Tracking Setup On Lowered Car

[adam_young 0]

I'm fitting a new track rod end and inner track rod this week so the tracking will need to be setup again.

 

I know how much difference having everything setup correctly can make, but my question is do I go for the factory settings (as shown on the wall chart in the garage) or would I be better off with a slight adjustment?

 

My car is lowered about 40mm and the cheapo spax kit and uprated bushes makes the suspension very firm.

[Jonmurgie 2]

On a standard suspension setup (lowered or not) there is only 1 adjustment you can do on the 205 and that's TOE. And to be honest, I'd just say have the standard setting on that mate

[adam_young 0]

Its just that the guy who does my tracking last time muttered something about adjusting it 1 degree out as the car was lowered. I'm probably wrong, but I think he said something about -1 instead of -2...

 

It will probably be Tuesday when I get the tracking done so I'll see what response I get on here before then.

[Jonmurgie 2]

Well as I say, you can only adjust the TOE on the 205 so your choice is one of three:

 

1. Toe IN

2. Toe OUT

3. No Toe

 

I have tried all 3 of these on my 205 and personally prefer the last option, with no Toe at all (i.e. the wheels point perfectly straight and forwards). The idea of Toe IN (as I understand) is that when your car accelerates it forces the wheels to push out a little, so having a negative Toe while stationary is supposed to turn into a zero Toe when moving... though having tried this I can say that it just made the car feel unstable!

 

The guy you've been talking to may be under the impression of being able to adjust the CAMBER on the 205 as standard. When you lower the car in theory it can cause the wheels to run more negative camber than standard, so he's possibly on about having to reduce the camber to bring the wheels to the same position as they were on standard suspension. THough as I say, you can't adjust that on the 205 unless you look at replacing parts for motorsport equivalents.

 

But hey, see what other people reckon as this is, of course, only my opinion/experience

[Ahl 4]

Jon is right, except that he probably means toe OUT not toe in - a FWD car pushes the wheels IN as it rolls along, while a RWD does the opposite, like Jon described.

 

I've tried parallel toe, 2mm toe out and 1mm toe out on my car. 2mm toe out was too unstable feeling for me so now its set to 1mm toe out and feels much better, not too unstable but still sharp.

 

205's don't camber out much when they're lowered, so you don't have to worry about that. The suspension geometry on old bmw's and the like makes their camber change a lot when lowered.

[adam_young 0]

My feeling was to stick with what it should be, but just wanted to canvas opinion.

 

Unless someone gives me a good arguement against I will have the car setup as it should be then.

 

Thanks for your input.