A bit late finding this video but exactly what I needed to get to grips with the concept. The visual props helped a lot and would highly recommend anyone into fine tuning their suspension setup to watch the whole video...a few times if needed like I did as it is really worth it. Thanks for making this video as I am sure it will help countless of others like myself who would like to expand their knowledge. The whole channel is a wealth of information for any Subaru enthusiast :)
Thank you so much for this in-depth alignment tutorial. I recently took my car to a local shop to have it aligned, and for some reason, everything is green except for the caster. The service technician advised that there was no way of correcting the caster issue, but after watching this video there is.
Perhaps too in depth for most. The only vid you could made regarding alignment that could probably go ‘viral’ or whatever would be something like: “how to get 45 degree camber for maaaad slanty stance” for da sad boiiiis. Anyway, I actually rotated my mooresport mounts to add some sweet caster in front I can’t decide if I should get some Cusco trailing arms to also get rear caster-ability (caster-ation? wait no not that…) though since I already bought and installed some static group n arms
Amazing how caster has such an effect on camber. Although you did say it varies depending on which suspension system is in play. Thank you for your time to detail out this important alignment spec.
Really, sounded rather drawn out, esoteric and ambiguous to me. He could have just said that a chopper was an example of positive caster. I once ask a dentist what "triage" meant. He went at great lengths to not explain it, later I watched a tv show "Emergency" and they better explained it in 10 seconds.
Just came across this video. I am running significantly more caster with new plates on my bmw and was disappointed the static camber wasn’t more. The race shop that set it up said “this will be a huge improvement!!” I finally grasp fully how this new caster setting will work for me based on the issues I’ve been having!
Well I never knew what caster was. Heard of it but never thought about it. Nice explanation that even I can understand. The sheet of paper really helped.
Question about added caster - I am looking at an anti lift kit by whiteline for the a 2018 civic which is a Macpherson suspension design. The kit is a poly bushing that replaces the OEM bushing on the front lower control arms and adds +1 degree of caster. Because of the added dynamic negative camber that comes with added caster when cornering, would it cause abnormal tirewear even if aligned at factory specs? How often do tires need to be rotated with a such a part installed for a daily driven car? Thank you for the useful information!
Thanks for your question. For street use, generally speaking, as you add caster, you don't need as much static camber for the reason you describe. But it does depend a bit on how the car is driven as well. I'd recommend starting with slightly less static camber, and keep an eye on your tires. If you start to seen more inner edge wear in a few thousand miles, you could try taking some more camber out, but make sure that the car still feels like it has the same front end grip. Thanks for watching and Stay Tuned!
Another awesome video guys! You mentioned toe out can affect the camber dynamics as the wheel is turned, I have adjustable strut tops that have max castor dialed in and I do notice my inner edge wears first, I was wondering if I left the castor but adjusted the toe to give me toe in, I'm assuming that would reduce the dynamic camber, but my only question is, how does toe in affect the handling of the car and tyre wear?? I only run about a degree to a degree and a half front static camber if I recall correctly.
Thanks for your question. Basically, the more caster you have, the less static camber you should need on the street. Ideally you would want to try zero toe, not toe-in. See what that does for your tires, and if you are still having a lot of inner edge wear, try taking some of the camber out. You will likely need to add it back in if you take the car to the track, so just keep an eye on tire roll-over. Thanks for watching and Stay Tuned!
@FlatironsTuning Can you tell us about any negatives to the Anti-Lift Kit on Scotty's car? I know that in addition to the offset bushing, it is also lowered. I know of the positives, but can you tell us if there are any negative attributes vs the stock flat plane mounting of the lower arm? Thanks!
Thanks for your question. As far as negatives to running an Anti-Lift kit, I can only think of 2. The first is potentially faster tire wear, as you are working the front tires more. But this isn't always the case. It will depend largely on the alignment that you are running as well. The other issue is it makes the steering heavier, which can put more stress on your power steering pump in an extreme case. In the Pikes Peak car, if we are pulling the car out of the shop and it is idling, turning the wheel too fast can cause the engine to want to stall... Hope that helps and Stay Tuned!
On my 2021 slingshot going straight I have to hold steering wheel to left of center, after turning loose it will immediately center itself and then slingshot goes to the right very quick.
That does sound like an alignment issue. I would start by having that checked, as the first step of an alignment is to set the center for the steering wheel. Hope that helps and Stay Tuned!
Great content. What is your rule of thumb for max cross caster tolerance on the STI? My cross caster was out almost a degree and I found that shifting the subframe from side to side brought me within 4 minutes of cross caster which I believe is more than acceptable.
Thanks for the question Lucas. Interesting. It sounds like something shifted that is for sure. Generally with Caster, you can't adjust it that precisely. But with caster as with camber and toe, you really want it as close to the same left to right as possible. Thanks for watching and Stay Tuned!
This is fairly uncommon on cars I believe. From what I understand, negative caster will center the wheel, and make steering easier, but I don't believe that there are any gains in traction from it. From what I have hears, this is most common on large trucks for instance. Hope that helps and Stay Tuned!
Thanks for your question. The best answer would be that you have as close to the same caster on both the left and right wheels. From there, if you were wanting to add caster, you would just want to make sure that you gained degrees equally on both sides. Hope that helps and Stay Tuned!
@@FlatironsTuning My problem is that when I turn my car, the steering wheel of the car comes back to its place, but I have to bring it back.. Tell me a good solution. I have met a many mechanic. The real problem is that someone new arrives
Gotcha. The short answer to your question is that as you add caster, you will also be improving your wheel's ability to return to center. The trade-off there is that you are also making your steering heavier. If you have power steering, this is most likely not an issue, but if you don't have power steering, you will notice the increased steering effort fairly quickly. Hope that helps!
Great Video. I have a Honda DC5 Type R that is a dedicated track car. I noticed that you are running almost +8deg of caster on the Pikes Peak Subbie. My car has McPherson struts and +2.0 deg of caster. I have to fight it to keep it straight under boost. Should I dial in more caster? If so how much would you recommend?
Thanks for your question. Up front, yes, any change to caster, camber, or toe will usually effect the other two so you have to go back and at least take a look at them when you make a change. Thanks for watching and Stay Tuned!
I took my car back to dealership because I thought my alignment was slightly off. What he came back with was caster which I didn't even know what he was talking about. But that explains why my car veers to the left even now that I got all new tires it still noticable. He told me caster Is not fixable is this true ?? Now I'm feeling played
Thanks, well explained, I'm building a 45 dodge pickup and put TCI suspension on,,,trying to determine best way to set it up, useing manual steering, so after watching, I feel no caster is my best way,,, and just have plumb axis center line,,,do you agree???
Thanks for your question. On Macpherson suspension, the easiest way to add caster is to move the strut's location in the top-hat. You can also look at the lower control arm position, and manipulate that. In that case, you would want to look at the position of the lower ball-joint and see if you can move it further forward. If you can do either of those, or both, then you will have a lot of ability to change your caster. Hope that helps, and Stay Tuned!
Great explanation thanks. Question: For my GR I'm considering the Whiteline KCA425 LCA bushings to correct caster. Do you like this product for a street car? Is there much noise and vibration penalty running this product? Thanks!
Thanks for your question. That is the polyurethane bushing I believe, so there would not be much of an NVH penalty for it. www.flatironstuning.com/whiteline-anti-lift-kit-2011-sti-2015-wrx It is off-set, which is where you can gain camber with it, but you have to make sure that you press them in evenly between both sides. I hope that helps, and Stay Tuned!
Great explanation! I'm having nothing but problems with my jeep. It has fully adjustable suspension. It always wants to stay left or right. Never center. Could you please try to explain why that is?
also could be your tires... try switching the front left to the front right, and the right one to the left... see if it pulls the opposite way... all values should be as close to zero as you can get them with an alignment.... lowering or raising the vehicle will affect your alignment values as well
Sir, my car i20 front struts shockers are aligned perfect 90 degree with respect to ground when steering wheel is at normal or 0 degree position. However, the left shocker slanted bit about 30 degree approx with respect to its original vertical position when the steering is full turned to left. The same is for the right shocker when fully turned right. Is this change in vertical alignment normal??? Thanks.
Hi brother...i have a problem with my ford mondeo for last 6 years and few days back when i do the alignment i checked the result and found caster and some other values are around 0.50° change and guy told its because of that ur car is going left side..i changed all front suspension apart from tie rod end which is now being coming on online and i changed two new tyres around one year back and all i driven is around 6k kilometer..what ever i have done there is no change in problm...if you can share ur watsapp num i can sent u the alignment result so that i can get some advice that what is my real problm.i changed front shocks,lower arm,coil spring,mount strut and stabiliser rod
A bit late finding this video but exactly what I needed to get to grips with the concept. The visual props helped a lot and would highly recommend anyone into fine tuning their suspension setup to watch the whole video...a few times if needed like I did as it is really worth it.
Thanks for making this video as I am sure it will help countless of others like myself who would like to expand their knowledge. The whole channel is a wealth of information for any Subaru enthusiast :)
Thanks very much for the great comment! Very glad to hear that this video was helpful.
Thanks for watching and Stay Tuned!
Thank you so much for this in-depth alignment tutorial. I recently took my car to a local shop to have it aligned, and for some reason, everything is green except for the caster. The service technician advised that there was no way of correcting the caster issue, but after watching this video there is.
Very glad that the video was helpful!
Thanks for watching and Stay Tuned!
The best castor explained I seen online. I watched alot of videos on this.. this is the fundamental best
That is awesome to hear. Glad that the video was helpful!
Thanks for watching and Stay Tuned!
Exactly the tech talk I was looking for. Very in depth. Why you don't have more subscribers is beyond me. +1 from me!
That is awesome. Be sure to pass it on!
We appreciate the support and Stay Tuned!
Perhaps too in depth for most. The only vid you could made regarding alignment that could probably go ‘viral’ or whatever would be something like: “how to get 45 degree camber for maaaad slanty stance” for da sad boiiiis. Anyway, I actually rotated my mooresport mounts to add some sweet caster in front I can’t decide if I should get some Cusco trailing arms to also get rear caster-ability (caster-ation? wait no not that…) though since I already bought and installed some static group n arms
Amazing how caster has such an effect on camber. Although you did say it varies depending on which suspension system is in play. Thank you for your time to detail out this important alignment spec.
Thanks for watching, and glad it helped!
Best explanation of Caster I've found. Thanks!
Thanks Nathan!
+2 on that.. I tried to understand how my eccentric cam bolts worked and this gave me a great idea.. thank you for the video
Really, sounded rather drawn out, esoteric and ambiguous to me. He could have just said that a chopper was an example of positive caster. I once ask a dentist what "triage" meant. He went at great lengths to not explain it, later I watched a tv show "Emergency" and they better explained it in 10 seconds.
Just came across this video. I am running significantly more caster with new plates on my bmw and was disappointed the static camber wasn’t more. The race shop that set it up said “this will be a huge improvement!!” I finally grasp fully how this new caster setting will work for me based on the issues I’ve been having!
Thanks for the comment, and thanks for watching.
Stay Tuned!
More caster = less static camber needed = better braking stability
Best explanation I've seen so far - thanks
Thanks for the comment and thanks for watching!
Stay Tuned!
Nicely done. Everyone into fine tuning their suspension should watch this. Well explained.
Awesome compliment! Thanks for watching!
Best explanation ever. Have read about it but you really clarified it. Tx
Thanks very much! Glad this helped.
Thanks for watching and Stay Tuned!
Well I never knew what caster was. Heard of it but never thought about it. Nice explanation that even I can understand. The sheet of paper really helped.
Thanks very much John. That is a great compliment.
Thanks for watching and Stay Tuned!
I bet you still don't.
Great visual on how caster effects your dynamic camber. Thank you!
Thanks for watching and Stay Tuned!
Thanks for the excellent explanation
Thanks very much! Stay Tuned!
Wow! UTI wasnt able to explain this to were i could understand it but, you sir have done it! Thank you.
That is an awesome compliment. Thanks for that, and thanks for watching!
This explanation is very good. Thank you.
Thanks for watching!
You really know your stuff! Thanks for explaining everything in detail.
Thanks Danny, and thanks for watching!
Question about added caster - I am looking at an anti lift kit by whiteline for the a 2018 civic which is a Macpherson suspension design. The kit is a poly bushing that replaces the OEM bushing on the front lower control arms and adds +1 degree of caster. Because of the added dynamic negative camber that comes with added caster when cornering, would it cause abnormal tirewear even if aligned at factory specs? How often do tires need to be rotated with a such a part installed for a daily driven car? Thank you for the useful information!
Thanks for your question. For street use, generally speaking, as you add caster, you don't need as much static camber for the reason you describe. But it does depend a bit on how the car is driven as well.
I'd recommend starting with slightly less static camber, and keep an eye on your tires. If you start to seen more inner edge wear in a few thousand miles, you could try taking some more camber out, but make sure that the car still feels like it has the same front end grip.
Thanks for watching and Stay Tuned!
Another awesome video guys! You mentioned toe out can affect the camber dynamics as the wheel is turned, I have adjustable strut tops that have max castor dialed in and I do notice my inner edge wears first, I was wondering if I left the castor but adjusted the toe to give me toe in, I'm assuming that would reduce the dynamic camber, but my only question is, how does toe in affect the handling of the car and tyre wear?? I only run about a degree to a degree and a half front static camber if I recall correctly.
Thanks for your question. Basically, the more caster you have, the less static camber you should need on the street. Ideally you would want to try zero toe, not toe-in. See what that does for your tires, and if you are still having a lot of inner edge wear, try taking some of the camber out.
You will likely need to add it back in if you take the car to the track, so just keep an eye on tire roll-over.
Thanks for watching and Stay Tuned!
@FlatironsTuning Can you tell us about any negatives to the Anti-Lift Kit on Scotty's car? I know that in addition to the offset bushing, it is also lowered. I know of the positives, but can you tell us if there are any negative attributes vs the stock flat plane mounting of the lower arm? Thanks!
Thanks for your question. As far as negatives to running an Anti-Lift kit, I can only think of 2. The first is potentially faster tire wear, as you are working the front tires more. But this isn't always the case. It will depend largely on the alignment that you are running as well.
The other issue is it makes the steering heavier, which can put more stress on your power steering pump in an extreme case. In the Pikes Peak car, if we are pulling the car out of the shop and it is idling, turning the wheel too fast can cause the engine to want to stall...
Hope that helps and Stay Tuned!
On my 2021 slingshot going straight I have to hold steering wheel to left of center, after turning loose it will immediately center itself and then slingshot goes to the right very quick.
That does sound like an alignment issue. I would start by having that checked, as the first step of an alignment is to set the center for the steering wheel.
Hope that helps and Stay Tuned!
Great content. What is your rule of thumb for max cross caster tolerance on the STI? My cross caster was out almost a degree and I found that shifting the subframe from side to side brought me within 4 minutes of cross caster which I believe is more than acceptable.
Thanks for the question Lucas. Interesting. It sounds like something shifted that is for sure. Generally with Caster, you can't adjust it that precisely. But with caster as with camber and toe, you really want it as close to the same left to right as possible.
Thanks for watching and Stay Tuned!
Once again....great content.....👍
Awesome! Glad you liked it.
Thanks for watching and Stay Tuned!
What happens when a car has negative caster, does it still product torque and self centering
This is fairly uncommon on cars I believe. From what I understand, negative caster will center the wheel, and make steering easier, but I don't believe that there are any gains in traction from it.
From what I have hears, this is most common on large trucks for instance.
Hope that helps and Stay Tuned!
you really know your suspension!
Thanks for watching!
How do I know if my car's castor angle is right?
Thanks for your question. The best answer would be that you have as close to the same caster on both the left and right wheels.
From there, if you were wanting to add caster, you would just want to make sure that you gained degrees equally on both sides.
Hope that helps and Stay Tuned!
@@FlatironsTuning
My problem is that when I turn my car, the steering wheel of the car comes back to its place, but I have to bring it back.. Tell me a good solution. I have met a many mechanic. The real problem is that someone new arrives
Gotcha.
The short answer to your question is that as you add caster, you will also be improving your wheel's ability to return to center. The trade-off there is that you are also making your steering heavier.
If you have power steering, this is most likely not an issue, but if you don't have power steering, you will notice the increased steering effort fairly quickly.
Hope that helps!
Great Video. I have a Honda DC5 Type R that is a dedicated track car. I noticed that you are running almost +8deg of caster on the Pikes Peak Subbie. My car has McPherson struts and +2.0 deg of caster. I have to fight it to keep it straight under boost. Should I dial in more caster? If so how much would you recommend?
When changing caster does camber then need adjusting?
Thanks for your question. Up front, yes, any change to caster, camber, or toe will usually effect the other two so you have to go back and at least take a look at them when you make a change.
Thanks for watching and Stay Tuned!
I took my car back to dealership because I thought my alignment was slightly off.
What he came back with was caster which I didn't even know what he was talking about.
But that explains why my car veers to the left even now that I got all new tires it still noticable.
He told me caster Is not fixable is this true ??
Now I'm feeling played
Thanks, well explained, I'm building a 45 dodge pickup and put TCI suspension on,,,trying to determine best way to set it up, useing manual steering, so after watching, I feel no caster is my best way,,, and just have plumb axis center line,,,do you agree???
Great video! Thank you very much!
Can you suggest ways to increase caster on Macpherson front suspension?
Thanks for your question. On Macpherson suspension, the easiest way to add caster is to move the strut's location in the top-hat. You can also look at the lower control arm position, and manipulate that. In that case, you would want to look at the position of the lower ball-joint and see if you can move it further forward.
If you can do either of those, or both, then you will have a lot of ability to change your caster.
Hope that helps, and Stay Tuned!
Great explanation thanks. Question: For my GR I'm considering the Whiteline KCA425 LCA bushings to correct caster. Do you like this product for a street car? Is there much noise and vibration penalty running this product? Thanks!
Thanks for your question. That is the polyurethane bushing I believe, so there would not be much of an NVH penalty for it.
www.flatironstuning.com/whiteline-anti-lift-kit-2011-sti-2015-wrx
It is off-set, which is where you can gain camber with it, but you have to make sure that you press them in evenly between both sides.
I hope that helps, and Stay Tuned!
Great explanation!
I'm having nothing but problems with my jeep.
It has fully adjustable suspension.
It always wants to stay left or right. Never center.
Could you please try to explain why that is?
It seems like you have your front or rears toed 1 way. They might be aligned but not straight.
also could be your tires... try switching the front left to the front right, and the right one to the left... see if it pulls the opposite way... all values should be as close to zero as you can get them with an alignment.... lowering or raising the vehicle will affect your alignment values as well
Sir, my car i20 front struts shockers are aligned perfect 90 degree with respect to ground when steering wheel is at normal or 0 degree position. However, the left shocker slanted bit about 30 degree approx with respect to its original vertical position when the steering is full turned to left. The same is for the right shocker when fully turned right. Is this change in vertical alignment normal??? Thanks.
Great explanation!
Thanks for watching!
Where are you located? I need someone in California that can actually align my wheels
Thanks for your question. We are in Colorado, so unfortunately we can't help you there.
Best of luck and Stay Tuned!
Hi brother...i have a problem with my ford mondeo for last 6 years and few days back when i do the alignment i checked the result and found caster and some other values are around 0.50° change and guy told its because of that ur car is going left side..i changed all front suspension apart from tie rod end which is now being coming on online and i changed two new tyres around one year back and all i driven is around 6k kilometer..what ever i have done there is no change in problm...if you can share ur watsapp num i can sent u the alignment result so that i can get some advice that what is my real problm.i changed front shocks,lower arm,coil spring,mount strut and stabiliser rod
His voice sounds like Hiccup from how to train your dragon.
th-cam.com/video/rruZhQvfhKw/w-d-xo.html
Change the Honda S2000 caster for lighter steering
There are a bunch of tire right behind you why didn't you use those for an example don't tell me your going to say they to heavy