tekknikal

Got new tires and had my alignment checked. The car felt good but this being the only s2k I've really driven aggressively, I thought I'd have it checked out to make sure everything is good. As there are lots of twisties where I live I also wanted to give the eur alignment a try.... so I wrote out the Euro specs and gave it to a tech at a local Honda dealership. I asked him to show me the specs before adjusting... instead, he ended up just adjusting and gave me the 'before' after he was all done.

Here's how it had started:

Front
Caster Left 6.28°
Caster Right 5.45°
Camber Left -0.57°
Camber Right -0.47°
Toe Left 0.12°
Toe Right -0.21°
Total Toe -0.09° (toe out)

Rear
Camber Left -1.76°
Camber Right -1.43°
Toe Left 0.38°
Toe Right 0.24°
Total Toe 0.62° (toe in)


Here's the after:

Front
Caster Left 5.86°
Caster Right 4.95°
Camber Left -1.01°
Camber Right -1.00°
Toe Left 0.01°
Toe Right 0.02°
Total Toe 0.03° (toe in)

Rear
Camber Left -1.78°
Camber Right -1.66°
Toe Left 0.20°
Toe Right 0.20°
Total Toe 0.40° (toe in)

*actually when he was done and gave me the after sheet, rear toe was 0. I asked them to confirm the sheet and it turned out to be a mistake. They realigned it for me, leaving me with the above specs.

Overall the car feels very good. Lots of grip in corners. The back end feels like it holds very well. I also changed out some near-bald RE01R for Direzza Star Specs so I'm pretty sure that has a lot to do with it too.

The Problem: Sometimes the car doesn't feel as stable as it did, and the effect is more pronounced at higher speeds. One definite issue I've noticed is that if I turn the steering wheel sharply and let go, the steering wheel will not just snap back to center - it will go past that to the other direction and the entire car will wobble as opposed to just stop turning. So instead of just coming out of a turn the car will wobble a few times before settling on a post-turn direction. It didn't do that before.

I'm not sure what the cause of this is. Any suggestions would be appreciated..

zeroptzero

I just did my car a couple days ago at our Honda dealer, but I don't know how the Euro specs compare to ours in N. America. Here are my comments.

The after numbers do look better at least the toe settings aren't working against eachother from front to rear, much like mine were doing prior to the alignment.
Firstly, I don't think there should be any caster, as far as I knowit should be 0 at least it is on my car. Secondly, camber is non-adjustable so it is what it is, and your camber doesn't look too bad, good for handling, you may get a tad bit of wear on the tires but probably not too bad.

As far as toe, my front was set at perfect zero toe after the alignment, the rear had a bit of toe on it, but total toe worked out to zero on both front and back, not sure how that works. And they had a listing that stated that the car steered perfectly straight. I can refer to my alignment sheet to get the exact numbers later tonight and I will post it.

fuel4blood

Why are you saying camber is none adjustable? Do you mean caster?

jtree

even if he meant caster, he's not correct.

zeroptzero

Hmmmm, I thought the service advisor told me that the camber wasn't adjustable. I know it isn't adjustable on other Hondas that I've owned. Is it adjustable on the s2000 ?. I've only owned my car for 2 weeks, please excuse any error on this. On my alignment they didn't adjust the camber, my left front wheel camber was out of spec and they told me they adjust it within spec. On other correction, your caster may be fine, they didn't adjust it on my car so I assumed it was zero but it was in the middle range of the spec so they didn't highlight the exact number.

zeroptzero

With my sheet in front of me my alignment numbers after alignment were as follows:

Left front - camber .40 deg, caster - middles of spec ? can't read any number, toe - 0 inches.
Right front - camber -.43 deg , caster - middle of spec ?, toe - 0 inches.
Left rear - camber -1.4 degrees , toe - 1/8 inches.
Right rear - camber -1.52 degrees, toe - 1/8 inches.

Total toe front - 0 inches
Steer ahead front - 0 degrees
Total toe rear - 1/4 inches
Thrust angle - 0 degrees.

importkid

The arrow I drew in paint is to the camber eccentric bolt. The one clearly pictured if the adjustment for caster


This is a horrible example. I tried to paint a nice eccentric for caster. This is a clear picture of front camber adjustment.

The rear on these cars are tricky to say the least! There is an eccentric for camber and toe. Both have to be moved the the same time in order to achieve a great alignment. This means if I move camber to -1.00 then toe to +.30 camber will be way out.

Hopefully these shop manual pictures help your case. If you need mw to get you any more, or want the unaltered version I'll be happy to send you them.

zeroptzero

thanks for that info Importkid, that is very helpful, I stand corrected !. Perhaps my dealer meant that they couldn't get the camber adjusted any better than it is without affecting the other numbers.

importkid

After looking at your numbers it looks to be a decent alignment. Is it the specs you gave them? (you did say that you gave them the UK specs right?) Almost everything will show up red, but it will still be right. Alignments are geometry numbers, and I believe they should all be as close to equal as possible on each "axle". If you were trying to get more camber, you should know at stock height the car is capable of over 2.5 degrees either way.

fuel4blood

[QUOTE=JFUSION,Oct 27 2009, 07:59 PM] Hmmmm, I thought the service advisor told me that the camber wasn't adjustable.