new tires and alignment

Last night, I had a new set of tires put on and a fresh alignment (done w/ me in the car). The new tires are Toyo T1-Rs (195/55/14 on stock 1994 aluminum). Going on Lanny's specs, here's the before and after numbers:

Btw, what are "SAI" and "Included Angle"?

BEFORE: Front caster (L/R): 4.5° / 3.8° camber (L/R): -0.7° / -0.6° toe (L/R): 0.05° / 0.05° SAI (L/R): 12.0° / 12.1° Included Angle (L/R): 11.3° / 11.5° Rear camber (L/R): -0.6° / -1.0° toe (L/R): 0.20° / -0.20° (so, that means the back of my car was always pushing to the right, huh?)

AFTER: Front caster (L/R): 4.7° / 4.7° camber (L/R): -1.2° / -1.2° toe (L/R): 0.05° / 0.05° SAI (L/R): 12.6° / 12.6° Included Angle (L/R): 11.4° / 11.4° Rear camber (L/R): -1.7° / -1.7° toe (L/R): 0.05° / -0.05°

Disclaimer: I'm no alignment guru, I have only basic understanding of the terms and how they affect performance.

Unfortunately, I haven't had a chance to play yet. They hit on everything except the caster. 4.7° was as close as they could get to the

5° spec. The following other concessions were also made: their machine does toe in degrees not inch-fractions, and only to 2 decimal precision, so 0.05° fit between the 0.045° - 0.075° spec; camber is only accurate to 0.1, so they got -1.7° for the rear camber instead of the -1.75° spec.

It looks like they did a pretty good job, and for HALF what I paid for my last alignment.. any comments?

-Scott

Reply to
Scott Hughes
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Looks excellent, Scott. Where did you get it done?

Give the new T1Rs a few hundred miles to break in before you thrash them hard. Be prepared for cheek-cramping grins.

Reply to
Lanny Chambers

Lanny Chambers wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@newsclstr02.news.prodigy.com:

Alexander Tire & Auto, down on Baptist Church Road just north of 44 for any St Louisans. It was actually recommended to me by Howard (Sports Car Center) for tires when I needed them for my other car a couple years ago. It was a very-reasonable $69 for a good custom-alignment. They seem like pretty good guys over there.

Thanks for the tip on the break-in (and for the alignment research of course!), I vaguely remember hearing that tires required a short break- in, but wasn't sure about it. I'll already be at about 200mi of non- thrashing by the end of tomorrow, so they should be almost ready by the weekend. :)

-Scott

Reply to
Scott Hughes

I've used them for mounting, but I wasn't happy with their balancing precision. It's OK for our Accord, but not close enough for the Miata. Real nice guys, though.

Reply to
Lanny Chambers

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