E36 Guy

I heard that I could just get an alignment instead of a camber kit to stop the inner wearing of my tires. Are there any pros and cons? Is a camber kit better?? Thanks

cyang08

just get your toe zeroed out. thats what kills ya but all the other stuff wouldnt hurt either.

egredspools

if u lower u're car to certain degree i personally think u would need it?

miahmouse

How far is the car lowered?

The front camber kits are pretty much all crap. For the rears the adjustable uppers work fine, or the extended bolts + washers trick will do.

volcomsocal

Alignment has nothing to do with camber. Alignment fixes toe-in or toe-out. What that means is if your tires are pointing inward or outward, as if your car had the ability to steer with it's rear wheels. Camber has to do with the tires being slanted in at the top of the tire (negative camber) or being slanted in at the bottom of the tire (positive camber). When you drop your car, your tires will have a negative camber to them and thus you'll need a camber kit to fix that problem. If you don't get a camber kit, then the insides of your tires will wear out unevenly. An alignment might be necessary after you fix the camber, as I had to do with my car. But every car is different. Just to give you an idea... If you have an alignment problem, then your car is either pulling to the left or pulling to the right when you drive. If it's not doing that, then you don't need an alignment. Just go to a mechanic that you can trust to tell you if an alignment is necessary. But more than likely, you will need a camber kit.

Voyage34

there are several threads going about this sort of topic.
what i understand is that unless you have completely inflexible sidewalls on your tires, they will deform slightly to make an even contact patch. with some camber and zero toe, your tires will lean and maybe have slightly more pressure on the inside edge, but sidewall deformation will create a pretty even load across the entire contact patch.

with toe on the other hand, the tires are constantly in a state where they are sliding against one another. the greater the amount of toe you have, the higher the slip angle and thus the higher the rate of wear.

the general consencus in the suspension forum is that for a lowered car, getting an alignment and having the shop set your toe to 0.00 will solve the grand majority of the wear issue.

E36 Guy

Thanks for the replies. What camber kit would you guys suggest?

SVOboy

I agree with all the pro alignment stuff, camber don't matter.

If you get one I think people like the skunk2 stuff, not totally sure though.

michsuxkg

yes always get a camber kit

SVOboy

Why always?

rdwaldo

lots fo older hatchs get away with noy having camber but if you have it, u def need a kit. use washers in the upper control arm for the rear and u can buy a kit for the front. u can either buy a knock off kit or an AEM but the knock off kits you are going to have to buying and press new bushings most likely

volcomsocal

I haven't bought a camber kit for the fronts on my car yet, but for the rears, I bought the new Skunk2 rear camber kit.

Dublin

I would suggest a camber kit from SPC...you'll be able to adjust the caster and camber...I ended up getting it to correct the uneven tire wear on the inner part of tire...the thing works great...

fmrprojects

get an alignment for sure if you are lowering your car. toe kills tires quick. camber does wear tires a little but just to be safe get a camber kit then go get an alignment. just get 1 that is the whole control arm

bnock

I just bought a OMNI camber kit for the front of my car, the rear is said to do fine with washers but the front is suppost to squeek from alot with just washers. I would recomend a camber kit if your gettin bad cupping on your tires and then getting it alinement afterwards. Whats a 100buck when your gonna go through 400 in tires a year

3a_eg_hatch

an alignment could only do so much. if you road race or autocross get a camber kit

Voyage34

If youre roadracing or autoXing, camber is used to dial in your suspension, not save your tires. but if youre roadracing or autoXing, getting your suspension set right is very important so go ahead and get one.
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by bnock &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> Whats a 100buck when your gonna go through 400 in tires a year</TD></TR></TABLE>
The thing is, with a good alignment i/e toe set to 0.00, you wont be going through $400 of tires each year unless youre running azenis in which case you'd go through them regardless. There are people down 3+ inches with ~3* camber who, because they got an alignment, are still at 30/40K on a given set of tires

*spelling edit*