I was wondering what your opinions are for a good wheel alignment for performance oriented street use. One characteristic i dont like much about my car is that it tends to understeer a lot, so i wanna try to get rid of that. Heres the stock specs according to my old alignment readout.
front camber: -1.0 to 0.5
front caster: 1.1 to 2.6
front toe: 0.05 to 0.15
rear camber: -1.9 o -0.4
rear toe: -0.05 to 0.15

Just to get this straight, negative degrees toe is toe out correct? According to some of mike kojimas reccomendations, i was thinking about setting the front to approx 1.5 - 2 degrees negative camber, and toe at zero. For the rear, approx 1 degree negative camber and a little bit of negative toe but still close to zero to get the car rotating better. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Im gonna be getting my wheel alignment tomorrow 8/22.

ohh and i forgot to mention that i have a 91 NX2000 w/ new tokico springs, sensatrac struts and front ES bushings. Not the best set up but all i could afford was the tokico springs and my struts were under warranty.

To decrease understeer/increase oversteer you should increase the amount of front camber and/or decrease the amount or rear camber. Having a little rear toe out will help the car rotate but I'm not sure I'd recommend it for the street.... zero toe should be fine. A little toe out in the front will help your transistions better but can make the car wander when trying to drive straight.

For autox and street use I use the following:

Front camber: -2.0 degrees
Front caster: +2.0 degrees
Front toe: 1/8 inch toe out

Rear camber: -0.5 degrees
Rear toe: zero toe

My alignment is probably a little on the agressive side for the street and my tires will suffer as a result. I also have a fully adjustable suspension with the GC CC plates... you do not. You will probably not be able to get -2.0 degrees of camber.

Depending on your alignment shop they may or may not adjust the alignment to your specs... possibly due to liability reasons for adjustments outside those recommended by the factory. Also, there are ways to gain more camber but they might not take the time to do this.

Steve

Toe is measured in inches. 0 to 1/8" toe-in is good for street driving. Nominally, toe is all you can adjust on Sentras.

With camber or caster/camber plates, you can get the negative camber our cars need to keep a decent footprint under load and power.

I have no experience messing with caster though more tends to make the car want to drive straight.

1/8 inch toe out in the front, I believe that is max factory spec. You should be fine, no excessive tire damage. Many people I know run that and have no adverse affects. Nissan dealers should have crash bolts, front and rear, to adjust camber.

Originally posted by autoxer7
Rear camber: -0.5 degrees
Rear toe: zero toe


Steve,

have you tried auto-xing with a little toe-out on the back?

We have been experimenting with it and it seems that a litlle helps the car "unsettle" faster in the beginning of the turns.

It feels very impressive but we have not verified the effect with lap times yet.

Chris

Ok i had the worst time at firestone yesterday. It took them 4 hours for my damn wheel alignment!!! I went to a local shopping center for 2 hours, and when i got back, they completely forgot about my car! So then i had to wait another 2 hours! Anyways i got another problem. According to my readouts, when the car came in, the left rear toe was at -.08 and for some weird reason, the technicial set it to +.41. I told him to set it at 0, the other side is at zero, but he wrote that the adjustment is at its max, but how can that be if it was perfectly fine when the car came in. Another thing is, he set my front toe at zero, whereas i told him to set it 1/8inch toe out. I guess since the toe on one side of the rear is way off, im gonna be driving sideways. Anyways i really appreciate your help with your recommendations. Heres is my readout.

left front
camber: -1.3
caster: 1.4
toe: 0.0

right front
camber: -1.4
caster: 1.0
toe: 0.01

left rear
camber: -0.9
toe: 0.41

right rear
camber: -1.1
toe: 0.01

As for the -2.0 camber recommendations in the front u guys gave me, i gave the tech instructions to set it at 1.5(he still couldnt get the correct) because i am running on nitto drag radials on the street and i do not wanna wear them down. The wear rating is 100.

Originally posted by hpro123
have you tried auto-xing with a little toe-out on the back?


I have. It works well for me on slower speed courses, but on a higher speed course I prefer a little more stability. Once that back end starts jacking around the run is all but over.

Steve

Originally posted by slipper
left rear
camber: -0.9
toe: 0.41


As long as you know which corner is out of whack you could always adjust it yourself. There's a bolt in the rear with a cam that you loosen to adjust (one on each side). The directions are in the Rear Suspension section of the FSM.

Steve

ok i took my car to another firestone center and the reaadout looks good. The tech really warned me about leaving the camber at -1.5 and since my tires wear rating is 100, i made the front camber a little less.

left front
camber: -1.2
toe: 0

right front
camber: -1.2
toe: -0.01

left rear
camber: -0.9
toe: 0.03

right rear
camber: -0.9
toe: -0.03

For people living in oahu hawaii, i dont recommend going to firestone pearl city, go to the kalihi branch instead.