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Geometry Advice

Briggy

Briggy

PCGB Member
My 944S2 Cab is currently having new Bilstein B6 front & rear shocks fitted, new OEM front springs, new front ARB bushes and any other worn out bushes that I find along the way. Clearly, it'll need setup correctly when the work is all complete. My question is how far do I take this?

Should I take it to my local tyre place who will do a good job, or take it to a specialist like Centre Gravity or OPC? What are the benefits of a specialist? All I'm looking for is the "correct" setup for road use i.e. not track focused. Am I missing a trick here i.e. are there different levels of "correct"? What would they do differently to the local tyre place and what are they likely to cost?

Cheers,
Bryan
 
Unlikely your local tyre place will know how to set up the rear geo on a 944. Ask them if they have the special tool and know how to use it.
 
A set up is only as good as the person doing the work - seems obvious I know.... We use a company who have a 4D wi-fi type set up and basically 'restore to factory settings' but thankfully the guy who uses this system now only sets up to all areas showing 'green' he will go a bit further to get the balance closer to perfect. It costs around £150 (these 4D four wheel alignment / geometry set ups can cost as little as maybe £60-£70...we are happy to pay around double to get ten times the job done) At the end of the day it is hard to get anywhere close to Centre Gravity and Chris is the daddy if you want to lay out the cash and aim for perfection
 
ThreeTwo said:
A set up is only as good as the person doing the work - seems obvious I know.... We use a company who have a 4D wi-fi type set up and basically 'restore to factory settings' but thankfully the guy who uses this system now only sets up to all areas showing 'green' he will go a bit further to get the balance closer to perfect. It costs around £150 (these 4D four wheel alignment / geometry set ups can cost as little as maybe £60-£70...we are happy to pay around double to get ten times the job done) At the end of the day it is hard to get anywhere close to Centre Gravity and Chris is the daddy if you want to lay out the cash and aim for perfection
Click to expand...


By "perfection", do you mean their ability to setup as per the original factory settings or more their experience to setup as it should be? I know they also will set things up for individual requirements, but that would be lost on me.

As you can tell from my questions, my knowledge is quite limited.

Cheers,
Bryan
 
For road use I believe that Porsche's specs for alignment would be the best. After all, they go so far as to test and approve tires to deliver the best combination of ride and handling for their cars so for road work I would think they got it right. Others may disagree...
For front alignment I think any competent shop could get that right but I agree with Blade7 about rear alignment. I had a 4 wheel job done at our local "the place to take your Porsche once the warranty has expired" and based on reviewing rear tire wear they didn't get the camber right there either (more wear on the inside than outside). This shop supports local racers and seemed to have 944 experience based on some 944s carrying their logos. However, I noted that the old tires that came off when I replaced them (prior to this work) were worn evenly so either they gave me a more aggressive alignment assuming lots of high speed corner work or even the "experts" got it wrong. I must confess that it rotates around tight turns very nicely but I can't say if that differs from factory alignment settings.
 
Chris at Center Gravity set my geo to slightly more aggressive settings than standard, I've never had uneven tyre wear.
 
Adjusting the rear suspension is a nightmare. Its highly likely that unless the car has always been owned by very fastidious owners it hasn't been adjusted in many years. The result will be that even after soaking in plusgas for a week an adjuster or two will likely break.
 
I set mine up with some serious negative camber at the rear once. It looked awesome, stuck like a limpet, and ruined the rear tyres in 1500 miles.
 
I was running 2 degree neg front camber and getting about 3k miles out a set of fronts. Have just had it dialled back to half a degree neg now to save on rubber!

Stuart
 
CG set the camber on mine up to just over 1 degree on the front and 0.5 on the rear 6 years ago. The last set of tyres I changed 2 years ago had even wear across the full width.
 
Briggy said:
ThreeTwo said:
A set up is only as good as the person doing the work - seems obvious I know.... We use a company who have a 4D wi-fi type set up and basically 'restore to factory settings' but thankfully the guy who uses this system now only sets up to all areas showing 'green' he will go a bit further to get the balance closer to perfect. It costs around £150 (these 4D four wheel alignment / geometry set ups can cost as little as maybe £60-£70...we are happy to pay around double to get ten times the job done) At the end of the day it is hard to get anywhere close to Centre Gravity and Chris is the daddy if you want to lay out the cash and aim for perfection
Click to expand...


By "perfection", do you mean their ability to setup as per the original factory settings or more their experience to setup as it should be? I know they also will set things up for individual requirements, but that would be lost on me.

As you can tell from my questions, my knowledge is quite limited.

Cheers,
Bryan
Click to expand...
A lot of our customers have used CG and without exception all are very happy. I'd say that it is Chris's (and team's) experience that counts at that place

Reading what you state I would suggest using someone like we use....

Cheers
 
Decided to get it done by the experts, so booked into Centre Gravity for full geo setup. Book time 4.5 hours. Lead time is currently 6 weeks(!), so that's 18th May.

Cheers,
Bryan
 
Definitely not but you can help Chris out a lot by spraying plusgas or rost off over all the adjusters front and rear the week or a few days before taking the car in.
 
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