I have read through some posts on alignment, but I am still a little confused.

I lowered my car on DF210s probably 9 months ago and never got an alignment. I have not noticed uneven tire wear, but I still have quite a bit of understeer, even with the sway bar. I was thinking I should finally get an alignment and that I should get a more performance based alignment.

Do I have to buy camber bolts and have them installed when they are doing the alignment, and also tell them the specs that I want it aligned too? What specs do I want it aligned to for a fun street setup?

 

An alignment would really have not much effect on understeer. It's a fwd car - it understeers.

What kind of a "performance" alignment are you thinking though? You could probably have them just dial up a bit more neg camber in the front (using stock adjustments). And if you are brave, go ahead and ask for some positive toe - I don't recommend it for daily driving though.

 

From my understanding the alignment could be set up to reduce some understeer and make the car handle better, and this would be different than the settings that they would put it too normally.

 

Ya, the OEM specs aren't really meant for any kind of performance... but I don't think you're going to notice a ton of difference in handling unless you go for something drastic.

 

you have to remember, even with DF's, our cars still experience a lot of body roll, from your avatar, you appear to be on stock rims with stock a/s tires. not great for performance, they probably hinder us the most. the sway is great to stiffen the chassis and lower body roll, but all in all, you can't expect a sway and DF's to curb in our car more.

 

I've been on DF210's for over a year now. Never had an alignment and my tread wear is perfectly even. If you need an alignment, it's not because of the drop.

 

in general, you could definitely need an alignment from a drop, but in all honesty just from a drop on DF's, as long as you installed everything correctly and paid attention to not messing with unnecessary bolts near the tie rods etc., you should be perfectly fine. I installed my DF's myself, and much like rhino, my treadwear is perfectly even. Bump steer sucks, especially with the stock 5" wide steelies, but none the less, everything's aligned and well.

 

A performance minded alignment would help you reduce the under steer a little bit.

How? By adding negative camber to the front wheels you increase the front traction while turning and as a consequence the under steer is reduced.
You will need camber bolts to achieve any significant amount of neg camber. Usually for a street set up -1.5, -1.75 of camber would give you some improvement with out increasing tire wear. I'm currently at -1.8 (That's the must I was able to pull out of my bolts) and I haven't noticed any abnormal tire wear.

For the Toe you will want just a tinny bit of toe in 1/32 toe in is good. The toe out could improve your turn in, but these cars get to twitchy ( read nervous) at the highway when you dial some toe out. Also the toe out will eat your tires way faster.

This won't take away the understeer but it will help. Also, play around with tire pressures. Run 2-4 more psi on on the front wheels.

And drive safe!!

 

Thanks, that was what I was looking for. Probably next spring I will get some new rims and tires, and get the car aligned then. Should be a pretty big difference in handling I hope.