joefish1298

Well, I'm finally getting some new shoes on my baby. They're currently being painted and once that's done they will fit tyres and balance them and then fit them and do an alignment.

So I just had a few questions around the basics of wheel alignment.

1. When you take your car in to "random shop a" and ask for an alignment how do they know what settings to use? Do they log in to some database and pull up factory alignment settings for a 2001 S2000 or is it done some other way?

2. A lot of talk has been made about the "revised uk alignment settings". Are these settings only suitable for the factory 16" wheel and tire package, or can I (well more to the point should I) use them with my new 17" wheel and tire package?

3. If ended up using say the 2008 S2000CR settings (I don't know if that statement makes sense as I don't fully understand wheel alignment at this stage), could I then ask the shop to use that as a base but tweak it for better handling at the expense of tire life?

3a. Would I actually want a shop to deviate from say the S2000CR settings or is there a chance they would make the handling much worse unless they are suspension experts?

Please excuse my n00bness and looking forward to reading replies.

Panayiotis

1. You are correct, most modern wheel alighnment places have a computerised database with the settings pre loaded.

2. Theoretically yes, however there are so many factors that will make it a no. Ultimately the difference different wheels widths/offsets make to overall geometry in the real work is minimal. What suspension are you running?

3. Depends on the shop. Most tyre places wouldnt have any idea what makes a good setup and as such I wouldnt ask them for advice unless you trust them. Figure out the settings you want and tell them to align it to your specs. That should answer 3a too.

Panayiotis

Let me just clarify 2, as you ask 2 questions. They are designed for the stock setup, however if you have changed any part of the suspension (incl wheels) it wont be optimised for it, but in the real world it doesnt really matter, the more aggresive camber will probably be the only difference that will affect handling to any great effect between the 2 setups.

dr.s2k

What size wheels and tyres are you running? Is your setup staggered (different widths front and back)?

joefish1298

17 x 7.5 + 48 front with 215/45
17 x 8.5 + 54 rear with 255/40

Blackie

Your setup gives you relatively more grip at the rear than the stock tyre widths.

Stock camber settings from what I recall is -1.0 at the front and -2.0 at the rear. You might want to go with -1.5 at the front if you do a fair amount of hard cornering and want a bit more lateral grip at the front.
Stock toe settings for 2001 should be fine unless you want to tinker with the high speed cornering stability. Zero toe at the front is ok for the S2000 for quicker directional changes. Some run a little more toe-in at the rear for better mid-corner stability.
Run the maximum positive caster that the shop can manage though. Gives you more dynamic negative camber (i.e. when the wheels are turned) and slightly heavier steering and quicker centering of the wheel. There is no real downside to running higher caster.

Riviera

Once I drove over a kerb and ended up ruining the wheel alignment. Went to Bob-Jane to get it fixed. Thought this is a piece of cake job but took them more than 2 days!! They said the config is so sensitive that a tiny slight adjustment has massive effect. I had to go back and forth to the workshop but it was least of my problem as still under warranty (bought and fit tyres with them). In the end they got it right.

Then went there again for 5k servicing (free!!) with a slightly off alignment, and this time around they fixed it in no time. I guess they now know the data and simply used that to fix it.

3r1k

F: -2
R: -3
0 toe front
6mm toe rear

This was my setting when I had 215 and 245