Nbrown84

I'd like to lower my civic but I don't want extreme camber angles and I really would prefer to not have to buy camber kits for the front and rear. Does anyone know how much I could lower it before I mess up the camber?

jdmpower363

not far. i have s-techs on mine. it lowered it only a bit. for some reason when you put s-techs on a eg it wil lowere it down to a good stance that you would expect, but putting them on a ek only loweres it a hair. i expected more, so i wasnt satisfied but it was not low enough to mess the camber up much at all to put a camber kit on it. it would have been about pointless. if your looking to really lower your car the camber is gonna be off no matter what way you go. if you would be happy with just a slight drop and have to mess with the camber then the s-techs are for you.

edit: the s-techs are 1.9" in the front and 1.5" in the rear. thats around about what youll be looking for. but it wont be slammed.

jdmpower363

oh, and if you measuer that distance on your car to see where about it will sit.... dont even bother becuase its not accurate. it more like a 1" drop all around.

on another hand, i see your from michigan. ever heard of xceedspeed.com? if not, its the biggest michigan based forum. should check it out.

Nbrown84

thanks for the tip. I'm not going for the slammed look I just want some tighter springs for DD and autocross duty. I found out at the WMAA autocross this weekend that I definitely need to improve the suspension.

MonkeyMagic

1" or so before toe gets crazy

**** the camber kits. just get the toe lined up and you'll be strait with like a 2.5 inch drop.

toe wears tires... not camber... said it before, and i'll prolly say it again.

and you can use hardware store bolts and washers to get rear camber straight anyway...

Vindicator9000

^^^this guy's right.

There's a guy on the suspension forum running 4 degrees of negative camber with no abnormal camber wear. At 2 degrees, you'll be able to notice it with the naked eye, 4 degrees is a bit extreme. I wouldn't run it myself, but it's doable. He's not even dropped, he's only running camber for the handling benefit.

Camber does not kill tires, toe does. If you're running a little negative camber, toe will kill your tires doubly quick. If you're changing ride height, align the car, simple as that. The alignment guy may try to tell you that you need a camber kit. This is not correct.

The reason alignment guys tell you that you need a camber kit is because OEM spec camber for a Civic is zero. If you're lowered at ALL, there is NO way to get zero camber on a Civic without a camber kit, because there's no camber adjustment on a Civic. There's just not. Since the alignment guy is trying to align it to OEM spec, he tells you to buy a camber kit.

When you bring the car in, tell them to zero the toe. Just the toe. Ask to keep the printouts, so you know how much camber you're running, but unless it's much over 2* you have absolutely nothing to worry about. Fight this with them. If they give you crap, take it to a different shop. Lots of cars run a bit of camber STOCK and have no problems with camber wear... S2000s, BMWs, 350/G35... As long as the toe's zeroed, it will not affect tire wear. If they're not able to zero the toe, then you have something else wrong - probably a bent control arm.

I'm running sportlines, about a 2" drop all around. According to the alignment machine, I have 2* negative in the rear, and about 1.8* negative in the front. I have seen absolutely no camber wear.

Camber is also good for handling. If your wheel is pointing slightly out when you're driving in a straight line, then as you go around a curve, and the suspension loads up, now the tire is straight, and you have a full contact patch. In a straight line, you don't need a full contact patch, but around a curve you do. This is why people intentionally run camber.

alphalanos

People are so scared of having negative camber. camber is good for handling. the suspension will gain negative camber as it is compressed or lowered thats how its designed.

Nbrown84

great advice.

ej6KRON

does camber problem only occur when lowered on springs or lowered on anything at all?

cuz i got tein ha dampers lowered 2.5 in the front and 1.5 in the back and the camber is still fine like when its on stock height...maybe just a tad bit negative.

Nbrown84

If my car had an alignment before lowering it will I need another after it's lowered?

Vindicator9000

^^^ YES ^^^

Toe changes with ride height. If you do not align the toe when changing ride height, it will eat the tires.

Nbrown84

This seems like a pretty legit way to do an at home alignment.

http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/show....php?t=1093484

98civdx

you only really have to worry about toe.
camber WILL eat your tires just not very fast. idk why people say it doesnt.
toe just takes them out a helll of a lot quicker.