Just wondering what the toe and camber was set at when the HHR came off the assembly line. Were they all different or was there a set value? I know for toe the specs are listed at .00 to +.20 and camber at -.20 to -1.7 but those seem very broad to me, at least the camber anyways. What is the "ideal" set point for each measurement? We're talking plain jane OEM hhr FE1 suspension.

 

The camber and caster are set by the shape of the body.
I don't feel like looking for the specs right now. There is a link to free shop manuals in my sig. or here : charm.li

I got to feeling better:

 

thank you Donbrew! These specs are more zeroed in. I was just curious how an alignment tech goes about picking where to set the specs when the ones they list on the printout sheet are so broad.

 

You can only adjust the toe in an HHR aftermarket camber bolts are available but don’t give you much.

 

They just get everything within the specs.

 

In a typical unit total quality management (TQM) system in the automotive world, the goal is usually to be construct the parts as close to the mean as possible. This is a tenant pioneered by Japanese auto makers. They taught us that “good enough” isn’t good enough, and that precision doesn’t cost, it saves.

Also, service specs aren’t necessarily exactly the same as manufacturing specs.

 

Do you think that the factory puts each car on an alignment machine and spends 45 minutes?
One of the selling point of McPherson struts is they only need toe adjustment. That can be done by aligning 1 car and measuring the tie rod, then setting all future parts to that. I bet that the rack and pinion comes to the factory as an assembly and installed as is. Most likely the only check is a scuff plate test as the car is rolled out the door.

 

I do enjoy biting sarcasm, but hopefully no one thinks they align each car on the line.

I thought the meaning of my comment was obvious but for those who need more clarity, I edited a couple of words. If you make the parts with the greatest possible precision, you can eliminate adjustments. Deming wrote of driving out sources of variation. One benefit of a properly implemented TQM program is to save time and reduce cost while improving quality.

 

My replacement steering rack was set dead on spec for toe .

 

Wasn't meant as sarcasm, meant as a rhetorical question.