Hi all, I have a question that I cant seem to find posted anywhere,   so i am due to get my mk3.5 focus estate aligned as I'm changing all the shocks and springs to bilstein and eibach's, and also replacing worn inner tie rods, when looking threw the haynes bible for my car it mentions all the numbers needed to align the car yourself if you have the tools, but it mentions standard and sports, I'm assuming that's referring to stock and stock with eibach's (factory "sport" I guess),  so should I have it aligned as stock, or sport and how will that impact the handling of the car?

I know there is going to be a big change with new lowered shocks and springs over the 100k stock stuff, but how much difference is there between the stock and sport alignment?

 

Sorry for the overly complicated story, just the way my brain works.

 

Thanks 

 

Allan

 

 

You probably won't notice any real world difference. 

Stock is designed for comfort, steering ease, straight-line ease and prolonged tyre life.  Sport is designed for a quicker, sharper turn in at the expense of being a bit more skittish in a straight line and a bit more tyre wear.

Skittish in straight line?   Would that be more high speed as in motorway or the more normal 30's?

I suspected there would be an impact on tyre wear and I can live with that, I'm just chasing a look, judging by numbers theres more camber front and rear, not a huge difference but I think it would give a nice look cause I do like the look of estates with a bit o camber.

But at the end of the day, she's the family daily and if she's gonna be too skittery then it ain't worth it.

 

I'm assuming that the Haynes setups are fords own settings, so could the skittery straight line be so bad?

 

Thanks 

 

 

Allan

It'll be most noticeable at speed on the motorway.  You'll have to keep making minor corrections to keep it straight on the sports setup, whereas the standard setup toes in slightly to keep it straight without any driver input.

That's for the toe setting though, I don't think you can adjust front camber on the Focus.