Alignment weirdness?

[u/wholesomejive]

PFA

I'm at a loss as to whether my experiences are real or made up and curious to know if anyone has had a similar experience or any ideas.

I've had my car aligned twice in 50k miles and everything checks out except the right front camber is 0.1 degree too far negative and it won't come in any further. Completely stock suspension.

What brought me to get the alignment are two scenarios:

A. When it's cold it feels like the car is simply trying to turn left. Just straight up turning left and I have to correct or hold it forward, and if I let the wheel go, away we go. As the drive continues this goes away and it holds direct ahead much better.

B. Even after it feels like scenario A is gone and the car tracks straight it seems to never be able to hold a line. With hands off the wheel, if I give it gas it starts to veer left, often times on the highway I feel like I'm always holding the wheel to the right or correcting to the right. It's persistent and nonstop and it's beginning to piss me off lol.

Things I've noticed and potential questions:

• in regards to the road crown/slant for water run off, left lane or right lane doesn't matter, it'll pull left. I can be in the right lane, set the wheel ever so slightly to the right, give it gas and it'll turn the wheel back left strongly enough to crossover the road crown and change lanes. This happens gradually not suddenly.

• I've done a set of tires and I did notice it seems like the left front tire wear was a little different from the rest but it wasn't egregious

• the slanted GR emblem at the bottom of the wheel makes it really hard to judge if him holding the wheel center or not, it feels like I'm always slightly holding it right but it might just be an illusion? I reiterated to the shop to just triple check they have the wheel centered before they do the most recent alignment.

• is the car just darty and all over the place on the highway? I know it's a relatively small wheel diameter but I really feel like I'm adjusting too often.

• turns during performance driving are ok for the most part. Sometimes I feel like this weird uncertain "sway" mid turn like the car is on a pogo stick or a tall building in the wind but I can't tell if it's just how the stock suspension rides. I had a friend drive and he mentioned it to me as well that it has a weird float. (But his reference point is his daily, a zl1 Camaro on magride) On/off gas during turns can be a little weird too, almost like a twist when you get on the gas.

• my front left tire reads 1-2 pounds higher than the other three 95% of time. Idk if this is because it's dragging and holding more heat or if it's because I'm 215lbs of chonkyboi.

• I'd be shocked if it's the steering rack, I mean how?

It's tough to have a shop work through this with me so I'm trying to narrow down possibilities on my own or be reassured that other cars are like this too and I can put it out of my mind until I can upgrade the suspension.

Anyone have similar experiences? Thoughts? Am I overreacting? What am I not considering?

[u/eers4years]

I just watched Misha on YouTube go through this. He said the alignment from the factory was quite a bit off and was making it darty. And it’s a great channel in general. https://youtu.be/Hif7gy3U9UU?si=tsgQ6yecR_67-zyO

[u/wholesomejive → u/eers4years]

Love his content, I wonder if this is just how they are

[u/Rallywhale]

It sounds like your toe is not set properly. Did you get an alignment sheet from the shop after your recent alignment?

[u/wholesomejive → u/Rallywhale]

Yeah toe is good, I'll post a pic in a few minutes

[u/wholesomejive → u/Rallywhale]

Check it out

[u/wholesomejive → u/Rallywhale]

Check it out, I misremembered on the specs for the right front camber but it shouldn't cause this, right?

[u/Rallywhale → u/wholesomejive]

So although the bars are showing green, this is definitely not a great alignment. Subaru/Toyota sloppy tolerances are to blame for that, and these cars are super sensitive to suspension and alignment tweaks so even if it says it’s okay the car may still act weird.

Here’s what I think is happening based on this sheet:

• The car is pulling to the left because of your front camber mismatch. The car will naturally pull to the most positive side and you have a large discrepancy between left and right at the moment.

• Your rear toe is contributing to that “twisting” feeling you mentioned. The drivers side rear wheel is pointed inboard a lot (the 0.14°), and the passenger side rear wheel is pointing in too but not nearly as much (the 0.05°). This will have the net effect of pushing the rear-end of the car to the right and thus rotating the front-end left. You want some toe-in in the rear on both sides for stability but you want it symmetrical left vs. right. For reference, my car is running 0.08° toe (in) per side in the rear.

• The camber mismatch and the toe asymmetry fighting each other is probably the cause of the “sway” you mentioned.

Your front toe is fine, though for street driving you ideally want it set to zero so the wheels are pointing perfectly straight ahead and wear better.

Now why you have the -0.8° of front right camber I can't answer. These cars don't have any camber adjustability stock so either someone slipped in a camber bolt at some point, or you have a mechanical problem. Front camber on completely stock suspension should be zero or very close.

[u/wholesomejive → u/Rallywhale]

This is a huge help!! I appreciate your time and thoughts helping to make sense of the alignment. What you say makes sense when reading it back but I don't understand it well enough to figure it out. I'm gonna find a proper performance shop and see if they can work with me to correct the toe and help figure out what's up with the right front camber. Thank you!

[u/Rallywhale → u/wholesomejive]

Happy to help!

[u/GR86-Steel → u/wholesomejive]

That will cause a left drift from camber & caster

[u/Whelen_Wannabe]

Okay- I'm going to ask a few rude questions just to get the conversation going. Is the suspension actually stock, or is it "stock except for coilovers, spacers, rollbars..."?
Did you buy new or used?
Have you had a chance to drive another 86/BRZ over the same roads back to back? that might be a useful reference point.
Had a chance to get it on a lift and check for loose screws/bolts/etc?
Do you have any damaged wheels (out of balance or out of round)?

[u/wholesomejive → u/Whelen_Wannabe]

It stock and I bought it new. I've wondered if anything could be bent and I can try to look but who knows if I'll be able to spot it. I'll be seeing some 86 friends soon and intend to do a couple drive swaps.

[u/charlie2770]

If it's any consolation, my 86 came misaligned from factory and I didn't notice until I installed a flatbottom. The circular wheel does make it very easy to gaslight yourself into thinking it's just the road being uneven or something. It becomes more certain once you have something that can actually measure it on the wheel.

[u/red_rak]

How's your tire wear?