geometry settings

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chris-b

Guest
doing 4 wheel alignement tommorow, just wanted your veiws
am fitting whiteline lowering springs as well and this is ONLY suspension mod!
so tracking should be parallel @ 0 deg
and rear around same mark
also if srb have camber correction bolts in stock tommoro, should i set camber at around 1-1.5 deg?

thanks in advanced!
chris :D
 

campbellju

Moderators
Staff member
From personal experience, i wouldn't just uprate the springs again. I also did that on my first car to save some money and at 8/10th's the car felt fine but at 10/10ths the car went all wobbly.

Lecture over :wink: . Given you're only uprating your springs, this will lower the car and increase the camber all round whether you wanted to or not.

Expect an increase in the range of .25 to .5

If they've got camber bolts use them but probably to normalise your camber again, Especially at the back.

Remember, more camber increases tyre wear significantly and I assume you're buying just springs for the look and to save some money. Given that and my previous lecture, I wouldn't consider going much above what Nissan say. Maybe an extra .25 at the front.

Save some money in the long run and buy the dampers too.

Just my two pence worth,
Jim
 
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chris-b

Guest
well its not money som much as i think the car handles pretty well now.
yeah it can be improved but much like anything. i dont get understeer, and i find the suspension very hard as standard.
i did get the front camber bolts but not the back! didn't know whitline did them. I've also change the arb bushes.

anyway, whilst removing the suspesion i noticed that the dampers are painted in pearl white, and have 'fidanza rally dampers' written on them--are these standard iteams!?
one last thing- when you say set it to nissan specs- what are nissan specs- this is what i want to know!!

thanks
 

campbellju

Moderators
Staff member
No offence meant :D

Your dampers sound like aftermarket items, I'm not that familiar with Fidanza but it would explain why they're white.

Personally I prefer adjustables so you can better match the dampers to the springs but if they're stiff enough already its a good thing.

The reason why I said check the setting is tyres are often toe-ed in slightly so under movement they toe out to neutral. Worst case is you set them to neutral and you'll get some toe out under movement that will make the car more "live". Keep searching though, it will be in the Nissan manual but I know I've seen it either on here or the old Yahoo groups.

What tyres have you got fitted and type of driving/racing do you want to do. You say you've got no understeer issue, that is a good thing put could be worse once you've got your springs fitted and less turn in.

My advice would be to get the springs fitted and drive the car first before you start playing with your camber. Book yourself in a week later to sort out your geometry.

It'll give you more time to find the settings too :wink:

Jim
 
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chris-b

Guest
no offence taken mate! well i'm doing the work and geometry myself (the only plus point of being a grease monkey!)
going to be doing it tommoro
it seems no one has heard of fidanza- i'll post a picy tommoro

so your saying that you dont recomend a nuetral/ 0 toe- is that what you mean
what would you recommend. its a base line setting that can always be tinkered witha after-
i assume you have seen whiteline suggestions?
the car is runnin yokehero aeo53 (?) 205/40ZR17 and i am going to do maybe one odd trackday this year-that is all!
thanks mate- your very knowledgeable (sp)
 
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chris-b

Guest
hmmmmm- only mod on it then from jap!
cant find ANYTHING else!
hey its not fidanza clutch company is it?
 

mattygti-r

New Member
chris-b said:
oooooooooooh
who else had/has these fitted
no one cos there was a big legal court action in japan saying they caused vast amounts of road deaths as they became unstable at high speeds

there was a "Product recall" but your car must have missed out or somin ?


:shock:


only kidding
 

campbellju

Moderators
Staff member
Chris, I'm erring on the side of caution but I'm fairly sure the toe is 0deg all round, I just can't seem to find the Nissan settings at the moment to prove it.

The whiteline settings show rear toe out which is just wrong. If you've got the facilities, you could always try 0.5 deg combined toe out on the front but 0deg is normally safest.

Your tyres are not too large and the profile is quite low so with some sensible pressure (33/35psi) you should be able to minimise tyre flex and worry less about induced camber. 1deg back and 1.25 deg front would be a good road based starting point.

Not heard of your tyres, so I would question the level of grip they can generate, the fact they are z-rated is normally a good thing and at the least means tyre flex will be lower.

BUT whatever you setup, if you've got your own equipment try something else a week later and see which you prefer. I have never been totally happy with a car setup correctly at the first attempt. Also, winter and summer settings will be different and the safer settings will probably work better in the winter.

I'd be very interested to know how you get on and what works for you. My engine blew up on the second track day so I had no time to play with the car's settings at all. It will work again soon and then you won't be able to stop me fiddling :wink:
 

campbellju

Moderators
Staff member
PS. 17" low profile tyres, stiff springs and dampers may mean bump steer is a problem on B-Roads.

0 or positive toe :shock: and less tyre pressure would reduce the effect. Food for thought.
 
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chris-b

Guest
yeah i'll keep you informed mate!
all on now.
setting it tommoro as our alignement machine was playing up today :roll:
the tyres-----yokehero----yokahamas!!!! just a little joke- the tyres are very good- wont go for any $hit on MY car!!!
you seem to get well involved with the whole suspension thing!!
 
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chris-b

Guest
Right.... had a little drive- handling defo better-seems the springs match the fidanza dampers better than oem ones. stay flatter into the bends etc as expected. only concern is steering slightly out of line :wink: and follows the camber more and seems to wander very slighty to middle of road.dont no what hapened as stering was locked and straight during geometry so will do it again.
does it ever end

set to total toe +4 minuets
and camber -1.3
 

skiddusmarkus

Active Member
One suspension specialists I went to had the Nissan settings stored in the laser alignment machine.They were complete muppets though and were insisting they set them to this despite me giving them the settings I wanted so I told them not to bother and left :evil: .

They did me a favour really as this led to me go to John Nobles who recommended ADR for it.Without them I might never have found them.
 

Mr GTiR

New Member
yep with Skiddus on this one. Get it set up with corner weights on. ADR even set my car up to get it perfectly balanced as well as the suspension :D
 

campbellju

Moderators
Staff member
With coilovers you can increase the height to balance weight better left and right (Driver on left and extra 80Kg means right needs to be stiffer etc). You can also move things around the car like the battery or spare tyres etc to help.

BUT.....If you have a race car there are sometimes minimum weight requirements (touring cars etc) The engineers get the weight right down to the min and then build it up again by putting bags of sand around the struts to balance the weight of the car perfectly. You can then have perfect weight distribution which is a good point for car balance.

For the R, balancing left and right is a good idea but front to back there is too much of a difference. Don't listen to the bags of cement ideas either people used to have, its a bit like solving understeer by fitting skinny tyres to the back :wink:

Sorry to hear your first pass at setting the car up wasn't ideal.

Jim
 
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chris-b

Guest
well, driving it today and the pulling and steering misallignement seems to be getting worse (did i do everything up?)
needs another set up!
not going to go into setting it up with weights-jesus thats a bit out of my league and requirements!
thanks for your advise
chris
 
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