mx5cartalk.com

Posted: **Sat Dec 01, 2012 9:12 pm**

So I wanted to try the Flyin' Miata/Keith Tanner wheel alignment specs (http://www.flyinmiata.com/tech/alignment.php) and went to Beaurepaires Myaree in Perth. It took a whole lot of convincing them that I didn't want the factory spec - I wanted the Flyin' Miata specs. I had them redo the alignment after they stuffed up the toe-in the first time.

But anyways, it would be great if someone with a bit of experience could glance at the before and after measurements and tell me what you think. Are the left/right differences acceptable?

Front
Camber left wheel: was -2.10 degrees, now -1.11
Camber right wheel:was -2.24 degrees , now -1.21

Toe left wheel: was 1.90 mm, now 1.0 mm
Toe right wheel: was 0.00 mm, now 0.7 mm

Castor left wheel: was 3.26 degrees, now 4.08
Castor right wheel: was 2.46 degrees, now 3.53

Rear
Camber left wheel: was -1.59 degrees, now -1.50
Camber right wheel:was -1.46 degrees , now -2.00

Toe left wheel: was 0.00 mm, now 1.0 mm
Toe right wheel: was 1.60 mm, now 1.0 mm

Cheers,
Martin

Posted: **Sun Dec 02, 2012 7:09 am**

Only concern is Flyin' Miata is in the US where they drive on the right hand side of the road.
Their wheel alignment would take into consideration the camber of their roads as dríven on the right and also compensate for the driver being on the left.

An Australian alignment would take into consideration the camber of our roads as dríven on the left also also compensate for the driver being on the right.

Have a read here http://mx5cartalk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=76&t=15398 specifically SPy vs. SPy

GET A PRINTOUT OF BEFORE AND AFTER, I cannot stress this enough. The left numbers will be slightly higher than the right if the guys do the right job, this will be so the car drives straight along the road, as roads are higher in the middle so that they drain, if the alignment was dead even the car would always run to the left down the gradient of the road.

A US alignment would be worse than dead even!

Posted: **Sun Dec 02, 2012 9:27 am**

1.0mm of toe, is that negative or positive toe? either way it is alot of toe. and all you other settings are all over the shop. whether it be the aligner doing the job poorly, or you got worn bushes, or the aligner was pissed for doing the job twice.

cannot believe they couldn't get the toe even on the fronts. toe is childplay to get right. castor and camber are not.

personally if the aligner had reservations about using a customers specs, then i would've gone somewhere else. they really look like they have done a poor job.

Posted: **Sun Dec 02, 2012 10:41 am**

project.r.racing wrote:personally if the aligner had reservations about using a customers specs, then i would've gone somewhere else.

^+1 - yeah some places are conservative.

When I got my first MX5 wheel alignment (following replacement of worn tyres) the tyre place set it to what they said was factory specs. Drove very poorly so went back there, but they wouldn't change them to the MX5 Club (Vic) specs, so went to a wheel alignment/ suspension specialist who got it driving like it used to.

Posted: **Sun Dec 02, 2012 10:59 am**

I would purposefully stay away from any tyre shop to get an alignment from - I've not been to a single place where they seem to know enough about suspension or wheel alignment to be trusted. The issue isn't them so much as for every 100 customers they see that just want massive wheels to pimp their ride / just a basic tyre please for the family truck vs 1 customer like us who actually value handling and want light weight wheels with grippy tyres and a good suspension tune over a slammed lowered 18" wheel cheap tyre combo deal!

It just isn't worth their while to have trained and qualified people on staff 100% of the time for that rare 1 customer who walks in wanting a good suspension alignment - so they have poorly trained staff who do "their best" to get the job completed in the allocated time they are told to do them.

A good alignment takes time and sometimes requires redoing a few times to "dial-in" the best settings - and this goes against the tyre shop's desire to pump customers through.

Places like Pedders and/or Fulcrum Suspensions seem to know their stuff, take their time to do it right and understand why those settings actually do help or hinder.

G

Posted: **Sun Dec 02, 2012 11:17 am**

Martinez, take your car to Kumho Bentley on Sevenoaks St in Bentley and chat to Shane.

Shane has a crazy rotary powered MX5 and has some great alignment specs stored in his head.

They do lots of stuff with race cars there so they really know their stuff.

Posted: **Sun Dec 02, 2012 4:15 pm**

Thanks for all the feedback guys. Yeah, I should have known better. I thought with the specs in hand they should be able to pull it off.

deviant wrote:Martinez, take your car to Kumho Bentley on Sevenoaks St in Bentley and chat to Shane.

Shane has a crazy rotary powered MX5 and has some great alignment specs stored in his head.

They do lots of stuff with race cars there so they really know their stuff.

Thanks pal, that sounds excellent. It's a bit out of the way and only open mon-fri which complicates things. But I'll probably give it a try!

project.r.racing wrote:1.0mm of toe, is that negative or positive toe? either way it is alot of toe.

It's negative, as in toe-in. I was aiming for 0.8mm as per the flyin miata specs, which by the way were symmetric so they didn't seem to take road camber into account.

I took the car for a short drive and it does pull slightly to the left. Was in fact better before the "alignment".

Martin

Posted: **Sun Dec 02, 2012 4:58 pm**

all my aligments on my car are symmetric. never worry about road camber. and most aligners haven't also for past 15-20 years.

too much toe in for my liking. expect alot of outside shoulder wear. did they give you a reason why they had so much toe in?

Posted: **Sun Dec 02, 2012 6:10 pm**

project.r.racing wrote:too much toe in for my liking. expect alot of outside shoulder wear. did they give you a reason why they had so much toe in?

The comment I got was that it's the closest they could get to my specs, and I just followed FM.

Maybe I should aim for a lower value. What do you run yourself?

I'll get it aligned properly in the coming weeks.

Martin

Posted: **Sun Dec 02, 2012 6:15 pm**

Do all those statistics apply NA/NB or is it even more model specific than that?

Looking for an NB8B set up that "compliments the MX-5" as Flyin' Miata stated.

Posted: **Sun Dec 02, 2012 6:44 pm**

Mine is a 1990 NA.

Martin

Posted: **Mon Dec 03, 2012 11:03 am**

24OGL wrote:Do all those statistics apply NA/NB or is it even more model specific than that?

Looking for an NB8B set up that "compliments the MX-5" as Flyin' Miata stated.

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