Ive had H&R springs on my car a for quite a while now, and never got the car realigned, with no tire wear problems. A couple months back, I put AGX's on my car, and recently noticed some inside tire wear, so I took the car in to get it aligned. First the shop wanted to charge me for a 4 way alignment, until I told them it couldn't be done on a Maxima, then, when I got my car back, they said it couldn't be adjusted into specs, and that they needed to replace some "Cams" and do another alignment, which would cost me $140!!! I couldn't believe this, Ive never heard of anyone having severe alignment problems with H&R/AGX combo. Anyone else have this problem, or know of an easier fix? Thanks in advance.

 

If you put H&R's on, your toe and camber WILL have changed and toe CERTAINLY will be well out of spec.

The fact that it seemed to handle OK doesn't matter..

Only the front suspension is adjustable on your car. That means a TWO-wheel thrust alignment is all that's needed. They're screwing you for a 4-wheel. There is NO adjustment for the rear except a sledgehammer. It's a solid beam.

Front toe is adjustable. They can bring this into spec.

Front camber(which will have changed from the lower springs) is NOT adjustable. the Allowable front camber on your car is from -1.0 to +.5. Some people have reported that even with the H&R's their camber was still in spec. My left front wheel after doing the H&R/AGX setup is at - 1.5 and the right at -.7. So mine in slightly out of spec but probably not enough to worry about. Negative camber up to maybe -2. is preferable to positive camber. Negative camber means the wheel is leaning into the wheelwell when viewed from the side. This helps a bit with cornering when you load up the outside wheel for it to keep a good contact patch with the road. Positive camber is bad and serves no good purpose. Excessive negative camber though will cause the inside tread to wear quicker.

You can get a eibach camber kit which will allow you to adjust front camber if it's way out of wack. Get your actual alignment numbers and post them here....

Caster should be perfect and within spec. The spring/struts should not have changed caster. Only bent parts would do this.

-RMB

 

Thanks for this well-explained post as I plan for new springs!

 

Well I only paid for a 2 way alignement, I told them a 4 way couldn't be done. Here are the numbers:

Front Left
Camber: -.05
Caster: 2.5
Toe: .09

Front Right
Camber: -.09
Caster: 2.8
Toe .10

Cross Camber: 0.4
Cross Caster: -.03
Total Toe: .19

Rear Left:
Camber: -1.0
Toe: .26

Rear Right
Camber: -1.2
Toe: .26

Total Toe .53
Thrust Angle 0.00


The only thing that looks close to specs is the front right Camber which is at -.9 with a limit of -1.0, but they say they can't fix it unless I pay $118.57. What to do?

 

Front numbers look fine, better than mine. Your rear toe is off a bit. Range is -.13 to .22 and you've got .26 on both.... but.... weird, probably not a big deal and nothing you can do about it anyway unless you're real good with a sledgehammer.

You certainly don't need a front alignment kit(like the eibach camber adjuster). It might not hurt but I wouldn't bother.

Wear on the inside eh? Only on one side of the car? Or did you have omnidirectional tires and rotate them all around?

What size/brand of tires? What pressures are you running too?

-hmmmmmmm

Very strange...

-RMB

 

hey you are in luck, i just got an alignment less than a month ago and found the sheet they gave me but i don't have a scanner so i'll type the info out real quick....

left front
ACTUAL BEFORE SPECIFIED RANGE
-0.6 ... -1.0 0.5


ok, this is going to take too long, i'll just give you my actual for all of them, if you want before or specified or range, just let me know

actual
-0.6
2.3
0.10

right front
-0.1
2.2
0.07

front
-0.5
0.2
0.17

left rear
-1.4
0.08

right rear
-1.6
0.17

rear
0.25
-0.05

times like this made me wish i had a scanner....but if u need more info, just private message me or email me...preferably at night when i'm at home to look at the paper...peace

 

Ya, Ive got wear only on the inside. I have Kuhmo Ecstas, and I run 35 psi all around. I never had a problem with my alignment before putting on the AGX's, even when I only had H&R's.

 

Ya, Ive got wear only on the inside. I have Kuhmo Ecstas, and I run 35 psi all around. I never had a problem with my alignment before putting on the AGX's, even when I only had H&R's.

 

Hmmmmm...

I dunno...

With this recent alignment just keep 'em well rotated every 3-4k or so and see what happens.

-RMB