Front Suspension Toe Out ?

[260DET]

The usual front toe setting on my car is one mm toe in but I'm looking at changing this to one mm toe out to improve turn in on the track. Apparently this will cause more front tyre wear when driving the car on the road and may cause some instability.

 

The present front alignment details are caster 5 degrees and camber 3 degrees negative. I've been told that with those settings instability should not be a problem, I don't drive on the road with the R tyres.

 

So I'm wondering what the experiences of others are who drive their cars on the road with toe out and what alignment specs they use.

[74_5.0L_Z]

Before you switch to toe-out, try running zero toe. I run 4.5 degrees caster, -2.5 degrees of camber, and zero toe up front.

In the rear, I run -1.5 degrees of camber and zero toe. I also have spherical bearings in place of all the stock bushings. Zero toe will also give you the least rolling resistance. Toe-in or Toe-out cause the tires to wear because they are trying to go in different directions.

 

My car is very stable on the highway with my street tires on the car, and turns very crisply at the autocross with my R tires.

[Clifton]

If it's a street driven car you won't be happy with even a little toe out. I run 1/16"-1/8" total toe out on my track car. Road coarses are smooth and flat for the most part but streets have seams and cracks all over, atleast out here. Your car will follow them and wander, it'll keep you busy. I've driven my track car on the street to check stuff and it darts all over comparred to my daily driver.

[datsunlover]

Yah, I drive mainly on the street and from some rough measurments, my car is toe'd out a few degrees. It's AWEFULL!! Darts evrywhere, and gets really hairy above 90mph. Really, imo a street car should have a bit of toe in... Seeing as the purpose of toe in is to have the front tires get 'pulled' back to ALMOST zero toe once there is resistance from the car moving forward. I'm tearing my car down soon, so I'm just dealing with it for now (not driving much out of town) ...next year I'm hoping to have all new susp. and stearing componants anyway, and will get an alignment to set the toe in.

[JMortensen]

I've got a mark on my outer tie rod and two on my inner. One is for 1/8" toe in and one is for 1/8" toe out. I would just get to the autox early, jack up the front and change my alignment there. My main problem was getting to the autox early.

 

I had it set so that the toe in setting had the steering wheel perfectly straight, and the toe out was just a hair off center. Worked great.

[srgunz]

My 240 was also darting badly on uneven roads. I checked my toe setting and found it to be 1/8" toe out. I reset to 1/8" toe in. The darting problem is much better. I still have some that I suspect is a bumpsteer problem as mine is lowered about 1" from stock. I am going to try those strut spacers next to see if that helps as well. The steering is much easier also.

[260DET]

Thanks, I'll try zero then go toe out if the problem persists.

 

One thing with the R tyres I've used some of them do tramline and wander quite badly even with toe in. Which is one reason why my car now gets loaded up with racing wheels

[johnc]

Your 3 degrees of negative camber will do more to wear your front tires out then a little bit of toe out. I've driven on the street (weekends only) my 240Z in its old BSP configuration and I liked the way it felt. 225/50-15 tires, 3.2- camber front, 2.5- camber rear, 6 degrees front caster, 3/16" toe out front, 1/8" toe in rear. The car was very lively and the steering wheel moved in your hands most of the time. Hard lane changes on the freeway would bounce my passenger's head off the side window...

[260DET]

In that case one mm out should not be a problem.