Alignment Ques
 

I recently looked at my front tires on my 93 FD and noticed a real bad wear on the inside on the tread. This problem is on both front tires too. If it is an alignment problem, do i have to take it to the dealership or can any alingnment shop do it. And the car shakes extremly bad at 100mph , i havent had it over 100 in a long while and im missing the real speed potential of my car!! :cool:

Shaking at higher speed = bad tire balance and/or worn tires.

Worn inside edges = high amount of negative camber and/or toe out.

My tires wear on the inside edges but I run 2.0+ degrees of - camber.

Any good alignment shop should be able to fix you right up, you might need a new set of tires to stop the shaking. The FD suspension is fully adjustable alignment wise and can take a wide range of alignment specs.

has it been wrecked at any time?

Not necessarilly any shop can do an alignment on an FD. I was once turned away by a local shop because they said my car was "to low." They didn't elaborate further and I didn't ask. I just took it elsewhere.

Most shops don't make their own ramp extensions to get lower cars up onto their alignment rack. I tried to get on the Firestone "lifetime alignment" plan but they didn't have extensions.

goldenchasers_101,

Just ask around with the local guys. They will be able to tell you who can get the car up on their rack. My car is always aligned by Goodyear. They have ramp extensions and they don't complain about the settings I want.

I figured that was part of it, but wasn't sure since my car is stock ride height. Although the R1 lip brings it significantly closer to the ground.

Has the car been lowered? New springs, coilovers?

If so the stock alignment might have been fine but when you lower the car an inch or two the camber is far too great and you will notice a big affect on tirewear if you don't have it realigned.

-Joseph

all of the above posts are on the money.

tires are meant to roll not be dragged across the pavement thru misalignment. you can wreck a set of tires in 500 miles if misaligned.

the fd is easy to align assuming you can get it on the rack.

require a printed before and after alignment spec sheet and keep it in your records.

have the shop align the car as follows:

rebalance tires
front and rear camber negative 1.2 degrees
front and rear toe less than an eighth inch toe in
rear thrust angle zero.
run 30 psi front and 27-28 rear set cold.

the shop may tell you that the above settings may differ from whatever they have in their databank. tell them the above is what you want.

if after doing the above you still have a high speed vibration you may need new tires.

BTW, as to fd alignment: if the shop quotes you a higher than normal price due to it being a sportscar find another shop as it shouldn't cost anymore than the normal job. you should align your car at minimum once a year. as another poster says, ask around for a competent reasonably priced shop.

good luck,

howard coleman

I don't know if I'd trust Tires plus for an alignment either ;). I had to take my Accord back twice because they didn't even do it the first time, and the second time it pulled when braking.

They didn't do jack to my FC either, they said they couldn't do anything because the settings were "frozen" but I was able to loosen all the hardware myself when I was checking things out later on. :( They were jack-asses too. I've heard good things about Goodyear though and am going to give them a shot next time.

well, thanks guys. I forgot to mention that the car hasnt been wrecked and it is the stock suspension. The tires are worn pretty good, but i had to rotate them a while back so the rear tires have a lot of tread while the front is almost gone. I have 17" Chrome wheels that look good on the car but on the inside of the wheels the chrome is coming off and i believe some of the weights have came off. That my be the main reason the shaken is bad. I hate tio put my stock wheels back on there, but i have brand new tires on them so i guess ill have to get so more tires for my 17" wheels. But anyways