[What came in the Post Today?]

My 4 x winter wheel refurb kit has arrived....

....i know, should have done this months ago and be ready by now! :rolleyes:

[Is corner weighting worth doing for non track cars?]

Today: took the camera for a few snaps to show ride height...

but forgot the tape measure - darn it!

never mind, pretty sure it's lowered all around about 30mm from standard

Debs

[Is corner weighting worth doing for non track cars?]

Glad all is going well.

What's the plans with the rear camber arms?

Un-seize and adjust?

Sorry Steve, if it were a DIY job i'd buy a pair of those Hardrace camber arms from you,

but the job is getting done by BD Performance of Wrexham who stock and obtain aftermarket products,

it would be a bit cheeky of me to buy off someone else and ask them to fit so i've asked them for a price to include supply and fitting.

My DIY [Daydreaming Incompetence Yawning] skills are fearless under my rust-bucket with my trusting old socket set...

Debs

[Is corner weighting worth doing for non track cars?]

Another trip to BD Performance at Wrexham this morning, they were very helpful.

Mechanic kindly raised the rear ride height up by 2cm which should put the excessive rear neg-camber into sensible territory.

The car is now about 30mm lowered from the standard ride hight so it don't look that low, but it's not really sensible to go any lower with seized camber arms.

They are quite happy and confident about removing the old camber arms, so will probably go along with this very soon...

On the way home in the rain the car felt nice and grippy on very wet roads, the handle improvements are obvious.

Ride comfort has become far more tolerable too :rolleyes:

Debs

[Is corner weighting worth doing for non track cars?]

rear should always be slightly higher than the front I was told, not the other way around, measurements taken from ground to chassis . You can always buy a pair of adjustable rear camber arms to sort rear camber out if it bothers you . Probably as cheap as having the old camber bolts sorted.

It's booked in tomorrow morning to have the rear raised 20mm which will definitely make the car sit better and should help reduce the excessive rear neg-camber.

But speaking with the mechanic, he said it had -3 degrees neg camber on the front end before he started work, but he could only adjust this excess down to -1.43 & -1.42 which is as far as the top strut adjusters will allow at their limit. This puzzles me.

New camber arms are on my wish-list, along with a few other goodies :rolleyes:

Debs

btw: HAPPY BIRTHDAY Bumblebee! - Hope you're having a good one!

[Is corner weighting worth doing for non track cars?]

GreyRacer, thanks for that. It makes my results look in the same ballpark for the front-end:

Assuming the right hand column figures are the final result on my printout. It looks like it is for the rear wheels.

My theory is that the rear ride height is 20mm too low, and being so has caused excessive neg-camber of -2.34 & -2.57

I believe i read somewhere that neg camber increases by lowering, and so will decrease with raising ride height?

If this is correct then raising the rear back up 20mm would sort out this issue?

I'm also concerned that the lighter steering and agility i feel is not only about improved toe-in adjustment but maybe a smaller tyre footprint caused by excessive neg camber on the front wheels. Will it now have less tyre grip in the wet?

[Is corner weighting worth doing for non track cars?]

It's definitely too low at rear, the head-lamp dip beam level needed 3 clicks of adjustment.

A bit of heavy luggage in the boot will see my headlights up in the trees

It looks wrong too.

Picy of front camber adjustment - the other one is a mirror-oposite:

[Is corner weighting worth doing for non track cars?]

I can't believe they don't have any black ink left, seems a bit unprofessional to me...

But it is still readable as all the figures are in the same order as my printout. Although I'm not sure what the 7,8,9,10,11 degree figures are for? All the figures seem reasonable to me, other than the rear camber. Over -2 degrees and you will likely get some uneven tyre wear. I suggest some whiteline camber bolts to sort that as its likely that the standard bolts will not have sufficed adjustment even if you unseize them.

The slight difference in ride height is due to the corner weighting. They adjust the coils to change preload, which evens out the corner weights. You could change ride height but would have to change all 4 corners the same amount to maintain the set up. But as before I really don't think you will notice this unless you plan on driving the car near the limit. I would suggest a track day is in order [emoji4]

I think the 7,8,9,10,11 figures are toe-in measured in millimetres

The excessive rear neg-camber is probably caused by the rear of the car being 2cm too low.

If just the rear is raised 2cm it may reduce this amount of excess neg-camber.

It looks like the front is too excessive in neg-camber too, although that is adjustable.

I'm not sure yet if this printout is the final results.

The set-up is obviously flawed due the front of the vehicle pointing upwards.

[Is corner weighting worth doing for non track cars?]

Oops! ...sorry ride height typo corrected by edit!

The ride height measurement is too low at the rear; this may have happened after slackening off some pre-load from the rear springs.

But this ride height problem can be easily remedied by raising it back up again.

The big issue here is the alignment figures which i'm still waiting for.

The incomplete printout i have received suggests excessive negative camber.

The seized rear camber arms will mean the full geo could not be achieved and only the front camber was adjusted.

I'll take a photo of the front coilover adjusters and post later.

Another discrepancy on the printout is the wrong wheel/trye size mentioned in the header - but i'm hoping this detail is irrelevant and overruled by the alignment machinery that was used on the actual wheel size of 17"

I have a feeling the improved feel of steering and agility may have resulted in noting more than adjusting the front track rod ends.

[Is corner weighting worth doing for non track cars?]

I didnt have corner weighting done on my car but id had Whiteline adjustable camber bolts from GTFour play on the rear to go along with the polybushed Whiteline ARB, and the BC BR coilies on.I had a full geo done for about 105 or 115 quid I think and the car was night and day from an OEM setup.See what your proper printout looks like because what you have is a little naff without the basic info

This afternoon i phoned and spoke with the guy who set my car up,

they're not sure how to email the results from the printer but if they can't he will put some black ink in the printer and print it out properly, and then post it to me.

Will be interesting to see if it ever turns up...

Meanwhile the ride height measurements are a bit up the creek

centre wheel hub - vertical to wheel arch

FL 345mm - 350mm FR

RL 330mm - 330mm RR

I've had to adjust my headlamp level down 3 clicks

Debs

[Is corner weighting worth doing for non track cars?]

The alignment results printout i was handed on Friday after the job

*note: no black ink in the printer

These figures don't look final to me...

i've asked them to email me the full results

[Is corner weighting worth doing for non track cars?]

Update:

Attended the full geo & coilover re-setup on Friday, but things didn't go strictly to plan.

The first problem was [and still is] the total seizure of camber adjustment bolts at the rear, so on this occasion no adjustments were possible for the rear-end, although this sadly was more or less what was expected, it's seems to be a common problem voiced on this forum.

Apparently the front-end was also problematic with corrosion and some time was needed to loosen up tight track rod ends, but apparently this was achieved.

The second may or may not be a problem, but a difference of set up procedure with the guys at BD Performance, they routinely setup coilovers up by corner weighting.

They don't actually add weight in the form of ballast anywhere, it just seems to be an alternative way of setting up the suspension; to the claim of improved 'drivability'.

Out of some debate and consideration [ these guys are coilover stockists who fit coilovers regularly so one would assume they have a set-up strategy that works ] i decided to allow they to set-up my coilovers the way they usually go about it.

The results of 3.5 hours of labour [ totalling £189 ] has produced lighter and more predictable steering, more agility, comfy-wise it isn't a world apart than before but it has improved enough for me to experiment with increasing the damping from 3 clicks to 8, they must have slackened off some excess pre-load on the springs, it is slightly more comfortable, body-roll very slightly more than before but still very acceptable.

The ride-height appears to have lowered slightly at the rear, may just be aesthetic but i don't like how this presently looks - i need to get on it level ground with a tape measure later and get an accurate measurement.

The handling improvements are very welcome but i wonder how much more could be gleamed with a good sorting out of the seized-up rear end, easier said than done unfortunately.

The alignment results printout figures have me completely intrigued, but i can't say i understand them, some of this due to no black ink in their printer so there's no titles or terms to what the results figures actually are, but the figures kind of correspond to typical 4 wheel alignment formation diagrams so they can still be seen in the colours green and red, but the figures themselves look rather excessive to me. Will photo this printout and post it here later : )

Debs

[Is corner weighting worth doing for non track cars?]

If the Celica GT is 30mm lower in standard spec...?

and if it has the same chassis & running gear..?

would it be okay use GT spec?

Probably worrying too much about this, the guys at BD Performance are used to fitting coilovers and set up, i bet they'll know what's best.

Besides, i'm half expecting my rear camber adjustment bolts to be seized stupid solid so may have to settle for a compromise geo.

Debs

[Is corner weighting worth doing for non track cars?]

I wouldn't know what to suggest as to alternative spec, although i'd think the ride height lowering is going to affect it.

I like where the height is now [about 35mm] which isn't to radical.

Is the Toyota spec set up okay to go by?

[Is corner weighting worth doing for non track cars?]

Nice print out picture - looks like it needed more negative camber & some alignment.

It's very interesting, clear and precise of what you had, and what you got!

I'm hoping they won't have any agro with seized up rusty adjuster bolts :rolleyes:

[Rear brake caliper gen7]

Euro Car Parts have Pagid -

'remanufactured' rear callipers for 2001 Gen 7 for £89.40

plus a £30 trade-in exchange allowance for your old calliper which brings the price down to £59.40

* They need the exchange unit to be in serviceable condition - without the linkages broken

When i exchanged mine earlier this year they came with new nipples, slider kit & rubbers, all i had to buy was new brake pads.

You have a local ECP in Colchester:

Unit 19A & B, The Westside Centre,

London Road

Stanway

Essex

CO3 8PH

[Is corner weighting worth doing for non track cars?]

Thanks for replies, guys.

Have emailed them to amend my appointment to full geo & coilover set up.

.......do you know what system they are using for the 4 wheel alignment?

It looks like: Haweka

BD Perfromance in Wrexham:

http://www.bdperformance.co.uk

They sell various makes of coilover to include BC Racing, i'm pretty sure they'll understand what it needs to get it sorted.

They are only 20 miles up the road from me, i'm really looking forward to going next Friday

Debs

[Is corner weighting worth doing for non track cars?]

as said above , get them to set the ride height and a full geometry set up and you will certainly notice the difference . Corner weighting only really comes into its own out on track

Does 'full geometry set up' mean the same as '4 wheel alignment'?

[Is corner weighting worth doing for non track cars?]

For a road car, total waste of time. Full geo set up is all you will need.

Thanks for that, ...is full geo set up the same as 4 wheel alignment?

There is time for me to phone them up tomorrow and cancel the corner weighting job on Friday.

[Is corner weighting worth doing for non track cars?]

Next Friday my Gen7 is booked into a performance specialist for: 4 wheel alignment [Full Geo Set-up] & coilover set-up plus corner weighting.

However, i'm getting second thoughts on the corner weighting,

apparently it's time consuming so costly per hourly rate,

and i don't intend to track or race ever, just normal ~ brisk road use.

but is it still worth doing just the once to set up my recently fitted coilovers?

BC Racing [bR type] fitted 3 months ago

Thanks for any advice

Debs

[ Edit: service amended to not bother with corner weighting ]

[Greek Celicas]

that poor gen5

At least being red it don't show the blood staines....

[Reversing beep]

Something i've wondered ever since i've owned my Celi....

Is the bleeper an audio warning for the driver inside the car?

Or can it be heard outside to warn people of a reversing car?

Or to put it another way; can the bleep be heard outside the car, or is it just an interior sound effect?

I have to ask this because i've never been outside my car while reversing it, not yet anyway.

[I'm an indecisive s*** car is sorted but I need a door.]

https://youtu.be/78b67l_yxUc

[celica GT vs GT86]

I would think the depreciation is all done now with your GT and if anything it's value may rise if you give it the TLC, and while it gains more classic status.

A GT86 is a fab car no doubt but any particular buying price now is bound to depreciate by many more thousands....

Also, i've heard reports from 2 different mechanics that GT86s go just as dreadfully rusty underside as Gen7s, seems as if Toyota care nought about anti-corrosion for the UK market.

just my 2 cents worth : )

Debs

[What came in the Post Today?]

Is it a couple of big bones for the dog?

Debs