday, August 17, 2007 - 06:47 am, by: Matthew Sharpe(Madmatt)
I was searching for my rates bill last night and came across the alignment printout for my car - both sides are very close to 2:55 (I gave them the factory settings when I had it done)