Anyone got the suspension settings (camber, castor and toe-in) for the A500 and A500SS? Want to check where mine is and see how it compares with the factory designation but can't see it in the owners handbook which only seems to have toe-in values (and doesn't specify front or rear(

If the garage performing the geo have a Hunter machine or similar then it should carry the data for the car.

I would also be interested in knowing what can be adjusted. From the look of the top strut mounts on my car, the castor can be changed - there is evidence that it has been altered as there is a dark mark indicating where the mount rubber used to sit....

Has anyone any experience of taking these on track and optimising the settings from the factory defaults?

any idea where I find such a garage? Preferably in South Bucks!

Did notice that front toe-in is listed as 1 +/1 1mm for the SS (in the SS additional handbook) but 0.5 +/1 for the A500. Wondering on the likelihood of the garage having changed that as standard toe-in is within limits

There's a place in Abingdon I use (Merrityre) and I can pop in and check if they have the SS on the system.

The figures given in the book didn't make sense to me. From what I can see they quote that toe IN should be set to -1 +/- 1mm. So that would give a range of -2mm toe IN to 0mm toe IN which is a large range and a negative value for toe IN makes it toe OUT??!! Also is that total or for each wheel? No mention of camber or castor, and nothing for the rear....

Ye Gods, that's precise.

Just popped in to my local place. Abarth isn't on their machine and the best I could find was for the Fiat 500 1.2/1.3/1.4 with power steering:

Front camber -0 deg 34 minutes
Rear camber -1 deg 10 minutes

Front caster 3 deg 22 minutes

Front toe IN 5 minutes total
Rear toe IN 32 minutes total

Mike at SG Petch was very helpful on the phone, I was calling regarding another matter (as they originally supplied the car and SS kit) and he kindly offered to fax me the SS kit instructions for setting the geo.

If you can't be bothered to read the whole post then just read the next para and then look away

They state that all tyres should first be inflated to 3bar. The instructions also give very slightly different figures for camber depnding on whether the car has 5L of fuel or a full tank. Given the very marginal difference I'm not going to bother to post both options. In summary the figures above from the Hunter machine are exactly the same for camber, and only very slightly different for toe, so you can use them!

The front toe is interesting (in so much as it can be!) because the tollerance given is such that you could have a big variation in toe from one end of the tollerance to the other that will affect the drive. The tollerances on the Hunter machine are much closer and more realistic. The Abarth instructions say 0.5mm total IN and this is more like 15 minutes, so slightly different to the 5 minutes the Hunter machine suggests, but I doubt anyone will be able to honestly tell the difference between the two settings on the road!

Without knowing the Acherman I can't comment on whether it is best to run a bit of toe out at the front, toe in or have the wheels parrallel. I will be going for parrallel, as I've seen that recommended elsewhere on here, even though the Abarth figures say 0.5mm toe IN total.

At the rear you most certainly want toe in. If you run toe out and drive hard you will likely find the car has a tendancy to swap ends! The settings above are very close to those given in mm in the Abarth geo instructions (3.6mm total). I've seen posts suggesting that for track use on sticky tyres more rear toe in should be used and I would agree with that - as you load up the suspension hard things flex and can lead to toe out. You also have to take into account rear bumpsteer - as the car is cornered hard it will roll and compress the suspension - also know as bump. when in bump the toe will change and without seeing a bumpsteer graph for different amounts of bump it is hard to know what to set the rear to for track use. Really the car needs to spend time on a ramp with the Hunter equipment fitted, and the bumpsteer measured. I can't be bothered to do that so I will just use the figures in the Hunter!!

Kevin at Rockingham sent me this:

http://www.nyssaracing.com/images/500abarthwheelgeometry.docx

Now got to get onto the list from Wheel Alignment list - did have the car booked in for yesterday with local race preparation team. Booked in for 10am but when I got there (at 10am) they said they'd call me when it was done, but it wouldn't get started until the afternoon! Not much use to me as a) didn't take anyone with me to bring me home, and b) I work in the afternoons which is why I booked a morning session. They were totally disinterested, just said they had other work booked in too - the fact that I had a booking in place from 9 days earlier cut no mustard. Told them not to bother

Cannot abide p*ss poor customer service 

Opens OK for me using old Office 2002 - thinks its got some converter because if I change the extension to .doc, then the converter can't open it 

I've just returned from my local tyre/geo place.

The only change possible is front toe, not even rear toe can be changed.

Fortunately my rear toe and camber settings were very close to ideal.

At the front the offside has marginally too much camber and was only just outside the acceptable range. The nearside was at the outer edge of tollerance, and both were only 5 minutes (5/60th of a degree) away from -1 degree of camber. One side was -1 degree and 55 minutes and the other -1 degree and 5 minutes, and that is good enough for me. Toe was adjusted as the previously the steering wheel was off centre whilst driving in a straight line - it's no coincidence that one of the front wheels had some nasty kerbing marks that I've had to touch up!

The instructions to inflate your tyres to 3 bar can safely be ignored! We started the check by inflating them all, and once the adjustments were completed we put them back to 2.3/2.1 bar whilst leaving the measuring equipement connected. No changes were measured in the toe, and all the cambers changed by 1-2 minutes - 1/60th - 2/60th of a degree - almost unmeasurable!

So whilst its nice to know what the rear is set to, the fact that it can't be adjusted means that you're kind of wasting your money paying the extra for four wheel alignment! However if it is wildly out, and trip the dealers may be called for to ask for it to be sorted on warranty, assuming you can prove that the car hasn't been involved in any accidents! Worn rear ball joints and bushes will affect the readings and on high mileage cars and these may need to be replaced to get the rear settings back within tollerance. As most of our cars are very new and low mileage we shouldn't need to worry unless there's been an accident or a hard kerbing, or you feel the handling is very odd.