[Richard123]

Welp as the title states, my 2002 is300s caster is very low. So for context, I got an alignment done to my car after installing some adjustable rear arms and toe arms to correct those values since the car is lowered a bit. Everything came out amazing with toe and camber across the whole car and not to mention the front is still stock. But viewing my caster results I got 3.3 degrees on the left and 2.1 degrees on the right. The range is 5.6 to 6.6. I have already gone scouting around checking for possible issues that could result in this and I've come across a few but I haven't seen anyone with a caster this low. I've had the car for a year now and my steering wheel is rather stiff and doesn't return to the center quite well and I wanna correct that. If anyone has any input on what I should check and do it would be appreciated. FYI, the car has never been in an accident and doesn't have many miles so I don't see why the subframe would be bent and I have looked it over many times and haven't noticed anything, Also most of my front bushings appear to not be all that bad so yeah I'm stumped. I will include an image of my alignment results as well. Thank you again.

 

[persocon]

caster will be lower when you lower the car because of the upper control arm design,
mine is 2.2 left side and 2.4 right side, i'm not even on coilovers, just on lowering springs and koni orange shocks.

 

[Richard123]

caster will be lower when you lower the car because of the upper control arm design,
mine is 2.2 left side and 2.4 right side, i'm not even on coilovers, just on lowering springs and koni orange shocks.

Huh that's strange I thought lowering the car shouldn't affect the caster. I at least want my caster to be closer in value. Although I've seen YouTubers and other is owners have their cars dropped to the ground but maintain a high caster value with stock front arms and such.

 

[persocon]

it can be done with stock arms, but they probably had the spacers between the knuckle and the lower balljoint and offset bushings in the rear hole lower arm to move the wheel scrub point forward thus adding more caster. you can check my alignment print out in my thread, i had it done at a place that specializes in custom cars, rat rods, lifted trucks, $150 per hour until they get it right

 

[persocon]

these are the spacers i'm talking about

https://shopfigs.com/v5/G1-IS300-CAT/G1229?sort=p.price&order=ASC

these are the adjustable caster bushing i'm talking about

https://shopfigs.com/v5/A249?search=caster

 

[Richard123]

it can be done with stock arms, but they probably had the spacers between the knuckle and the lower balljoint and offset bushings in the rear hole lower arm to move the wheel scrub point forward thus adding more caster. you can check my alignment print out in my thread, i had it done at a place that specializes in custom cars, rat rods, lifted trucks, $150 per hour until they get it right

I saw a video where the guy just replaced his caster arms with like oe replacement bc his bushings were shot and didn't see any spacers just a new lower ball joint. He got -5 camber 0 toe and 7 caster . Definitely looking into that caster arm bushing, looks like it could help get lots of caster. Just sucks that I did an alignment yesterday.

 

[persocon]

listen to Mike Kojima suspension guru talk about how lowering your car 2 inches might actually lower your roll center 4 inches and greatly negatively affect handling

054: Unlock Your Car’s Full Handling Potential. [PODCAST]

There’s a good chance there’s more you could be doing to get the most out of your car’s handling capabilities, and this week’s guest — industry legend Mike Kojima of MotoIQ — is here to talk you through it.

www.hpacademy.com

 

[Richard123]

listen to Mike Kojima suspension guru talk about how lowering your car 2 inches might actually lower your roll center 4 inches and greatly negatively affect handling

054: Unlock Your Car’s Full Handling Potential. [PODCAST]

There’s a good chance there’s more you could be doing to get the most out of your car’s handling capabilities, and this week’s guest — industry legend Mike Kojima of MotoIQ — is here to talk you through it.

www.hpacademy.com

Will Do, thank you

 

[ill_mannered]

Aftermarket adjustable arms will get you where you need to be at in regards to caster.

 

[Richard123]

Aftermarket adjustable arms will get you where you need to be at in regards to caster.

Yeah, I guess that is my best option to correct my caster. In a few months, I'm going to get the adjustable arms and the roll center adjustments and reply to this thread once I do. I'm not gonna do it immediately since I don't want my recent alignment to be for nothing. Thank you for your input I appreciate the help.

 

[358roxas]

Out of curiosity, how many miles are on your chassis? Im having the same issues @ 180k

 

[Richard123]

Out of curiosity, how many miles are on your chassis? Im having the same issues @ 180k

Hey im currently at 113k. What’s your issue like if you don't mind sharing.

 

[358roxas]

Hey im currently at 113k. What’s your issue like if you don't mind sharing.

Lots of bump steer + noise, almost no self steer whatsoever, heavy steering, and when I turn left with some speed there's a rubbery chittering sound on the passenger side. Its the only bushing in the front that's completely cooked so I'm swapping them out for some polys from Superpro.

 

[Richard123]

Lots of bump steer + noise, almost no self steer whatsoever, heavy steering, and when I turn left with some speed there's a rubbery chittering sound on the passenger side. Its the only bushing in the front that's completely cooked so I'm swapping them out for some polys from Superpro.

Yup that sounds like my problem as well my bushings caster bushing dont look that bad at all but ill be replacing all that crap. Let me know how it goes!

 

[Richard123]

Lots of bump steer + noise, almost no self steer whatsoever, heavy steering, and when I turn left with some speed there's a rubbery chittering sound on the passenger side. Its the only bushing in the front that's completely cooked so I'm swapping them out for some polys from Superpro.

Hi so here is an update on this thread I started. I bought adjustable caster arms recently and put them on, and when I was taking out the old caster arms I noticed that they had been swapped out by the previous owners bc they looked sorta new. Further investigating my arms I noticed they didn't really look like OEM is300 ones, so when I researched I found out that the previous owners put in gs300 stock arms and called it a day. The gs300 ones have way less of a curve to them and kind of push the LCA backward making my alignment garbage. I put in the new arms and I'm waiting until I can get it aligned but I'm sure it's that. I hope this isn't anyone else's issue since the previous owners of my car left me a mess but hey I'm learning a lot from working on it 😅.