Just had my baby aligned for a track day and was surprised to see the front left and right off by about a degree. Rear toe was way off too.

My car was aligned about 10 months ago.

Does it normally change that much?

 

It would really depend how much driving and track time you have between alignments.

 

Did u strap through the wheels?

 

I had the same problem with my 08 RS (though not that far off). It would not hold an alignment for any length of time.

The problem went away with SharkWerk's monoballs and links. I think the stock bushings are junk, allowing all kinds of movement. GT3s should come with the monoballs and links.

 

Were the bushings wearing and causing the misalignment or was it the fact that they were too flexible and not settling properly?

 

Yep, I have never had an alignment problem since I had Sharkwerks install all my RSS suspension pieces! and that was over 30k miles ago.

 

Get rear toe links with locking plates.
One thing that you don't want is messed up rear toe.

Otherwise watch the weather report before driving cause I hear it's gonna be windy this year, there. Anything over Beaufort 4 will move the eccentrics.

 

Many reasons:

1- cars bend, especially the steel body GT3 as it connects the suspension through subframes.
2- Rubber bushings experience deformation
3- The rear eccentric bolts can move as they wear out every time an alignment is done
4- A minor move in the eccentric bolts on the rear axle, causes massive changes on toe, and toe mismatch on the rear axle is deadly
5- Shocks wear and ride height changes, alignment changes as a consequence

I used to align my 996 GT3 every 2 months, until I switched the car to full monoballs, then alignment was needed every 6 months or so.

10 months in between alignments is an optimistic exaggeration, unless the car is not being driven for 10 months, as a parked car keeps the alignment.

 

do you track a lot and hit lots of berms?
do you have rear toe link with locking plates?
too much rubber in the suspension, heat deteriorated them?
those may explain why.
however, if you track plenty, then 10 months is WAY too long for alignment. alignment should be chk'd b4 every event. you dont want to arrive track, spin off only to realize you had rear toe out.

 

What suspension bits do you have?

As everybody says, with all the monoball stuff you can hold an alignment a lot longer.

My car can hit a wall and still hold perfect alignment with all the suspension bits i have added over the years

 

I got Moton CS, Tarrett dog bones and rear tow links w/ locking plates and GMG F/R anti sway bars.

A pro drove it today and liked the handling better than a RS Mk II. He said it was far more 'track oriented'. :-)

He was fast. I discovered what my car could do!

Getting back to the alignment - I guess I really should have it aligned every 2 to 3 months.

Thanks folks!

 

remove more rubber

monoballs
thrust arm bushings.....

dont forget to apply/watch paint marks and torque em after hard track days..

 

+1

When the arms/links were removed, I could deform the rubber in all the bushings (easily) by hand. I've never been able to do that, even on cars where I knew the bushings were dead. I believe that there is too much rubber and it is of too low a durometer value.

With all the compliance out, the alignment holds far longer, the car's more 'honest' in its reactions and it lost a ton of bump-steer. As I said, I don't know why the GT3s (at least the RSs) don't come from the factory with those parts installed. I do wish I'd done the thrust bushings independently, just to see what their impact to the suspension was... I assume some of the (new) vibration I feel in the body shell (at idle) is from them, but no idea on all their total impact.

 

my car has all stock arms replaced with racing arms on steel monoballs - after whole last season i had 0 drift of camber and toe, i had it all checked when i asked to decamber car a bit before winter.

it should not move if all major rubber pieces were removed. work with your mechanic to mark all joints with red paint and find out what gets shifted.
most important parts are those 'pucks' in the LCAs - you want solid metal there and rear toe arms. castor fork arms are optional but they all do help a bit. it is an obvious tradeoff if you prefer a silent car - with time all steel to steel joints will start to rattle, you can get used to that sound but if it a leisure car it may get annoing. ERP makes very good monoballs with teflon but nothing is immortal.

 

dude we just have super terrible roads here in the Philippines coupled with your extremely stiff suspension equals disalignment. hahaha! something gotta give. people have no idea how rough our roads are here.