[Digitalfiend]

I took the day off to go and get an alignment. This shop is about 3 hours away from me (one way!) so it's basically an all day event. The technician does an amazing job, so it is worth the drive.

I wouldn't say my '08's factory alignment was horrible, but I could definitely feel something was out, especially when flooring it, it would pull slightly back and forth.

According to the print out, my '08 had decent factory camber but some noticeable negative toe up front.

The really cool part is that we were able to get -1.56 degree camber out of the stock bolts...but only on one side. Still, I ended up with -1.2x degrees of camber on the stock bolts, which is much better than the -0.85-0.90 that my '05 could get. My camber is a little funky in the rear but nothing too bad. The '08 definitely has a lot of caster!

(Don't mind the vehicle type listing; he didn't have the reference specs for the '08 yet.)



Just in case the print in the pic is unreadable:

Before:

Front:
Camber left/right: -0.59 / -0.76
Caster left/right: 6.41 / 6.11
Toe left/right: -0.05 / -0.09
Total Toe: -0.14

Rear:
Camber left/right: -1.12 / -1.45
Toe left/right: +0.02 / +0.05
Total Toe: +0.07
Thrust Angle: -0.02

After:

Front:
Camber left/right: -1.23 / -1.21
Caster left/right: 6.41 / 6.11
Toe left/right: 0.00 / 0.00

Rear:
Camber left/right: -1.10 / -1.46
Toe left/right: 0.00 / +0.01
Total Toe: +0.01
Thrust Angle: -0.01

The car no longer skitters under hard acceleration and it really turns into the corners more predictably now. I wouldn't say the steering feel has increased much but it just feels better overall. Definitely worth the $120 CDN.

[paikman]

Seems like a great bargain for $120.
I used to go to this shop that sets up porsches, it was $250 every time, and I did it before every other drift event ... fast way to lose money, but def worth it lol.

[Hitman83]

$120, wow that's a lot! You know Sears woulda done it for about half that? I know, I Know....

It's nice to see the 08's can get a decent alignment without the need for camber bolts/plates. Handling moddability is definately where the 08 shines over the previous models.

[Digitalfiend]

I'm really surprised that I actually had so much negative camber from the factory. The negative toe made the car a bit twitchy and unpredictable though. The car feels much better now.

Honestly, it is so important to find an alignment shop/technician that cares about the work. The guy I go to has the machine calibrated like every month or so, which is very important too.

[waktasz]

I wonder what's up in the rear to cause that.

We did a home alignment last week and max'd everything out and zero'd the toe, but didn't have a camber gauge to measure. I'll report back as soon as I can get a digital gauge to throw on it.

[Digitalfiend]

I had the same thing with my '05. It's really strange but doesn't seem to affect anything. I'll address it once I start tracking the car.

[Brand]

Wow. I gotta get that done, mine definitely tries to jump under hard acceleration, especially with the snow tires on. Hopefully I can take them off in the next couple weeks.

[Digitalfiend]

I was really surprised at how much negative camber we got upfront. My '05 was stuck at -0.85 to -0.90. At one point we had the camber at -1.46 L and -1.70 R but as soon as he tried to tighten the left it dropped into the -1.2x range. The right stayed in the -1.5, but I had him get them reasonably close. It has made quite a difference in the turn-in of the car, which surprised me considering I had negative toe upfront.

[MEXSTIMPREZA]

Probably a noob question, but, why the difference in the rear camber, does it have to do with being a left drive car?

[supermarkus]

Originally Posted by MEXSTIMPREZA

Probably a noob question, but, why the difference in the rear camber, does it have to do with being a left drive car?

Just a stacking of tolerances in the suspension parts.

[1day]

Hmmm,
I just had mine done. Maybe it was the machine we used but I was only able to ger -0.7,-0.8 degrees of camber up front and the rear was fixed at -0.7 passenger, and -0.9 drivers rear. We got 0.00-0.01 toe all the way around.

[Digitalfiend]

Originally Posted by 1day

Hmmm,
I just had mine done. Maybe it was the machine we used but I was only able to ger -0.7,-0.8 degrees of camber up front and the rear was fixed at -0.7 passenger, and -0.9 drivers rear. We got 0.00-0.01 toe all the way around.

That's weird. The rear camber should be in the -1.xx range, according to the factory service manual. Getting your toe to 0 all around is good as it helps to reduce wear; I was running -2.0 front camber/0 toe on my '05 for about a year with no noticeable additional wear.

[1day]

You are absolutely right. I did not think anything about it at first because it is the exact same readings as my old 08 WRX 5 door. It would be nice if I could take it to another place, but he is the only guy around that will actually do exactly what I ask. Everyone else will only go by the OEM specs.

Question:
What is your opinion about having your Camber and Toe set while you sit in the car? I noticed how bad the readings jumped around with my weight when I sat in the car to adjust the wheel (and I only weigh 125-130lbs).

[rmo55c]

I finally found someone in my area that does performance alignments (he does a lot of autoxed cars). It is night and day difference to have something dialed in perfectly. I walked out with 0.00 toe around and -1.7 front and -1.5 rear camber (exactly the specs I wanted).

$100 bucks for it was totally worthwhile.

And that is a ton of stock caster - quite nice!

[djrossco]

Quick question for all who have maxed out the negative camber:

I realize that Toe is going to give you problems with tire wear, but how does your wear look with max negative camber settings? I requested the last time I had an alignment done on my 05 sti that they max neg camber out,evenly and zero the toe... the shop refused stating that it was going to wear the inner shoulders of the tires out too quickly. Having never experimented with alignment settings, I let them set it to factory specs. Anyone w a custom alignment having issues with their tires wearing unevenly?

Simply, how do YOUR tires wear with max negative camber?