Geometry done at Center Gravity

[Leccy61]

UK (and maybe beyond in Europe) Porsche enthusiasts are likely to be very familiar with Center Gravity so no doubt many on here will like me have taken their 911/Boxsters to them for anything from a relatively straight forward alignment to correct and/or set up according to preference all the way to a full suspension upgrade or rebuild.

Taycan went in yesterday, it was always going to but I was keen because it had the dreaded slightly off steering wheel, driving dead ahead the wheel was about 5mm low on the RH side.

I hadn't been for maybe 5 years, they've grown into the neighbouring unit and expaned their services but their core values haven't changed. First we took the car out on their test route, established it wasn't far out but saw the off centre wheel and felt that the rear was rather unsettled and needed small corrections via the steering.

Anyway, back into the workshop and after 3 hours meticulous work and another test drive all done. Good to know car is now straight and true so far as the geometry is concerned and Center Gravity as good as ever.

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[Bennachie]

Cost please......?

 

[Leccy61]

Their website gives you the cost based on car and what you have done. Mine was £575.

 

[Pope]

What were the figures before adjustment; could you see a trend with added miles? How's your car on tyres??

 

[Leccy61]

@Pope camber and caster measurements were in range but toe, total toe and steer ahead were out of range, which correlates with the observed driving issues

- Steering wheel held straight car drives slowly to the left.
- Fidgety steering effort, requires constant correction
- Left bias if steering wheel held straight.
- Laterally unstable, especially rear axle on bumps and crests

Ive had the car since March so havent observed trends but the current thread depths of ~5mm are quite even. Cambers were tweaked and made even across axles, but as mentioned they were in range already. Straightening the toes should minimise drag and therefore wear.

 

[Nickj]

My car was aligned at Porsche at some silly cost, 1.3k plus as apparently the front bumper needed removing. I wasn’t paying so didn’t pay much attention to the detail.

Did they remove the bumper?

 

[Leccy61]

No, @Nickj it wasn’t necessary, but It could have been. My best recollection of the explanation is that if certain readings (I believe it was toe) are sufficiently out of range, the front bumper, headlights etc. are removed to enable subframe adjustment to bring it into the range of normal adjustment.

 

[Pope]

Front camber requires subframe movement to 'balance' the figures if out of tolerance; the individual setting is not adjustable. Once at that point then the assistance systems need calibration too.

 

[Leccy61]

Ah, it’s the front cambers balanced by subframe position, makes sense. Thanks for the clarification @Pope

The ‘before’ front camber measurements on mine were balanced thankfully. The rear cambers were slightly different and adjusted to be the same, based on the before and after readings.

Couple of other things they did was go into PCM and put it into jack mode and set the ride height to the middle (normal) level for the adjustments. They also checked the readings in the lower ride height I prefer use most of the time.

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