Alingment on 2008

[Bonnell]

Edit: Ok, I really did mean alignment, not alingment.

Based on input that I have seen here I was concerned about the alignment on my '08 coupe (4700 miles) so today whn I took it in for an oil change and to have the fix for the popping roof made I told them I wanted an alignment.

I explained to the SM (who I really like) that I have heard through this forum that the factory aligns them for performance and that often prematurely wears the tires out. I won't ever push the car to the limit so I wanted an alignment that will maximize the tire life. I was prepared to pay the $104 to save my tires but to my surprise they listed it as unusual wear and did not charge me. As far as I can see there is no wear.

Good deal.

 

[Hib Halverson]

Just goes to show you that as good a forum as is the CAC, some of what you read here is B.S.

My understanding of the way the factory sets the alignment is just the opposite, ie: they set camber/caster/toe in a manner that is a compromise between tread life, performance and steering feel. It's up to the owner to reset the alignment if he/she wants to trade steering effort and treadlife for best performance.

I know with my 04 Z06, if you set all four corners at -1/2 to 1.0 deg, you'll wear the insides of the tires but man, does the car stick!

 

[Bonnell]

Thanks for the comments Hib. I try to filter as much of what I see here as I can. I surely did not want to replace my tires at 10K miles as some report here so I thought I'd invest in the alignment.

Your statement makes more sense to me because I just have a hard time seeing GM providing an alignment that most of us can't/won't take advantage of and that will cost thousands of dollars in early tire replacements.

When I picked the car up I was expecting to have to pay the $104 because I have not seen any wear-I just wanted to make sure that the tires do not wear because of an alignment.

The service guy tells me that this is free if the car has under 10K on it. If I understood correctly after 10K you would have to prove an alignment problem or you would pay for it.

I did not ask them to provide me with the alignment specs (before and after) and now that I think about it I wish I had.

Thanks again.

 

[motorman]

GM recommends camber as close to "0" as possible if you do a lot of open road driving to prevent the excess wear in the inside edges of your front tires. this was in Corvette Quarterly the GM Corvette house organ

 

[cadguymark]

I love the way mine handles, there is a little extra wear on the inside fronts at 11K miles, my estimate is I'll get at least 15K out of the supercars if not 17-18K or so which aint bad. The rear will make it to 20K
I bought an extra set of complete wheels that came with GS2's (non supercars) for $850 with about 5K on the tires that I have on now that it is cold out and will probably save the supercars for track days only, no plan to reset alignment

 

[NORTY]

Immediately after the cars come off the line, they go to the alignment racks. When Bowling Green is in "full production," they have 3 minutes to get the alignment done on each car. It takes longer than 3 minutes to align a Corvette correctly. The "GM specs" are so broad that you can have an ill handling (bordering on "unsafe") car that is still within "spec."
If you search around, you'll find the huge tolerances GM has set for this car, and you should find the best settings for maximum tire life as well. There are even settings for "snappier" turn-in also. These specs apply to the base, Z51, Z06 & ZR1 models.

The time to get a "good alignment" on a Corvette is when you take delivery of it. You'd be surprised how far "out" the alignment is, but still within "GM spec."

Here's my "before" ~

 

[Hib Halverson]

Thanks for the comments Hib. I try to filter as much of what I see here as I can. I surely did not want to replace my tires at 10K miles as some report here so I thought I'd invest in the alignment.

Your statement makes more sense to me because I just have a hard time seeing GM providing an alignment that most of us can't/won't take advantage of and that will cost thousands of dollars in early tire replacements.

When I picked the car up I was expecting to have to pay the $104 because I have not seen any wear-I just wanted to make sure that the tires do not wear because of an alignment.

The service guy tells me that this is free if the car has under 10K on it. If I understood correctly after 10K you would have to prove an alignment problem or you would pay for it.

I did not ask them to provide me with the alignment specs (before and after) and now that I think about it I wish I had.

Thanks again.

My 04 Z06 was set at production specs and its first set of tires went just a hair over 20,000 miles. In four years, one corner of the car got a little out of alignment...it was near -1 deg. camber. I'm very happy with 20K mi. tread life from tires (Goodyear F1 Supercars) which have less tread depth than the base EMTs and are on a car that gets run hard at times.

When I put the new set of F1 Supercars on, I had all four corners set at -1/2 camber and zero toe. I had front caster set at 7 deg.

I don't have '08 service data available...I ordered the 08 FSM from Corvette Centeral, but they were out of stock so I'll have to wait a week or so, but I do have '07 data and I'll guess they're the same.

The OE alignment specs for MY07 with FE1, FE2 and FE3 are:
Camber: -0.45 deg all four wheels, +/- 0.6 deg.
Caster: 7.9 deg +/- .6 deg.
Toe, front: 0.1 deg +/- 0.2 deg
Toe, rear: 0 deg +/- 0.2 deg.

Now...the tolerance is mostly of interest in warranty service. That is, if you take the car in on a warranty claim for alignment, regardless of whether the wheels are aligned to spec or not, as long as they are within the tolerance, they won't make an adjustment.

On the other hand, if it's an out-of-warranty situation and the suspension parts are in good condition, I'd make the dealer or the alignment shop hold a much closer tolerance. For example, when I go to have Tucker Tire Service in Covina CA align the wheels in my car, I give them the specs and expect them to set to those numbers. They usually are within a tenth or two.

If tread life is of prime concern and you are willing to compromise some handing, I'd reset the camber between -1/8 deg and zero then use the FSM numbers for caster and toe.

Lastly, I've seen enough new C6s with wheels not aligned properly that I feel Bowling Green Assembly may have taken its eye off the "quality ball" as far as wheel alignment goes. I encourage every new owner to, after the car has a few thousand miles on it, eyeball the camber while the car is sitting on level ground. If all the wheels don't look the same, have the front/rear alignments checked.

Also, if you're one of those types who've lowered your car, after doing that you need to have the front and rear alignments reset because a change in ride height almost always causes a change in alignment.