Came back from the shop after noticing a slight pull on the car to the left. Here are the numbers they showed me: Left Front: Camber -0.7/Caster 12.2 Right Front: Camber -1.6/Caster 12.7 Left Rear: Camber -1.2 Right Rear: Camber -1.8 I've been doing some research and understand that our cars don't have a way to adjust caster and camber. What route should I go with to properly align my car? Rear camber bushings, front adjustable upper control arms, Pedders adjustable control arm bushings....it's all so confusing!!!! LMAO :dumb:
rick - if i recall correctly, my dealer tech told me that the fronts could be adjusted for camber to a small degree. the rears require camber kits to fix.
SPC Performance is what I did for the front and rear... http://www.lxforums.com/board/showthread.php?t=96943&highlight=performance
waste of money for the front and not needed for the rear. rick just do the adjustments to the stockers. even when i had mine dumped completely to the ground with my kw2s i sat at a bit of neg camber, not enough to affect tire wear in a neg way.
That sucks! Are you having jacked up tire wear as well? My Invo's have 9k on them and they are toast. The rears are bald as expected. But the fronts are bald on the outer third of the tires. Hmmm....I guess I need to take it to the dealer. Pep boy's said I need something adjustable to make the corrections. You, and all the other guys with various options are the reason I started this thread. I don't know which option is the best, or which one is really needed. LOL Please explain Obiwan! What all is the camber kit adding and do I need one? Again, I guess I need to take it to the dealership. I didn't know you could adjust the stockers...or at least Pep Boys didn't LOL. My tires are worn pretty unevenly. Rears are bald, front outer thirds are bald. Too hard on the gas, and too hard in the corners! Hehe Help you freaking brainiacs!!! I need Quick to come along and give me a geometry lesson....and then the rest of you can held interpret it for me! hehe Thanks for the replies fellas!! :hug:
first mistake....... manny, moe, and jack........ go to the dealer with actual trained technicians, not a bunch of hacks that think they know your car because a friend of a friends dad had a buddy who had a charger srt! lol i have run my car low on the kwV1's for longer than most and i can tell you that even with slight negitive camber in the rear, i have not worn tires prematurely.
Chris, take a look at my first post and the camber numbers. I changed it from red back to white....sorry bro!! LOL Do you think those numbers can be brought back to "normal". Anyone know what the normal specs for our cars are?
you will not get the rears back to zero without camber kits. the fronts should have about .7 degrees if i remember correctly when i had mine done and i chatted with the tech about the range. i do remember him explaining to me that there is around .5 degree range that is acceptable for the front. a slight (>.5 degrees) negitive camber to the rear is not bad at all. you are about where mine is.
I go to Big O tires for my tires and alignment. Granted the service manager I deal with drives a 300 SRT and gives the car the special treatment. When I first went out to Willow Springs, I was wearing down my front right tire to a razors edge on the outside. One of the Mopax guys advised that if I'm into road course driving and "spirited" street driving, that I get a slight negative camber on the fronts to even out the wear and make them last longer. My tires have lasted a good bit longer since I started doing this. Granted, I have only upgraded the swaybars and haven't had any other suspension upgrades. So I still ride like a truck. :grin:
Maybe in your mind but my tires were worn out and I did go to a dealer and they informed me that I needed to get stuff to adjust it the correct way. They informed me about SPC and I got the stuff from a connection so I didn't pay retail... and then had a shop that does very high end cars and they did the install.... guess what... my tires are wearing correctly now... so not a waste of money for me... Also Eibach has the same stuff and it is priced at a lower price... and this is the strange part... SPC makes it for them... On a side note... I have the Tein coil-overs that was installed by Tein...
I'm looking at PDF right now (anyone know how to attach it?). It is saying factory spec for rear camber is -0.75. Front left = -0.05, Front right = -0.35 It's also saying that the dealership can only adjust .2-.3 degrees either way. If I'm reading it correctly, that puts me beyond their correction ability. EDIT: I was looking at RT. Here's the SRT.
John, would using something like Pedders' adjustable bushings be better than one of the complete kits?
dude i remember when you installed your stuff, i also remember you trying to convince everyone you were going the right way. tein has since been shown to be severely subpar so youre trying to make up for it by telling someone they need to do what you did when its completely unnecessary. im not saying spc is crap, im saying tein is. the fact that spc makes suspension parts is irrelevant in our case because we do not need spacers or other adjusters to wear our tires evenly. i cant explain why your car wasnt driving right, or why you thought of listening to a dealer tech and not your peers. i guess wasting 500 bucks isnt a big deal to you but im sure rick would rather spend that on tires and other shit while enjoying his car.
I wouldn't go to a dealer. Someone there might know how to align it but they more than likely don't have the equipment. Usually it's really old crappy alignment machines. Look for a shop that has this stuff: John Bean Arago V3D Wheel Aligner This "top dog" of computerized wheel alignment equipment provides exceptionally accurate measurement by utilizing digital camera technology and three-dimensional imaging. As one of the most highly advanced pieces of service equipment, it results in the best driving experience you will have with your vehicle. Hunter GSP9700 Road Force Measurement System This system goes far beyond the traditional wheel balancer by measuring both radial and lateral tire forces. It detects radial force-related problems like tire uniformity, tire and rim runout, and wheel-to-balancer mounting errors, and has a road force measurement system, which simulates a road test to identify vibration and pull problems. Longacre Digital Scales Whether it be for track use or to optimize handling and braking, scaling a vehicle helps to determine its total weight and corner balance the cross diagonal weights. This equipment is used on vehicles that require the next level in precision chassis setup or diagnosis, particularly those with manual height-adjustable suspension. Corghi Artiglio Master Tire Changer This tire changer changed the industry by it eliminating the pry bar and, consequently, any worry about damaging expensive wheels and tires. The unit's operation is based upon a completely new principle, which includes electronic wheel diameter selection with automatic tool positioning and automatic tool head for levelers mounting/demounting. I had mine aligned more for the twisties than cruising on the highway. You're going to sacrifice a bit of wear but that's probably the way you want to go Rick. They should be asking you how much you weigh, if you usually ride a passenger, what kind of weight you usually have in the trunk. Then they simulate that with weights and then they align it. Get it done right and you should be able to take advantage of the difference. This was recently when I had the Nitto NT05's put on. It was still in alignment (no curbs)
So based on your final numbers I'm not that far off with the exception of the right front camber. Yours is -0.8 and mine is -1.6. That still puts me out of the OEM adjustable range of .2-.3 degrees. Pedders offers a bushing kit for around $460 which includes: LX Bump Steer Correction Kit LX Front Radius Rod Bush LX Fnt Up Cntrl Arm Bush Adj LX Rear Camber Link Adj bush kt So I guess I should start over at post number one. I'm fairly certain I need some sort of corrective kit. I'm surprised BMC hasn't chimed in. They are usually quick to pimp their products if they have them. They have the Eibach kits. I saw them peeking earlier. I sent Mike at Pedders a PM a couple hours ago. Hopefully he'll have some input in the next day or so. John (SDCarguy) made mention that some of the kits will effect my clearance. I'm curious as to how this is. The front Eibach kits seem to have a lot of parts. Their rears are adjustable bushings only. I'm surprised there isn't more written on this in any of the forums. Lots of guys with lowered cars. Is everyone just happy eating up tires in about a third of the life expectancy? Hmmmm
