Alignment Woes

I still do not have the mazdaspeed back yet, but it is getting close. They took it in to get the alignment done, but I'm suffering a severe lack of camber in the rear. I asked Stuarts to us FM's basic alignment specs:

Front
Caster: 5.0 degrees
Camber: 1.0 degrees negative
Toe-in: 1/16" total (1/32" per side)

Rear
Camber: 1.5 degrees negative
Toe-in: 1/16" total (1/32" per side)

The results came back as:

Front Left Right
Caster: 5.1 degrees 5.5 degrees
Camber: -.7 degrees -.6 degrees
Toe: .13 .13

Rear Left Right
Camber: -.3 degrees -.1 degrees
Toe: .33 .31

I'm very unhappy about the lack of rear camber. I spoke with Al at Al's Brake and Tires who aligned the car, and he said he just couldn't get any more negative camber out of it. What do you guys recommend?

Those numbers seem very suspect to me. I got more negative camber out of my Yaris! Are they sure they are adjusting the rears in the correct direction? I was under the impression that the factory adjustment range was substantially greater.

Makes you wonder if something is still bent or if the alignment guy sucks...... :(

Sounds like something's bent still. I bent my control arm and ball joint on my front passeger side and could only get -0.4 :(
My rear is at -1.7 so it handles quite differently than it should.

I would definitely have that double-checked!

I'm not ruling out either at the moment. Got an email from Stuarts that they are gonna try again tomorrow.

Since all wheels have too little camber, I bet the suspension was torqued while in the air. Is the ride height a little high as well?

One other option is that he was only using 1 of the 2 bolts on each wheel.

The alignment guy matched the right side to the left to match the best he could get (where the car was damaged) Looks like they are gonna try to get the rear subframe replaced even though it falls within spec (despite not having the range it should have). Hopefully this wont take forever.

So how does replacing the rear sub-frame that address the front looks like it had wacky numbers also...... or am I reading it wrong??

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BigDmiata

Front
Caster: 5.0 degrees
Camber: 1.0 degrees negative
Toe-in: 1/16" total (1/32" per side)

Rear
Camber: 1.5 degrees negative
Toe-in: 1/16" total (1/32" per side)

The results came back as:

Front Left Right
Caster: 5.1 degrees 5.5 degrees
Camber: -.7 degrees -.6 degrees
Toe: .13 .13

Rear Left Right
Camber: -.3 degrees -.1 degrees
Toe: .33 .31

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Send him this - http://www.miata.net/garage/alignment/index.html ;-)