I am going to do a track event in September and wondering if I should find someone to corner balance my car. I have no idea what this really means so someone please educate me.

Thanks

 

I just had mine done, buddy.

A quick overview:

Basically, they put your car on 4 scales (one per tire/wheel).

The height of your suspension is then adjusted (LF to RR and RF to LR). The values (depending on if you want to account for the driver's weight) are then evened out. This accounts for ride height and weight and plays a large roll when at the track (the proper cornering weight during a turn for said vehicle, etc). Weight transfer during track times play a large roll in a tire's contact path percentage as well.

Getting the car properly balanced will help to fix/reduce said issues.

 

thanks, I kinda of figured it was done on individual scales at each wheel. Can I ask how much it cost?

 

It really depends. It isnt that much, on avg. its anywhere from 100-150, i was charged 175 to do mine. I would imagine around the same for your car , its a night and day difference though

 

what's more important? corner balancing or 4 wheel alignment? or do you need both? sorry for the questions...novice

 

Well in essence, you corner balance a car right after a 4 wheel alignment.. So the alignment is a MUST before any corner balancing

 

actually...when you corner balance you change the ride height and therfore change the alignment settings such as toe and camber. So you should be doing the alignment AFTER you cornerweight your car.

dave w

 

my tires wear out on the inner lip leaving approx 7k miles of use in the rear with my 19's...will the corner balancing (b/c it changes the camber-toe) allow the rear tires wear evenly and essentially longer?

 

Your right if you are playing with ride height and suspension

 

It sounds like you have too much negative camber if it is the "inside" part of the tread.

You can do a few things:

1. Reduce the negative camber (if you get behind your car, you can see your wheels "tilting" inward towards the car). The more negative, the more that they will tilt inward and the more that it will shift the tire's contact patch to the side.

2. Keep a higher air pressure in your rears (or at least monitor it). This will cause the contact patch (on a car with higher camber) to shift more towards the center...somewhat.

The diagram below should make sense as to why your inner tires are wearing:

 

Some negative camber is good right? What have people found
to be a good setting front and rear?

 

i had my alignment done at lucent...they said it was normal that the car has that much negative camper and it's all under factory specs...but they never mentioned corner balancing...didnt know if that'll help or not

 

Those who track more will want more negative camber.

I have my fronts at -0.7 I do believe. My rears are at -1.5.

 

I believe that the acceptable stock range is -1.0 to -1.5 in the rear, but don't quote me on it.

 

i just corner really hard all the time to even out the wear.