Question - How is the caster adjusted on third-gen's? Could someone explain this to me?

After taking a look at the allignment sheet for the last allignment, which was right after I bought the car 5 years ago (only 49K on the car now/26K when I bought it), I realized that it mentions nothing of a caster adjustment. Is this something that is normally done?

I have always noticed a slight pull to the right but figured it was due to the crown in the road. It is really not to noticible (if at all)on a flat road, like on the highway.

I'm going to be adding some new suspension parts and plan to have the car realligned soon. Before doing that, I would like to understand more how this adjustment is made. I also feel the car steers off of straight too easily (too easy to steer), and would like the car to hold straight a little better.

Thanks for any info you can give me.

 

caster is the angle front to rear if you made a line from the lower ball-joint to the top of the strut. Positive caster(top of the strut further back than the ball-joint) of around 4.5 is what you want. .5 less caster on the left wheel corrects for the crown in the road. Another example of caster is a motorcycle--the fork is angle back to increase stability(positive caster). To adjust, the strut mount is simply slid forward and back.

 

Thanks for the info. After taking a look at the strut tower, it looks like it can only be slid from side to side. The mount has elongated holes that stretch from left to right only, am I missing something? I have looked at pictures on other posts and they look the same as mine.

I just want to be sure I understand the process as I have been told by some allignment shops that this cannot be done. Plus, I don't want to get screwed over not knowing what I am talking about.

Thanks again,
Paul

 

Yes, because you can't see the holes under the mount. The holes in the top of the wheelhouse (onto which the strut mount bolts) are elongated front to back.

The mount's holes take care of camber, the wheelhouse's holes take care of caster. The mount's holes couldn't do both at once. What kinda hole would that look like?

 

I see, I should have thought of that.

Thanks again for the info.