New suspension alignment planning

[Qckslvr]

Hello all,

 

After an exhaustive search and read marathon over the last couple weeks, I have decided to procure the following:

 

Koni Yellows

H&R Springs

Whiteline Roll-Center Kit

Whiteline Com C top hats

KYB rear top hats

 

1) Assuming the car is a daily driver, occasionally driven aggressively and very rarely to participate in a track outing, do the following alignment specs appear appropriate?

 

Front:

Camber: -2 deg

Caster: Stock + .75 deg (from top hats)

Toe: 0 deg

 

Rear:

Camber: -1 deg

Toe: 0 deg

 

2) Are aftermarket camber bolts (or other) required to achieve -1 in the rear?

 

3) Will flushing my power steering fluid and replacing with redline be sufficient or is an aftermarket cooler a must with this camber (for longevity of the pump)

 

4) Does anyone know a good alignment shop in the East Bay of San Francisco?

 

Thank you all in advance for sage input.

[Dujo]

0 toe all around is what you want in a daily driver. Toe in and out really is for the track and autocross. Basically anything other than 0 causes additional wear in a straight line, which is how most daily driving is done.

 

-2 degrees of camber is a bit aggressive for a DD, but not overly so. -1.5 is the max you can get in the front with the stock eccentric bolt, so it's what most folks run unless they've added in some more adjustability. With the additional -.5 the Whiteline top hats will provide, you will be pretty close to the limit of what your setup allows, which is fine. You may wear the insides of your tires just a slight bit faster than a less negative camber setting, but that's just a bit of small price you pay to run a performance alignment. No need to fudge on toe, but camber can be a little outside the box without too much adverse effect. In fact, I've heard that Subarus actually like to run a little bit of excessive negative camber, providing the extra grip from the larger contact patch in the turns without significantly adding to the straight-line wear.

 

Any additional caster is good caster.

 

I don't remember for sure what the stock camber setting is in the rear. It is less than the front though. It is not adjustable with the stock bolts, though a good alignment guy can loosen the bolts and wiggle a few extra tenths of a degree and retorque. There a few Whiteline kits that allow for additional camber adjustability, but I'm not sure about eccentric bolts in the rear. Someone smarter than me can chime in on that.

 

As far as pump ... like I said, -2 is not hugely out of range. Probably wear faster, but again, not overly so.

 

One last bit, ideally thrust angle will be 0.000000etc, but I see an awful lot of alignment printouts on here that do not say that. Personally, I think it's a matter of time and effort on the part of the technician to get that dead 0 reading (unless there is something bent), so quickie alignment shops are likely to get it close and call it good enough. I sort of feel like you need a performance alignment shop (like a place that does racecar alignments) if you want to achieve a really perfect 0 thrust angle. There are a lot of people out there running on close enough though.

[scoobyscoodle]

Those specs look good to me. As long as you have 0 toe up front the -2 camber shouldn't cause accelerated wear.

 

Camber up front doesn't really put additional load on the ps pump, additional caster does. However, I don't think you should have any issues with the parts you will be running.

 

As far as rear camber, -1 would be nice, but you will likely end up with a little more than that unless you get the whiteline adjustable camber bolts in the rear, because otherwise camber isn't adjustable from the factory.

[Qckslvr]

Ah, thank you both. I did mean caster, even if I said camber, but I'm happy to hear that it shouldn't be too taxing on the OEM pump!