Ride-Heigh and Alignment? (Miata Content)

My Miata rides a bit lower than I care for. I can just barely make it over speed bumps, and sometimes in hard cornering I will get rubbing in the front wheel well (happens most on right-handed sweepers). Now that I'm starting to run DOT-R tires, I'm expecting that to happen more often. I currently have NB style upper mounts on the car, but have a set of stock NA mounts, that would give me an extra ~.5" of ride height.

I'm considering swapping them out, but I had the car aligned a few months back at the current height. How badly would a .5" raise screw up my alignment?

I did get a fairly aggressive alignment. If I recall, -1.5 front and -2.0 rear camber.

I cant tell you for sure, but it seems as though it would reduce camber?

I lowered my car after an alignment, and after 20 or 30 thousand miles, I have noticed no strange tire wear...

Joey

joey48442 wrote: I cant tell you for sure, but it seems as though it would reduce camber?

I know lowering gives negative camber and raising lessens negative camber. But will a .5" change make a significant change in camber?

Changing the height shouldn't adjust toe. Right? Would it also change caster? I'm not too concerned about caster changes, though.

Any change in ride height, up or down, calls for an alignment.

Very rough rule of thumb - you'll see about 1 degree of camber change per inch of ride height in a Miata. It shouldn't affect toe, as that's the definition of bump steer. My old GTX had ridiculous amounts of bump steer. Never checked on the caster change.

The reason you're rubbing is due to those NB upper mounts.

Keith wrote: Very rough rule of thumb - you'll see about 1 degree of camber change per inch of ride height in a Miata. It shouldn't affect toe, as that's the definition of bump steer. My old GTX had ridiculous amounts of bump steer. Never checked on the caster change. The reason you're rubbing is due to those NB upper mounts.

I don't want to deal with a half a degree of camber change. I'll change the mounts when I'm ready to pop for another alignment.

I seem to just be rubbing on a plastic lining in the wheel well, and it's very rare. So that shouldn't cause any damage to the tire.