NA wheel alignment

Technical Area Steering & Suspension
2

Hello,

Happy new year all!

After some advice for wheel alignment settings.

On stock wheels and tyres i had 4 wheel alignment done to factory spec, all good. Since then i have changed wheels to 30mm offset, which in effect has widened the track. The car now tramlines and wants to follow road camber, which was not the case before.

Just after some suggestions as to what settiings would help cure this problem, car only used on roads, no track days etc

My specs are:

STD 1.8 NA

MEISTER COILOVERS, LOWERED APPROX 20MM (all other suspension parts are std and in good condition)

ROTA 4 X 15" 30MM BACKSET, FITTED WITH FALKEN ZE94’S 195/50/15

Any suggestions or thoughts appreciated, if i can give my wheel alignment chappie some figures it will help, as i’m not too hot on this subject! He had suggested putting the std wheels and tyres back on and aligning with those, then put my new wheels back on, but i dont see how this will sort the problem out?

Thanks

Paul.

 

3

Hi,

If “The car now tramlines and wants to follow road camber,” then I would guess the castor angle needs to increase.

 

Just had my 4 W A done by a “tame racing driver” and he made allowances for the car and what I wanted from it.

 

Again I’m guessing, but I would think that “factory settings require factory off sets” for it to work.

 

 

Paul G

4

Hi Paul,

Thanks for the advice about castor settings. I will google to try and find more info!

Paul.

5

Think logically about what you have done. 

You have not actually changed the geometry by fitting slightly lower offset wheels. (Unless you also mean the lowering was part of this)

The change in offset is very slight, and although changing the relationship between the centre of the contact patch and the king pin inclination, I would normally not expect to see a huge difference as that low offset. 

However, you mention standard wheels and tyres, In a MK1 they would normally have been 14" and only 5.5 or 6" width. I would expect the Rota’s are at least 6.5" if not 7" width and so will also have some additional effects along with the type of tyre.