FTS

I am having alignment problems with my Cayman S. About 3 weeks ago, I took the car to my race shop to get it aligned. We got the camber and toe settings as we wanted on the car; however, as I picked up the car from the shop and drove off, within few miles, I noticed that the alignment was off, feeling as if it was going sideways and the rear toe being quite off.

About a week later, I schedule another time slot with the shop to correct the issue. They found that somehow, rear toe, as suspected, was way off. One side +0.1x and other -0.1x. So, one side had toe in and the other had toe out, hence the side ways feeling. Picked up the car towards the end of the day, I drove off, and the same thing.

Couple of days later, last Friday, I took the car in, stayed there and made sure the process was followed properly. I have to state that my race shop has some of the best techs in the area and they truly now what their doing. Nevertheless, I wanted to make sure everything was done by the book (I have done more than few dozen alignments myself on various cars). When we put the car on the alignment machine, we observed that this third time we had rear toe out/in situation like the previos times. We did the alignment, re-verified by going back and forth between the front and the rear camber/toe adjustments, making sure everything were as symetric as they can by to the 1/100th of a degree and that all bolts were properly torque and so forth. Confident of the process, I drove off..... I can't believe it, THE SAME THING!

So, today, owner of the shop called the manufacturer of the alignment machine and the techs came in, I went down with car and we started to whole process again a 4th time. Between 9:30 am and 6 pm, the car got aligned probably 12-14 times, each time narrowing down the possible issues. And between each alignment, we drove the car on the road for couple miles for the suspension to settle down. Alas, no luck, rear and front toe changes from alignment to alignment, we are not getting consistent numbers at all, and the car is still side ways, much more subtle though at this time.

The only things we have been able to rule out were that the machine is calibrated properly and there are no problems with the software. We aligned and verified a different car on the same machine and the numbers stayed the same to the 1/100th of degree.

So, now I am and they are at a loss; we do not know what the problem might be. If anyone experienced something similar, I would really would like to hear about it, or any information you guys can share would be great.

Some facts:

I really appreciate some help, I am at a loss what to even try at this time.

Thank you in advance,

FT

Boxsterund914

Doesn't seem possible. Is it going to the same measurement (of out of alignment) every time? In other words, you are setting it to the same spec every time, is it moving to a consistent wrong alignment every time?

Jay Laifman

You might want to call Steve at Johnson's Alignment in Torrence California at (310) 370-6301. He is reputed to be the best Porsche racing alignment shop in Southern California. He's not the most talkative guy and you wouldn't be a paying customer. But, he's the guy. So, it's worth a shot.

cdodkin

To rule out the equipment/methodology, you need to take the car to another shop and have them align it.

At this point, I don't see that you have any other easy options.

That should tell you a great deal.

Chris.

Dave Howerdel

Sounds like something's bent and movement of the suspension while driving is knocking it out of alignment. After returning to the shop when the alignment goes out, are the torque values of all fasteners rechecked to see if they remained the same?

bruinbro

Stripe all the fasteners/torqued items to see if they move.

Bro