Jeff 97 Formula

I recently had my car aligned at the dealer, the printout has these specs:

Left Caster +5.0
Right Caster +4.2
Left Camber +.01
Right Camber +.01
Left Toe -.03
Right Toe -.01
Total Toe -.04

Now the car seems to want to "wander". Also the steering wheel is slightly to the right at times.

Stock tire size 245/50-ZR16 BFG Gforce Sport (1st gen)

Taking it back, thinking the toe needs to be tweaked. Anyone have tips so I don't wind up constantly bringing it back (I have a warranty on the alignment)? Thanks!

SparkyJJO

iTrader: (11)

Aim for slight positive toe (toe in). RWD cars should be slight toe in for stability to compensate for the "push" outward on the front tires when going down the road. The further the toe out, the more "twitchy" the steering can be, which may lead to a wandering feeling.

Side note: FWD cars are slight toe out because the torque of throttle application pulls the tires inward a bit, so toe out compensates for that. Since so many cars are FWD, I could see a tired tech just going toe out by default.

Steering wheel centering is easy, but takes time, and some shops are too lazy to put the time into it. Basically, if straight forward has the wheel tilted to one side or the other, the toe each side needs adjusted. Left toe being more negative than the right will make you need to turn the wheel right slightly to compensate.

I'd also be looking for slight negative camber, not positive. Stock size tires it isn't as big of a deal, but wider can result in shoulder wear. Can help with stability also.

TA_Freak

Agree with what Sparky says .... need a little toe IN and some negative camber. These cars go toe out with bump steer and when on the highway, the front end is pushed down causing some toe out... so the toe IN helps to compensate and it won't feel so twitchy.

rj678

The right caster is .8 degrees lower than the left which can cause a decent pull to the right, I would try to bump the right caster up to at least 4.5 degrees to get a cross caster of .5 or less. I agree with the toe in that has been stated in previous replies. Too much toe out tends to cause a "wandering" effect while too much toe in causes a "darting" effect.

BMR Sales2

iTrader: (40)

Caster number seem a little low. This will cause a "wandering" feeling. I normally like to see 5.5-6*. My alignment numbers on my daily looked very similar to yours with the excepting of the caster and it drove wonderfully.
Now, something to be mindful of also, these cars are proned to "tracking" when running wide front tires. 275 or wider tires will make the car pull and move around a lot and follow grooves in the road. Alignment can help, but it is still an inherent issue

Jeff 97 Formula

Ok got the car back, feels awesome now!!!

New numbers:
Left Caster +4.9
Right Caster +3.9
Left Camber +.3
Right Camber +.3
Left Toe +.01
Right Toe -.02
Total Toe -.01

For some reason today's "before readout" on the toe stated -.15, and I posted the wrong camber numbers (they were actually +0.3 on each side). The specs on WS6.com states +1 as factory camber...

Also strangely enough, the car tracks perfectly straight with those caster numbers (for some reason these caster adjustments are the only way my car is able to go straight).

P.S. this was on my 97 Formula...

JD_AMG

Watch those front tires, you will likely have them wearing the outside out quicker than the inside with that camber.
Honestly -1 camber is perfect for the street IMO, has even tire wear too.

Jeff 97 Formula

Thanks JD_AMG.

I noticed quite a few users aim for negative camber (usually also have suspension work and bigger tires) but because I went to a GM dealer and their camber spec range for these cars is from -.1 to +.9 they tell me +.3 is "dead-on" with the specs and this is the best they can do. Car feels great now (if it didn't I'd definitely be going back till it's right....but now I am afraid to go back cause it drives so awesome right now....steering wheel is perfectly straight too).

Toe was way out....resetting it back to near zero (barely toe-out) fixed my issue.

JD_AMG

Yea -1 camber will be "out of spec", but IMO its far better than 0 or positive camber.
When I first bought my car years ago I went through a set of front tires quick because the outside wore down quickly and the inside looked almost new. Obviously an alignment issue, brought it in and it was "within spec", the shop went from some positive camber to just 0 camber. New set of front tires and they lasted longer this time but sure enough, outside wore much quicker than the inside. I noticed before it was too late and brought it to a friend at a tire shop and he aligned it how I asked him to (-1 camber, 0 toe, as much caster as possible), the -1 camber was "out of spec" according to his machine. Also a note I remember people saying that shops told them these cars were hard to align or something, took my buddy like 5 minutes... Tire wear has been even ever since and handling has definitely improved. This was before I autoxed or anything, so its not like I was tracking the car and driving crazy causing premature wear.

Just keep your eye on it, Id check it every 1000 miles and see if you notice wear. If you do I would at least ask for -0.5 camber.