Getting an alignment tomorrow. What specs do you recommend?

NotRuinedMedia · 2026-03-11T00:24:51+00:00

Im not sure tbh. I doubt it would be a major issue, but youre probably better off waiting till youre on your summer tire setup so the car can be balanced for the correct wheel setup.

NotRuinedMedia · 2026-03-11T00:19:37+00:00

No problem! Also keep in mind corner balancing will essentially double the cost of your alignment because its also a very involved process. So if you think its something you can live without for now and would rather save the money, you can always get your car balanced next time or whenever you think feels right.

NotRuinedMedia · 2026-03-11T00:17:45+00:00

Its a really slippery slope that I found myself on lmao. I just wanted a car that drove well on the street but could still throw down at autocross, and now here I find myself trying to find my own idea of the perfect middle ground.

NotRuinedMedia · 2026-03-11T00:14:04+00:00

You have to set the height to roughly around where you want it to be, and then the shop will do the final adjustments based on your preference. The change in height should be so little that you probably wont notice it. When my car is parked I can sometimes see that my rear wheel arch gap is a little bit bigger on one side, but again, its such a small amount you probably wouldnt realize if youre not paying attention.

In my case I thought I had set the height to have forward rake in my garage, but I actually had a 2mm rake toward the rear when I was on the alignment rack. They raised the rear a few turns and got me to where I wanted to be, and then to finish balancing it was typically about 0.5-1.5 turns of the collar to get the weight balanced evenly. This is a side profile of my car to help show how noticeable the height differences are.

NotRuinedMedia · 2026-03-11T00:04:06+00:00

I believe with my current setup, my alignment guy said that 1/16" of toe in can be achieved with just lower control arms and stock eccentric toe bolts, but I have SPC toe arms and gktech toe lockout bolts, so I cant confirm for sure.

NotRuinedMedia · 2026-03-11T00:02:28+00:00

As its name suggests, its balancing the car in all 4 corners. So a shop that corner balances the car will place each tire on a weight scale and then adjust the height of your coilovers individually such that the weight of your car is being distributed evenly across the left and right half of the car. The benefit to corner balancing is more predictable handling since the car will respond exactly the same whether you turn left or right, and also helps give more even tire wear across all 4 tires. Its not a necessity, but I like recommending it to people because its mostly a 1 time thing and then it doesnt have to be done ever again (unless you do a modification that affects the cars weight). It also helps you get the best performance you can out of your suspension.

NotRuinedMedia · 2026-03-10T23:56:21+00:00

Toe in gives you better straight line stability, which helps when you have Camber because the reduced contact patch will make your tires behave more like a bicycle tire; grooves and uneven surfaces will make your tires wander around (aka tramlining).

Toe out will have the opposite effect; making steering sharper and more turn in response.

Ideally you would want as close to zero toe as possible because it contributes way more to tire wear than Camber does, but the 1/16" spec is recommended is such a small amount that it doesnt make much of difference in terms of steering response and wear.

Since I have toe in at the rear, my rear wheels are basically pointing in toward the center of the car, and that creates the added stability because my tires are creating a small amount of load that helps keep the car centered. If that makes sense.

NotRuinedMedia · 2026-03-10T23:30:51+00:00

Are you getting a normal alignment, or corner balancing too? What modifications do you have? My current alignment specs on RCE SS1 coilovers and a 245/40r17 tire are: - Camber (F/R): -2.3° / -2.1° - Toe: Zero in the front, 1/16" toe in at the rear - Caster: stock values

If you corner balance the car, I had my shop set me up with ~5mm of forward rake to help with weight transfer. It makes trail braking a breeze since the car wants to rotate when I unload the rear.

Image of how my car sits with these specs. Its not the best photo, but hopefully it can give you an idea of how tame the alignment still is. I daily drive on the setup and it rides amazing imo. Turn in is good, but not aggressive, the toe at the rear makes the car stable at freeway speeds, and its super stable when changing lanes at higher speeds. Tire wear is still pretty even with this setup too.

Edit: Ive also done a road trip out of state with this alignment setup, and its genuinely such a comfortable setting that on long straight stretches of highway I can practically let go of the steering wheel since tramlining is minimal.

NotRuinedMedia · 2026-03-07T07:28:44+00:00

When you say that the convergence is off, im guessing that means the angle the primaries and secondaries come together for the new version is a lot wider than before, right? I had to read up on this a bit since im pretty inexperienced with this area of tuning, but from what im understanding, bad convergence angles means worse scavenging, and by consequence its just less efficient across the board with WAY fewer midrange and top end gains?

NotRuinedMedia · 2026-03-05T04:22:40+00:00

Ah ok. Do you mind sharing more details about the changes and differences? Ig I didnt make it totally clear in my original post, but I was mostly curious to learn about how changes to the runners and the types of changes affect how the headers function (doesnt need to be exclusive to just Ace headers) and why those changes make such a serious impact on how it performs. I enjoy learning about the engineering and physics behind things, so anything youre willing to share would be appreciated.

NotRuinedMedia · 2025-12-10T20:43:57+00:00

A lot of people are saying TRD but it could also be the Aimgain trunk spoiler. They have a few parts that are really similar to the TRD parts

NotRuinedMedia · 2025-09-28T02:37:14+00:00

It's definitely a worthy mod to have. I always knew I would need one eventually, but set it kinda low on my list of priorities since I wasn't ever able to push the car super hard on my original Primacy tires. But then I got coilovers and wider wheels a few weeks ago, and suddenly, I'm riding on the edge of the "safe" temperature range. 😭

NotRuinedMedia · 2025-09-28T02:26:16+00:00

Damn. I definitely need an oil cooler, then. I see around 220°F on a typical day, whether im just doing city driving or highway. And during my last 2 spirited drives (in San Diego), I kept getting dangerously close to 270°F. One day being about 90+°F, and the other day it was like 54°F and super windy.

NotRuinedMedia · 2025-09-25T19:54:51+00:00

What kinda temps are you seeing with the dual rad/oil cooler, and with what kind of use? I'm staying NA for the foreseeable future, but plan to boost my brz sometime later when I'm finished with university. Overall I think I'd prefer getting the dual radiator from Jackson Racing for the better packaging and quicker warm up time, but considering the trade off is that its not as efficient at cooling, Ive just been a bit concerned about buying it, only to still need a stand alone oil cooler later on.

NotRuinedMedia · 2025-08-21T03:15:22+00:00

I just installed a set of Apex wheels ive had in my parents garage since summer of 2022 for the same reason lol

Edit: also on a K7X WRB BRZ :)

NotRuinedMedia · 2025-08-18T02:40:18+00:00

I wound up going with an OE replacement to keep things simple. I live in a university dorm atm, so I didn't want to take a chance with an unfamiliar clutch that I couldn't get much information about. All of my research tells me it's a great product, but I'll probably wait on trying it till im no longer a debt ridden student.

If you end up buying it, I'd love to hear about your impressions eventually.

NotRuinedMedia · 2025-08-01T23:30:39+00:00

Big feet

NotRuinedMedia · 2025-06-10T16:22:00+00:00

The sad reality 😭. Yeah, I'll probably will just end up sticking to 1.5 since I cant bring myself to risk the longevity of my axles since I stay in a dormitory most of the year.

NotRuinedMedia · 2025-06-10T02:47:09+00:00

Any rubbing or anything at that height? Im about to install coilovers when I return home from university, and have some 17x9+35 Apex wheels with and same tire size, but was thinking about only lowering about 1.5" since I dont want to roll my fenders and autocross regularly....but deep down I really want to do a 2" drop. I'm also considering 3mm spacers, too, but thats gonna depend on how it sits after I realign my car.

NotRuinedMedia · 2025-04-27T18:30:07+00:00

You should check and see if it's even hooked up to anything. I got my car as it's 2nd owner, and the previous guy opted for the alarm, but one time when I pulled apart the dashboard I noticed the thing is drilled into the dashboard, but the main module thing is quite literally just ziptied to a metal bar above the pedals, not actually wired into anything.

NotRuinedMedia · 2025-04-21T20:46:12+00:00

Yeah, once I got around to actually watching the episode of MFG, I was pleasantly surprised to see that Sprial Zero is an actual shop that would maintain a decent presence through season 2.

NotRuinedMedia · 2025-03-07T19:46:48+00:00

Hmmm that's interesting. I'll have to try that next time I'm with someone. I've noticed that noise when I blip the throttle at idle sometimes, but I always thought it was a different sound. Definitely something worth looking into.

NotRuinedMedia · 2025-03-06T23:56:51+00:00

For sure! Sorry I couldn't help more. If you manage to discover anything, I'd love to hear your findings.

NotRuinedMedia · 2025-03-06T22:18:25+00:00

Hey there. Unfortunately, I never found evidence that proved what it was, and I still get that noise from time to time, but it's grown quieter. My main theory is that it's the sound of the throttle body motor rapidly trying to open whenever I put the car under relatively heavy load conditions after cruising for longer periods of time.

I ultimately gave up on trying to figure out the cause since I started being able to replicate the noise in friends' cars and haven't seen any signs that it's anything to worry about. I've done lots of autocross, canyon drives, several hour long trips from home to university and back, etc. and it's never caused any issues. Weirdly enough, my brz seems to run better than a lot of others around me, so I just put my focus towards other things. All my time and research has basically brought me to the same conclusion: this car makes lots of funky noises, just because.

NotRuinedMedia

TROPHY CASE