Go Faster for FREE!! Alignment Tips for Your High Performance Car!
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- Опубліковано 14 вер 2023
- It's not often you can get more performance from your car for free but as is the case for your car's alignment, it's true... as long as you do it yourself!
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You can't simply skip any technical article from Mike Kojima. You can't. The joy on his face when he speaks about serious stuff and the comprehensiveness and detail of his performance is simply mind blowing!
For real!!
Couldn't of said it better myself
"But if you want to go faster, stick around and let's talk about stuff"...😂 sold
So I work in auto repair, I love doing alignments, and I haven't seen many auto oriented youtubers really talk about alignments in a knowledgeable way so when I saw this recommended I thought "finally!" because every time I watch a video with Mike I always learn and enjoy the knowledge he shares. Loved the video. This reminded me of tuning cars in Forza Motorsport haha, I set a lot of faster than average laps through alignment adjustments alone!
I wanted to reiterate on normal car alignments: the majority of alignments are performed because of poor tire wear, most of the time it's because a car will end up with too much toe-out from bushing fatigue, road imperfections and impact, fasteners shifting(aftermarket camber bolts are junk like he mentioned), or just a terrible alignment from the factory. On daily drivers and commuters you should stay away from any toe out if you really want the tires to last. Toe out on cars that aren't heavily loaded in corners will consistently eat up the inner tread very fast, on top of that it will wear choppy/feathered with negative camber(basically triangular strips with 2 corners on the inner tread block and the third corner pointing towards the outer tread block), this will eat your all season UTQG 700 treadwear tire down in 20k miles easily. On top of that the tires are going to HOWL because they're no longer circular in shape, more like paddles by the time they need replacing. So if you want to take your daily driver on the track every once in a while but spend a lot more time in it going to work then find a middle ground with maybe 0 toe(or neutral toe) in the front, because pretty much every spec for modern cars has some degree of toe-in(or neutral depending on the car). On a regular traffic cars you want a tiny amount of toe-in for every small amount of negative camber, to deflect or flex the sidewall for a better contact patch going straight, and for better high speed stability on uneven roads - road crown and surface deviations. Also if you do this at home, it's worth it to have some sort of gauge setup like the one in the video: 0.5 degree can make a big difference. Remember to measure after adjusting something, maybe drive it around the block and remeasure, I know soft bushings with a load on them can easily hide the full adjustment on an alignment lift - typically when the adjustment is quite drastic.
Really interesting info on track setups, always wondered about what worked better for these high load situations. I used to have a service writer who had a family hookup to a bmw oriented racing team and he would get free used DOT race tires for his M3 that were on the track car, they were always extremely choppy on the inner tread and vibrated like crazy because they were halfway used up on a track.
Thanks for this 🙏🏽
This is a very helpful comment, thanks. My WRX is lowered and the tires have started howling on me and I believe this is exactly why.
Mike is the everlasting gobstopper of motorsport knowledge. Mike is the man!
Such an underrated channel.
The happiest guy on UA-cam
25:55 "Some is good, more is better, too much is way bad." -Mike. 😂 Thanks again for this absolutely legendary information. 👍
Legend has it that he’s still smiling right now
Holy shit channel started to blow up. Couldn’t be happier, Mikes enthusiasm is infectious.
Mike Kojima is such a legend. I've been following him for like 25 years.
The Dave Point... that really takes me back. The golden age of Sport Compact Car in the early 2000s was a special time, I learned so much from Dave and Mike. It's awesome to see Mike still sharing his knowledge.
It's nice knowing that I am not the only one.
#OneOfUs
Agreed, I thought I was the only one who still remembers the ancient tomes in the pre-internet days.
@@mcrowl2823 Oh bro, we are out there
Man this guy really seems to know mechanical and racing stuff so completely. So much car knowledge from so much experience.
I did NOT think front toe out could actually reduce tire wear. Great info
I think it depends on the vehicle and suspension setup. I've spent a lot of time with this adjustment on my vehicles. I keep noticing that slight toe out with slight negative camber near factory settings on Camber I keep getting lower rolling resistance which I'm after and I still never get a twitchy steering response because the negative camber counter acts it. I do get concerned on what my tire wear will be but for example I find on my 99 Ford Ranger 4x4 because of variable weight changes between a full to empty tank of gas plus me in the driver seat I have to run slight static toe out as once the gas tank is near empty the driver side suspension will decompress and the tires eventually will toe in a little. So there's a range of variation that happens there because if I were to run static toe in on a full tank of gas I would get too much toe in and wear the outside shoulders of the tires out and they would get chop and the truck would really have a hard time overcoming the rolling resistance from tire scrub. My 4th gen Camaro also responds the same way almost with these same adjustments. So I need to figure out how the suspension interacts dynamically during operation. the rolling resistance being lessened by these adjustments is a strong reason why I like them. The vehicle struggles way less and mpg goes up substantially and I get better acceleration performance not using half the engine power trying to overcome drag. Anytime a vehicle feels like it struggles to move and is hard to free wheel always bothers me and tires and alignments and good working brakes are usually the culprit.
Me last night, after first test-drive after installing sexy SPL suspension arm type stuff: "I need to work on the alignment". MotoIQ today: "Hold my Red Bull". 🤣 Thanks for the timely video!
I had a bit of toe-out in the rear suspension of a subaru when racing on dirt, you had to have a blazing fast reaction to keep it from snap oversteering on decel into a corner, but I liked it because it cut down on the annoying understeer from all that weight in the front and little traction on dirt.
Grew up reading your articles, now my sons watch your videos for their car stuff.
MK/SCC is the reason why I know as much about suspension as I do. BTW the "lead point" is also known as the "Dave Point" 😅 as per older issue of SCC
Now I see it was brought up later in the video 😂
27 minutes of free advice! Thank you sir!
This man is the Yoda of speed!
Mr. Kojima is a Legend in the Tuner World…Truly Appreciate you sharing your Knowledge and Experience….Thank you MotoIQ 🙏
I've now watched a few of your video's, generally engine builds.
Really enjoy your delivery and obvious experience of the things you talk about.
Very much doubt I'll ever use the things you just explained or vast majority of engine explanations but subscribing anyway.
Finally, somebody explained it all to me. Thanks
“If you wanna go fast, uhh go fast for free… come on… let’s uhh talk about some stuff.” -This needs to be on a MotoIQ Tshirt.
It's like getting free info from Master Yoda himself.
Good to see I was in the ball park of what Mike suggests.
Ran 4* f and 1.5* r camber in the DD SRT4 with 27psi 245x40x17.
Checked Dad's Spec 944 toe and it was 1.5" out.
Next race after I "fixed it" he got wrecked in turn 9 by DanDon lol
I’ve always liked hearing about suspension, alignment and wheel set-ups. Plus the 240 in the background looks just like my 180sx in Australia. Keep up the good videos, nice work. 👍
This is gold
This was incredibly helpful. 👍👍👍👍
I ran a track alignment when I first installed my angle kit. The wheel pull from the high negative camber and slight toe out requires 100% attention on streets, but the handling in corners is top notch!
Came here to say that I’m always micro correcting on the freeway but it makes up for it on night runs 😂
As always good info!
Love your content Mike, you are the man!
awesome awesome info here! Damn! 🔥 Thanks Mike!
Thank you for this. Very useful
Thank you so much Mike !
This man is perpetually chill 😆 love it! Great info!
Oval racing we use positive camber on the left front wheel we are only ever turning left and have a lot of banking so the left front is always positive on oval racing cars
Fantastic video as always Mike! Thank you for taking the time to make it. I really enjoyed the point you made at 24:35 when you were taking about too much Caster/camber angle, and the understeer to snap oversteer characteristic it gives a car. I learnt a heap just in that two minutes alone. Thank you again for your uploads.
Damn , I actually read that Dave Coleman article way back in the day! Thank you for the video, probably the best summary on the topic on alignment on the net.
Thanks again for passing your knowledge on
Great Info, thanks
nice work Mike... as expected and as usual!
these tips are what made me subscribe, so much usefull information to use when setting up a project car!
Exceptionally nice video, greetings from Greece.
Mike out here singlehandedly shutting down all the forum fools and their myths about car setup.
Is smile will never go out of style
I enjoy your passion, therefore I learn and enjoy mine! Thanks!
I LOVE Sport Compact car. I still have every issue.
Heading to the track again in a couple weeks, absolutely going to take the pointers here and try some light adjustments at the alignment shop before heading out. Great video, thanks so much!!!
Great video, i think you'd make an excellent teacher with how well an informative you are keep up the great work
Omg perfect timing, I was gonna email them to make a video on this.
Thanks for sharing your knowledge….. (motoiq)
@MotoIQ hi Mike, I’ve seen some of your videos and pressed play as soon as I saw this come up on my feed. It couldn’t have come up at a better time! I have a model 3 I’ve been running in autocross, I made some suspension mods and got new stickier tires for this new season, chasing after those lower times. I’m a former ASE tech and do all the work and upgrades on my car. I recently started doing my own string alignments since I lower the car and adjust the camber front and rear, I adjust the toe after adjustments are made. After the end of last season I set the car back to street settings and realigned it. I noticed the car didn’t feel right and the TC light was coming on, I redid the alignment but it still felt off. After watching your video and you explaining how different toe settings can change the way the car drives I set the rear toe in a bit and set the front toe out. After I test drove it I was blown away at the difference in how it felt and how much better it drove, the car feels stable and planted again!
I’ve looked for alignment info online to help me fix the problem but your video was the one that explained it the best and help me fix it. When I worked as a tech I knew how to align a car but we had an alignment tech who did them all but sometimes I had to do one. I never got to learn the fine details of aligning a car. Thanks so much for the help and I now appreciate more the importance of a good alignment!
Sport compact car and Grand Tursimo all you needed to learn this back in the early 2000s . Who was at supet gt when it came to the states at Fontana.
Love this. I'd like to see more diagrams with this stuff. It's interesting how most of my cars violate his rules of thumb, after tuning my settings for years.
All suspensions work a lil different, and all drivers drive different.
Great tips
I'll use them on my '99 Corolla 😀👌
Mike!!! Remember the rear beam bending that Darrin used to do for the b14s? I think that would be such an interesting topic to tackle. Tackling difficult suspension geometry from the factory and the wild ways we fix them
Kojima is just a wholesome man, automatic like for this great being 🫶🏼
Thank you 😊😎👍and I've gotten faster at forza motorsport 7 watching your videos you da man👍😁 and the people behind the scenes thank y'all too😊👍 stay cool, calm and collected😊
Positive camber also used in nascar i believe, since theyre onky turning left over and over, 2 tires have negative camber and 2 tires have positive camber
Just finished the triple adjustment coilovers video just to have this drop right after. It's going to be a good Friday.
Me listening to this about to autocross my semi-trailing arm rear super beetle with not enough toe-in: Yeahhhh
THE BEST
Hello @motoiq, I hope you could ask Mike to make a video about proper wheel size and width to tire size (width and profile) ratio for performance.
Theres a meaty look, stretched look and square. Been curious on the ideal size ratio of wheel and tire.
You explained it. I’m gonna tag this for refreshers. I can never remember all that. Question who’s Evo I want it.
Thanks again, Mike! Your suspension knowledge helps reinforce what I recently learned at an SAE Vehicle Dynamics training session I attended. I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on a street alignment, which I feel would be a bit harder to nail down since you have to balance tire wear with performance (obviously a compromise must be had somewhere). I'm looking to do just that on my Civic Si commuter.
I was also glad to hear your thoughts about camber bolts on McPherson strut vehicles. I've heard others comment that camber bolts can slip, so it's good to know that you can just slot a damper hole to achieve similar results (for free) and still maintain enough bolt clamping force on the strut to knuckle joint to keep them from moving.
If you figure out exactly where you need setting to stay, you could put spacers in to make any slipping impossible. Basically, the spacer is a rod with cut out to fit around bolt on one side to re-fill the slot.(making an 'oval shank' bolt). I've done them for camshaft sprocket bolts when decking put cam timing out around 10 degrees and vernier sprockets not available
You migh not get everyones likes…but you got mine 😊
Thanks Mike #sportcompactcarforever
Very interesting video! How about a diy way to do the alignment? There's heaps of videos but none of them have the same outcome specially when it comes to caster!
Great suggestion!
A simple example of negative caster is when reversing a car. If you let go of the wheel the steering will whip around to full lock because the steering is trying to self-centre but with the front wheels facing the other way. It's not a fun experience!
you guys need to sell a bobble head mike on your website
take my fooking money
yeeees!
5:01 one of best sleeper fwd cars right there 😆
Hey Mike. Thanks for such a detailed video. Do you remember your C8 Corvette track alignment? Did you add any toe out to counter the understeer? The GM recommended alignment calls for 0.1 toe in.
We ran 1/8 out on ours.
Sucks when you set it up only for dry weather, then drive it in the snow. That old photo of the 350z reminds me of that article from sportcompact car magazine.
Can you do a breakdown of Ackerman for drifting
thats a good idea
Good stuff, not that regular degular
I understand from the video that its tough to narrow it down to a single number, but what would you say is the maximum negative camber one can set on the fronts for a FWD car that sees mainly street use but is also frequently pushed on touge style narrow mountain roads, without sacrificing too much in straight line stability and tire longevity?
Also, goes without saying, but thanks for another AMAZING vid!
Maybe 2.5 to 3 degrees.
For the longest time, I've been seeing a big trend of running high caster, 7-9 deg being common in road course awd and rwd..... Everyone seems to like it, me included. Perhaps we're using this as a Band-Aid? Would love to get more insight on how you arrive on optimal Caster
More caster makes the car more stable at high speeds. Holds a straight line better. Which makes it less unpredictable in a turn.
Drift cars also sometimes run no front sway bar. Lots of suspension travel upfront. Great reason to increase neg toe.
but its not the right way.
Hey Mike! Love the wisdom you share on all your videos. Your info about toe in / out die performance caught my ear. Is toe always measured in distance over degrees? If I were getting it aligned, would I say 1/8 inch as spec and the tech can do it correctly? Or would I say a fraction of a degree or a degree or two?
What toe spec would you recommend for a VA wrx for autocross (full bolt-ons, full suspension, e20, 200 tw tires - - rt660 presently). Not much straight line drag or anything, but what toe would you recommend front and rear for cornering? Awd obviously.
1/8 to 3/8 out, zero rear
I've seen it both, but without a nice rack distance is easier to measure.
@@motoiq thanks so much =), I'll see about adding a little toe out. Excited.
@@nobodynoone2500 cool! I'll see about trying to specify that. Thanks for the info and replying =)
Question: Will some negative caster at the front give you better acceleration when applied to a FWD car? My reasoning being that the direction of the force applied by the wheel while accelerating will match the one the shock needs in order to compress. Just like how you get better use of the weight transfer to the front under braking with positive caster. I know negative sucks for handling.
No to both assumptions
I've got a rear-heavy Cayman. When you say -4 camber is preferred, do you mean on the front or rear axles? (I realize the type of tire and sidewall will also factor as you say)
The back of a cayman is usually 3-4 degrees due to struts
I grew up around racing. My father was crew cheif for a Nascar Whelen Tour Open wheel Modified. Everything this guy is saying is burned in my head. They were constantly making tiny adjustments, then go out on track, adjust then go x100. In out in out. Then what he didn't mention is every time u make one of these adjustments it's going to change the car in other areas. Like adjust the rear can and will effect the front too. It's not as simple as just adjust this. Cuz it will deff effect more than just what ur adjusting.
Would positive camber in the rear also help cars set up for drag racing? Seeing as though they're squatting pretty much from launch until the line
Yes, absolutely
The part that kills me about caster is that caster wheels on office chairs, furniture etc, don’t actually have any caster, they just have trail. So maybe they should be called “trailers” instead, but I guess that name was already taken
Great video as always…I’d appreciate some feedback on a friend’s car that I’m helping to setup.
It’s a 2018 BMW M3 F80. We are severely limited in terms of modifications for the time trial series that he’s competing in. He managed to win his class last year with the following setup (otherwise stock): front camber plates, 285 Goodyear 3 (not 3R) on 20x10 square, alignment was around -3 f, -1.5 r, ~0 toe or slight toe out f, slight toe in r, and caster at 7.
This year we are moving up a class and going to use 295 Bridgestone 71RS on 18x10.5 square. For the alignment I’m thinking we will want a bit more camber f/r, toe about the same, and maybe a bit more caster. These cars have somewhat vague steering feel, so I was thinking a bump to 7.5 would help in that regard. Also, I’m thinking it might help to swap to a slightly stiffer front sway bar (we cannot do springs or coilovers).
Any thoughts you could share would be greatly appreciated!
Yes I would do something like 4 degrees negative with 1/8 toe out in the front. I would leave the caster or even reduce it to 6. Wide tires/wheels don't like being tipped too much. Best grips is going to be found somewhere around 28-34 psi hot, probably something like 32 would be my best guess, watch your pressures closely. Measure as soon as the car comes off track preferably in the hot pits. In the rear something like 1.7-2.2 negative is going to work well with 1/8" toe in. A stiffer front bar may help with the added front camber.
@@motoiq wow, thank you so much for replying so quickly! Lol, I saw you at BRP last weekend, but I was busy coaching and driving, I didn’t get a chance to say hello.
I’m glad that I was somewhat in the range (I definitely need to learn more about caster), but awesome…I’ll try out your recommendations and report back!
Awesome, keep me posted. I was helping KW with the calibration of their new R33/R34 GT-R suspension.
@@motoiq will do! Very cool, was that the car that Sean was driving? I remember seeing a stockish looking 34 out in the Advanced group.
Yes
Ayo 24:20 caught me off guard 😂
this guy smiles when he talks. he must eat a strong edible 45 min before each video
Can you speak for 10 inch or wider tires for heavier cars? 4° camber on a 275 low pro will load the rim lip to a point of failure.
Im interested in the much wider tires then the 255 your talking about. Think about 275 to 315... please.
No it won't, we routinely run that much and more with that and wider tires and just go fast.
What is inch in degrees?
The NC Miata and even more so the ND, are designed with 6-8' degrees of caster from factory. Why is that? Some formula cars run even much higher castera than that (double a arm). Is it because of the relatively high KPI that negates camber gain to some devree?
Skinny tires work pretty good with higher caster angles, it also depends on how much KPI the geometry runs, they work against each other.
On my bmw e36 drift car I put more caster and less camber (one way adjustable topmount) and i got LESS self centering and made me spin out. this was the other way round than I expected. Glad i learned today you could set too much caster. not sure this is what is happening...
extendend control arms, welded steering knuckles. (mc-pherson)
Whats a good compromise of tire wear and handling?? -2 or more camber and small bit of toe
I had -3 camber and nearly zero toe and had very little wear. Toe causes the most wear drive is makes your tire scrub
if you ran 3 then a little toe out might actually help wear
What about cars that oversteer on breaking with semi trailer arm on the rear?
He mentioned it. Add toe in at the rear.
Any recommendations for a tool/setup/method for doing an alignment at home?
Smart strings and camber tool. I am considering buying one for myself
I just use string tied to some jackstands, tape measure, eyeball. Gauges are nice, but make sure how they attach is true, most are counterproductive. Take your time, go for a drive then do it again when it's settled. It's torturous at first, but becomes easy after a few times. Make SURE your spot is flat or you will waste your time. You can make some cheap turn plates from wax paper and cardboard, or any slippery plastic sheets (hdpe, trash bags) if doing caster so the wheels turn with less friction. Wiggle the steering wheel after each adjustment and make sure no preload is in the tires.
For rear toe out, ask Porsche CUP series guys from up to 2020 year... ;)
if they run that, it doesnt mean its right.
Only fastest guys did it. Very hard to drive. But rewarding some tenths of a second per lap and less front tire wear, I was told.
Nope. Especially not on that kind of car. That is the stuff that gets passed around the pro pits in hope of people trying it and wasting a lot of time trying to make it work.
💎💎💎💎💎
“Kingpin angle”🤔🧐
Talking about hands free driving in a daily, could we get a video sort of like this, but for maximum comfort/fuel economy/wear?
Would be interesting but probably stock
Zero toe and zero camber, keep or increase caster to preserve some handling in the corners. Make sure to jack up your tire pressure and use a skinny eco tire. Realistically you would probably also want to keep a bit of camber.
@@SoulTouchMusic93 this ^
@@engineer1692 Stock is basically those, with corrections for the specific suspension, but typicaly includes a little left pull to counteract road crown.
The Fact the civic was the 1st example of stupid camber is soooo funny because its facts
Any suggestions for a overweight Bonneville Salt Flat DT record attempt
Tires : good year eagle LSR. 31.0×6×18 90psi min.
Car: Dodge d250 5500lbs race weight 3500 F 2000R.
Planning to custom front clip /back hafe the frame
Setting something between
Road corse and drag, is my guess. As major steering will be needed for recovery when the back steps out at 227+ mph.
Something like as much caster as you can do without getting excessive bumpsteer. As you add caster, the tie rod ends get lower and bumpsteer becomes and issue. You should actually measure it and address it, zero toe and zero camber. When the back steps out on the salt you don't have time to steer it, as soon as the car even twitches, slap the chute release and don't lift until you feel the chute hit then feather off the gas. Don't try to save it, get that chute out, it's your only chance.
Also get a decent amount of kingpin inclination in it, KPI and Caster get you straight line stability just watch that bumpsteer.
@motoiq kpi for street is center of contact patch. Positive ( narrow backspace moving the intersection outside the center of contact) or negative? I will be buying custom wheels to get an 8 lug 18x5
It is the kingpin inclination angle. This is a simple book you can read that I think explains the basics well www.ssapubl.com/(X(1)S(rwdfy2552uuows45fpqgfuef))/product.aspx?nbr=S105