I had my car lowered a while ago now, and had a 4 wheel thrust alignment done at the time.
IIRC they adjusted the rear toe in to 0. Just checked the print-out, + 1.7mm Toe out.
Where the factory setting should be Toe in 3mm (-/+ 3).
I have noticed a tendency to 'oversteer' where the tail gets a little loose.
As I see it, I can make the adjustments myself, or, as I would probably get them checked, just get the aligners to do it.
Has any-one set these Toe in/out adjustments outside these parameters, what were the settings you used, and why, and has it worked.
And finally, Do you have any suggestions for me?

The car is a TW/TL/KW/KL FWD Sedan and the attached document is for this model, others may vary.
http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/ee217/SH00T/My%20Cars/Toein.jpg

When it comes to wheel alignment, if it is positive then it is toe in e.g. +1.7mm is toe in and -1.7 would ber toe out. The more camber you run on your tyres the more toe in you have to have it set at. If you have lowered your car then you would have more camber hence the reason the wheel alignerment would have been set with more toe in.

DO NOT try to adjust this at home unless you have the proper measurement tools (not just a tape measure). adjustment on the rear of cars in particularly sensitive and not knowing where you are setting the rear could change the characteristicts of the car meaning excessive tyre wear, excessive oversteer/understeer, pulling to the left/right.

I'm not just quoteing some forum or information I read somewhere. I worked for 6 years as a wheel aligner in brisbane being taught by a guy that had been doing it for over 30 years.

And finally, Do you have any suggestions for me?


Go back & get another alignment, (from another place if you don't trust these guys.)

Ask beforehand, how long ago was their machine calibrated, as this can alter the final reading if their gear is out of whack. That 1.7mm may be 3mm. (I have had alignments in the past set at 1.5mm out, but when I got the car aligned manually by Centreline, they found it was actually 5mmout on one side, but fine on the other!)

Generally zero toe in is what you'd typically be after. Camber, at the rear can be altered in these cars, through adjusting the toe, but I doubt your car is low enough to need much camber adjusting.

I had my wheel alignment done not long ago reducing the toe out at the front and increasing the toe out at the rear.

From memory the rear toe setting was set to factory with an additional 2.5mm of toe out ontop of that which made the car much easier, more fun to drive at touring speeds. But its just personal preference. Yann89 and Type40 have driven the car since the alignment and can vouch for the difference it made particularly in addressing the overly light steering response (as a result of reducing the toe out at the front) and the cars willingness to tuck into a corner.

If i can find the spec sheet with the settings I'll post it up online.

Give Max at Caloundra Suspension a call if you want any info. (Info is in the QMD Garage). He has been doing wheel alignments for a very long time, and really knows what he's doing. Ive seen the setup he has for alignments (with little lasers and guidance markers to setup), this really isnt something you could adjust yourself.

We do this stuff our selves - cos as you guys have seen, there are sooo many "professionals" out there who know jack all. Yes, we have small lasers and other simple but effective devices. Fiddly but works.
I'd adjust rear Toe close to 0 or minimun In, but definitely not Out at all - becomes wild and restless as noticed. Rear camber can only be adjusted with spacers. I keep 1-2 mm Toe In and ~0.7 neg Camber.
At front I keep 2-3 mm Toe In and ~0.5 neg Camber (adjustable), which isn't much but keeps tyre wear in bay. In my case car is very responsive due to front strut brace and also adjustable rear stabiliser. So no massive Toe Outs are required.
Also, one gets used to drive a car with various set-ups and just works around the handling, bit hard to say what is the best really, unless one goes to track and keeps changing and lapping for ever...