iheartrice

I'm wondering if I should order Camber Kits for both the front and rear of my car, or just the rear alone. If I can get away with just rear camber kits, I'd be ecstatic, but I'm not sure I should just do the rear. I haven't dealt much with suspension, and I'm hoping that someone with more experience could help me out a bit. Another question is, is a 4 wheel alignment required too? The shop says they will adjust my fronts for free, but will charge me $45 for the rear.

And one more, I guess this is somewhat of preference, but I'm wondering how low some of you are with your 96-00 Civic coupes, cause I want to slam mine, but am worried of going too low due to potholes. I prefer to not have to adjust my ride height several times, although I figure it's going to happen anyway.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Kendall

You should actually be fine without camber kits. Toe misalignment causes major wear, not camber. Just make sure that you get the car aligned as soon as possible after lowering it.

SoullessJapaneseMachine

iTrader: (1)

depends on how much you want to lower it..if its only like 1.5 inches then camber kits aren't necessary...but if you slam it....

iheartrice

They will be aligning the fronts right after they instal my front suspension, but the rears might be later that day (hopefully) or possibly a couple days later. The guy says that I need to go to his fathers shop to do the rear alignments, that's why.

That's the thing though, I want to slam it, but I'm unsure exactly how far I can go without being close to tearing off my header every time I hit a pothole. I'm not sure if I could only go an inch, or if I could go full out with a 3 inch drop. And I won't know until I start adjusting the height of it myself.

I thought I'd be good with just an alignment, but the guy said that he highly recommended a camber kit.

I'm still up in the air about it.

Kendall

My hatch is lowered about 3 inches without camber kits presently. I hit the header on taller speed bumps and rub the front tires only if I hit a bump with the steering wheel turned almost all the way. My tires are narrow though, so that probably has a lot to do with it.

iheartrice

Really? Did you not have massive negative camber? And a 4 wheel alignment did you well? The guy at the shop was really persistent on me getting adjustable camber kits. It's not like he was charging me more, so he'd make more money or anything either.

You mind posting pics of your hatch so I can see how it looks?

iheartrice

Bump.

sageuvagony

Car with bad camber (Lowered too much without adjusting camber)

Notice how the top of the wheels tilt inwards. You will have bad inner tire wear and will look funny if your rims are too big.

iheartrice

Yeah, I understand the concept, but I was just wondering if it was possible that I could get away with it. I guess not. My rims size right now is stock, 14inches, and eventually will be 15inches, no bigger.

Does anyone know anything about the Blox Camber kits? I really don't feel like spending $300+ on them. Thanks in advance.

sageuvagony

I'm pretty sure you could get away with a little drop. I've also read that you can use washers/spacers to correct a certain amount of camber, but someone will have to confirm this.

iheartrice

Yeah, thanks. I'll just have to see after I get everything installed how low I actually want to go, that's obviously my only real dilemma right now. I'm going to probably end up slamming it, being the stubborn person I am, roads permitting or not.

iheartrice

Anymore opinions?

B serious

iTrader: (1)

3'' of a drop will produce about 3deg of neg. camber. Too much to do anything good.

Camber doesn't really wear tires out that badly. It's toe that's the tire killer. Camber will, however wear the tires if you're only going in a straight line or if you're doing a lot of burn outs.

3 deg. of camber is a bit much. I'd install a camber kit to dial camber in....but not to completely eliminate it. Dial it in to about 2 deg or so....unless you plan on doing burn outs or drag racing a lot. Although, it sounds like you plan on doing mostly hard parking. Drag racing goes hand in hand with hard parking though.

It just depends on what you're doing with the car. Since you didn't mention anything specific, I'll assume the typical usage of just driving around and occasional street/drag racing. Just put your camber back to factory specs in that case.

You will have to re-align the car every time you change ride height.

The solution for not making your header scrape: Dont lower it so much that your header scrapes or drive more carefully. Either will work.

iheartrice

Yeah, my car is simply going to be a DD. I won't be doing many big burnouts, or racing with it, although I will obviously beat on it every now and than.

And realigning the car every time I changed the ride height was another problem I thought of. I don't know how low I can go exactly so that means I'm going to most need to realign it another time, although the guy did say he would do the front for free with the install.

I really would love to track it, but unfortunately that is completely out of the picture right now.

I'm still curious as to how low I should go the first time around.

Thanks btw.

Frickr

i think it looks the best, when the tires are just right at the edge of the fenders. you shouldner need a camber kit at that height

del_barry

I've never installed a camber kit on my lowered cars
Toe is what will kill your tires, which has been stated several times

It doesn't matter how low your car is to smack your header... its all in your driving, if you know how to drive a low car you won't have problems
I'm currently tucking half of my tire on 15" wheels and don't smack my header

Kendall

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by del_barry &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I've never installed a camber kit on my lowered cars
Toe is what will kill your tires, which has been stated several times

It doesn't matter how low your car is to smack your header... its all in your driving, if you know how to drive a low car you won't have problems
I'm currently tucking half of my tire on 15" wheels and don't smack my header</TD></TR></TABLE>

Agreed completely.

I run 175/65/15 tires on 15x5.5 wheels and I don't have wear issues. Because of the narrow tires I can get away with a bit more of a drop and not have to worry about rubbing. I did make sure to get the toe set to zero as soon as the car was lowered though. When you lower the car the toe gets misaligned like everything else and without an alignment the most obvious point of blame would be the camber because it's easy to see. If you get the toe set straight when you lower it you will be fine. And as I mentioned earlier, the only time I ever scrape my header in on really tall speed bumps.


Modified by Kendall at 3:06 PM 8/15/2008

slowB20ej8

i got my coupe lowerd dont know how many inches didnt measure just did it by eye and live in cali land of the effd up highways i have yet to run into any problems from pot holes, it depends on ur suspension set up and what u have im runing skunk2 pro s coilovers no camber kit and 205/50/15 tires, oh yeah and u also learn to avoid certain spots in the road and roads all together......

Syndacate

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by slowB20ej8 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i got my coupe lowerd dont know how many inches didnt measure just did it by eye and live in cali land of the effd up highways i have yet to run into any problems from pot holes, it depends on ur suspension set up and what u have im runing skunk2 pro s coilovers no camber kit and 205/50/15 tires, oh yeah and u also learn to avoid certain spots in the road and roads all together......</TD></TR></TABLE>

EDIT:
NVM: - it looked higher than I thought it was.
/EDIT

@ OP:
If you drop less than 2" you won't need a camber kit. Either way, after you drop, with or without a camber kit, you need to get a 4 wheel alignment. If the drop is &lt; 2" you'll be able to align it close enough to 100% where it won't affect the wear any. Though if you're more you won't be able to get it close enough and your tires will have camber wear, unless you get a camber kit, which will allow them to adjust this.

PS:
My car is dropped about 2", I do NOT have a camber kit, and I was able to get it to about 99% camber adjustment - which is close enough to perfect that I won't have any camber wear.

Furthermore, at a 2" drop, I have not lost ANY practicality in the fact that it's my daily driver. I can still clear all speed bumps/ramps fine, and I haven't had any problems.

Judging by what I've seen as far as people slamming their ride, here on H-T, 95% of them would have their car torn to shreds on the roads around here. Though I haven't had any problems with my drop.

2" is enough that you won't need a camber kit, it'll handle well, and you won't lose any practicality. It's the perfect drop for a daily driver, IMO.

I am very willing to say the roads in sullivan county (where I live) are amongst the worst in the country - the county simple doesn't have the budget to repair them. We have the only interstate that I've ever been on (I-84) that has 3-4" pot-holes in it.

B serious

iTrader: (1)

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Syndacate &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">


My car is dropped about 2", I do NOT have a camber kit, and I was able to get it to about 99% camber adjustment - which is close enough to perfect that I won't have any camber wear.

.</TD></TR></TABLE>

How did you get any camber adjustment without a camber kit?

iheartrice

Would you mind posting pics of your car? If dropping it 2" instead of 2.5" (for example) means I save myself a couple hundred dollars, than obviously it's worth it, but I'd like to see pictures first.

Thanks for the responses guys, I appreciate it.

Syndacate

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by B serious &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

How did you get any camber adjustment without a camber kit? </TD></TR></TABLE>

The camber change isn't enough to require a camber kit. It wasn't perfect, but it was close enough to perfection that I don't have camber wear.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by iheartrice &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Would you mind posting pics of your car? If dropping it 2" instead of 2.5" (for example) means I save myself a couple hundred dollars, than obviously it's worth it, but I'd like to see pictures first.

Thanks for the responses guys, I appreciate it.</TD></TR></TABLE>

None since I took the huge 17" rims that came with it off of it.

I'll take a few pictures tomorrow.

B serious

iTrader: (1)

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Syndacate &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

The camber change isn't enough to require a camber kit. It wasn't perfect, but it was close enough to perfection that I don't have camber wear.


</TD></TR></TABLE>

That's not surprising. You'd have to have an insane amount of camber to have actual, bonifide camber wear.

I had no uneven wear when my car was crushed to the ground.

I dont get uneven wear with -3 deg on my S2000.

Etc. Etc.

iheartrice

So I take it as if, everyone believes I'd be fine without camber kits, regardless of my drop?

I'm getting different answers from people. Some say I should get it, others say I shouldn't, while others say if I want to drop it 3", and others say if I drop it 2". I really don't know who the most knowledgeable person is with suspension, so getting all of these different opinions really brings me to square one.

Since my funds aren't great, if I really don't need camber kits than I'd prefer to not get them. But at the same time, I don't want to leave out the camber kits, to find out I need to buy them anyway, and pay for them to be installed unlike now which is included in the price, and to find out I need to get new tires. I'm just trying to spend the least amount of money as possible.

bunnyx

some people use washers to align their rear cambers or somthing like that