Tarret Camber Plates
Thread Starter
Rennlist Member
Joined: Oct 2014
Posts: 6,940
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From: L.I. NY
^^^ This is helpful - Thanks (as are several of the earlier posts - no dis meant to other posters 
). I can say that I'm positive that the camber plates were oriented properly when I brought the car in, as I installed them myself and was very careful about the orientation (and it was clear from the instructions). That's really as far as I can go regarding the alignment as the local dealer (I figured they should be experts... 
) did it the first time, charged me $450 and didn't/couldn't get it within spec either. This is what wore my tires out (just the insides) in about 6k miles. The most recent shop insisted I buy new tires before they did the alignment, or "it would change things when I put the new tires on" - when I think about this in hindsight, it seems like total BS (since when do you have to re-align the suspension because you put new tires on?), but at the time it seemed reasonable since I needed the tires anyway...Hopefully, the next place I call can figure it out once and for all...Wish me luck 
). I can say that I'm positive that the camber plates were oriented properly when I brought the car in, as I installed them myself and was very careful about the orientation (and it was clear from the instructions). That's really as far as I can go regarding the alignment as the local dealer (I figured they should be experts... ) did it the first time, charged me $450 and didn't/couldn't get it within spec either. This is what wore my tires out (just the insides) in about 6k miles. The most recent shop insisted I buy new tires before they did the alignment, or "it would change things when I put the new tires on" - when I think about this in hindsight, it seems like total BS (since when do you have to re-align the suspension because you put new tires on?), but at the time it seemed reasonable since I needed the tires anyway...Hopefully, the next place I call can figure it out once and for all...Wish me luck
Pro
Joined: Jul 2012
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FWIW, I think the advice to get new tires before the alignment was valid. Old tires can make even a perfectly aligned car behave in very bad ways.
In my experience even fairly aggressive cambers usually don't wear tires out that quickly, however, aggressive toe settings will wear them out in a flash. Did you happen to lower the ride heights f/r without bringing the toe settings back into spec?
In my experience even fairly aggressive cambers usually don't wear tires out that quickly, however, aggressive toe settings will wear them out in a flash. Did you happen to lower the ride heights f/r without bringing the toe settings back into spec?
Nordschleife Master
Joined: Dec 2016
Posts: 8,050
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From: Kauai
Can you pop the front hood and remove the plastic covers so you can view the strut top mounts and see where the three nuts are? If they are all the way inwards, that is max neg camber, if they are all the way outwards, that is min camber. Those Tarrets provide an extra .6 of neg camber, so that means with stock you would be at -2.2 and -2.4? How much lowered is your car?
Also, have you replaced the front LCA (coffin arm) in the front?
There is a video on youtube of someone that installed an aftermarket front LCA on a C4 and it turned out to be too long. That would give you a big dose of extra neg camber.
https://youtu.be/rNxvp97gtrM
Also, have you replaced the front LCA (coffin arm) in the front?
There is a video on youtube of someone that installed an aftermarket front LCA on a C4 and it turned out to be too long. That would give you a big dose of extra neg camber.
https://youtu.be/rNxvp97gtrM
Thread Starter
Rennlist Member
Joined: Oct 2014
Posts: 6,940
Likes: 1,288
From: L.I. NY
FWIW, I think the advice to get new tires before the alignment was valid. Old tires can make even a perfectly aligned car behave in very bad ways.
In my experience even fairly aggressive cambers usually don't wear tires out that quickly, however, aggressive toe settings will wear them out in a flash. Did you happen to lower the ride heights f/r without bringing the toe settings back into spec?
In my experience even fairly aggressive cambers usually don't wear tires out that quickly, however, aggressive toe settings will wear them out in a flash. Did you happen to lower the ride heights f/r without bringing the toe settings back into spec?
As I mentioned in an earlier post (and another thread, a while ago) after the new suspension components were installed I brought the car to my local Porsche dealer for a $450 alignment
The alignment "report" showed the toe settings as "green" - in other words within factory spec. (the latest shop did mention that the toe numbers were way out, and the new report shows them to be within spec. now as well) In hindsight, sometime after the alignment was done, I had taken the car back to the dealer for an inspection. In the process of parking my car, the tech wound up blowing one of the seals out of my steering rack. For this I was given the opportunity to pay them $1100.00 to replace my steering rack with a rebuilt unit (a one was over $3k). In replacing the rack - even though they said they did an alignment, I'm thinking this is where my troubles began. They must have done a "eyeball/count the threads on the tie-rod" type of alignment...
