I was thinking about getting a more aggressive front allignment on my TC.

Maybe add a little bit more negative camber, to try and get some more front end grip.

Has anyone experimented with this?

 

It's fwd with 60% of the cars weight on the front end. It is going to understeer at the limit.
More negative camber will get you more grip but you will trash the tires in no time.

Good for auto-x / roadracing, not so much for a dd imho.

 

Went anyways because I felt the stock alignment was off..

I was right

Anyways the "factory" alignment

FRONT

Camber
Left: -0.6
Right: -1.3

Toe
Left: 0.45
Right: -0.40

REAR

Camber
Left: -0.2
Right: -0.7

Toe
left: 0.00
Right: 0.15

Guy said the rear is a little messed up, only way to fix it would be to loosen the sub frame and move it apparently.


I got the front all straightened out though

Camber -1.3 both sides
Toe 0.5 both sides.

Drives much better now.

 

you guy is reight about the rear. zero toe at the front is better...

 

Zero on the front toe in will make it turn in a bit nicer but you loose a bit of straight line stability. You may like it better, you may not.

Sucks we have no adjustment on the rear (short of shimming / bending ) but yes, your alignment guy is right, he might be able to get closer by loosening the rear axle assy and "nudging" it over a bit.

Jeeez, the numbers you had before it must have turned left like a stock car

 

Hence why I wanted to go in the first place.

Pullin left on the highway constantly.

I do a quite a bit of highway driving, so he recommended the slight toe out. He also said this might help with the negative thrust angle caused by the rear end being out of allingment a bit.

The other thing he was mentioning that he used to do on solid axled cars is some kind of shim kit that goes on beneath the hub and alows you to get some negative camber out of the rear wheels.

I have not heard of anything like this before.... anyone know if such a thing is a available for these cars?

 

I know you can get them for many cars, not sure about the 'Balt though.

Wait, just looked - JCWhitney does list alignment shims, various sizes....no idea if they are for the front, back, both? Your alignment guy should know for sure.

 

toe out does not work. the cobalt hates it. i recommend you dont do this

 

I may go back the toe taken out completely..

Either way though i would say I am light years ahead of where I was.

 

True, most cars with toe out will be twitchy as hell in a straight line.

Hmmm, 0.5 should be toe in, think negative numbers are toe out? Might be wrong about that though.

And yes, I can believe the difference. Bought mine new, 36 km's on the clock. Thought the car was a bit sensative but figured that was normal - only my second fwd car, other one is the wifes Taurus, totally different beast. When I bought it my dealer offered a free alignment after 3 months (along with free mudflaps - declined ), "Let things settle in a bit first" he said. Maybe he has seen too many come in with wonky alignment from the factory?

Anyway, the front was toed out about 0.2 total, reset to 0.25 toe in total (everything else was pretty close) - what a difference. No longer feels like it is trying to change direction over every little ripple in the road, much easier to drive at speed

 

I dunno, the +/- on toe in/out and caster has always confused me a bit.

edit

Positive toe, or toe in, is the front of the wheel pointing in towards the centreline of the vehicle. Negative toe, or toe out, is the front of the wheel pointing away from the centreline of the vehicle

so it is 0.5 toe in, not out.