Hey guys, I am in the middle of an interesting situation with a local shop. I took my 1994 miata in for an alignment. Looking to get the Supermiata DD alignment for the cars second time.

I am on zeta crds and a 225/45/15. No other suspension mods aside from NB eccentric bolts. About a year and a half ago I had the car aligned by a different shop no problem. Now this current shop is telling me they can't get the rear camber any higher than -2.7. I don't want to run quite that much. They claim it's because the car is too low, but my ride height hasn't changed since that first alignment. I have proof in measurement of the pinch welds.

I currently have the car measured at 4 1/8" in the fronts and 4 1/4" in the rears. I understand this is way on the lower end of the range Supermiata recommends for DD but seeing as I had the same pinch weld measurements when I got the car aligned no problem that year and a half ago It should be fine right?

The shop recommended me adjustable uppers in the rear but I've never heard of anyone needing to do this. The guy at the shop keeps saying he can get the camber higher but "the toe goes all out of wack" and insists he aligns NA's all the time.

Now the shop is telling me my pinch weld heights are 4 1/2" in the fronts and 4 1/8" in the rears. I took it home and took measurements with my car facing one way on my garage pad, then spun it 180 and took measurements again. Same heights I mentioned earlier, and definitely not 4 1/2" in the front. I fear this is a "looks like sh** smells like sh**" situation but they have had my car in twice already and are willing to let me bring it back one more time with heights adjusted all under the first bill.

Anyone ever had this much trouble with the rears? Am I losing my mind?

***Edit: Recieved feedback on m.net, seems like I am just too low.

 

The rear gains a lot of camber under compression, so lowering the car dramatically increases camber as you've seen. For a street car it can be problematic. For a track car it's obviously less of an issue.

I can't speak to the specifics of the shop, or your car, but the suspension can settle and control arms and subframes can get slightly tweaked over time. I can't get under 2.0 degrees myself. The rear suspension adjustments have a lot of crosstalk, so if something else changed they may be struggling to balance toe, thrust angle, and camber as well as before. Even just a slight bend to the control arm or subframe that is invisible to the naked eye may be enough to limit their adjustment.

I'm a fan of the AWR style of adjustable upper control arm that uses an eccentric bolt at the top of the upright, but that's probably best adjusted on alignment stands rather than an alignment rack. You may want to get something like the Paco adjustable arms that are more towards the set and forget end of things. As an engineer, I'm not a fan of threads in bending, but I haven't seen anyone report issues with those arms. V8 Roadsters used to have a billet rear upper control arm that used shims to adjust, but I don't see it on their website anymore. Now they only sell a tube steel, eccentric adjusted RUCA.

I align my car myself on alignment stands. I plan to make or buy an eccentric style of adjustable RUCA to make my car better able to handle the somewhat silly Dual Duty use case and not wear out the inside edge of my tires quite as fast when not tracking. Plus, I'd do more alignments if adjusting the rear camber was less of a pain.

 

Fellow Engineer! I thought about making some alignment blocks and doing it myself. You a string and level guy?

I am in an apartment with an allbeit nice one car garage, but I'm a little low on carpentry tools and I'd only do it DIY if I could build the stands for cheap myself.

 

I took the easy way out and bought Paco alignment stands from Flyin Miata. Then they went and lowered the price by $200 a few years later. Oh well, they've paid for themselves by this point and I've been able to help a lot of my friends. They're not perfect, but I've got them pretty figured out by this point. They definitely will not work without a smooth and level surface like you'd find in a well cast garage floor.

I wouldn't try to start aligning my own car in an apartment complex. Too many hurdles to jump with finding a smooth and level spot to do it, dealing with the property management giving you crap about working on a car, storing the tools and stands, etc etc.

 

Oh cool! Maybe those will be worth it considering the tool cost to build some wooden stands. I do plan on waiting until I move to attempt anything like a DIY alignment. BUT I do have a nice miata sized garage that stores all my tools with a very flat concrete pad so its tempting haha. Thankfully I am in a bit of a rural area and working on your own car in the garage isnt exactly allowed, but also not enforced either.