i'm going to buy eibach sportlines most likey in the next week or so. will they kill my new tires fast?

 

No, but toe and castor problems will.

 

castor is rear correct? can't you correct that wish washers?

and toe. can't an alignment fix that?

 

Caster measures the angle formed by a vertical line drawn through the centre of your tire (when viewed from the side) and the steering axis. Caster affects your ability to recover from turns. If your castor is out of alignment, it will have a detrimental effect on your directional control, especially at high speeds.

This is the primary adjustment made on all makes of vehicles, and is the one which, when out of line, has the most detrimental effect on tire wear and steering.

Toe measure is the difference in the distance between the front and back edges of two tires on the same axle. It is generally described as inner or outer. Picture your own feet. If your toes are closer to each other than your heels, you are toe-ing in. It's the same with your tires. When the distance between the front of the wheels is smaller, it is referred to as inner toe. When the distance between the rear of the tires is smaller, that is outer toe.

An alignment can correct toe settings on our car, I believe, everything else in OEM form is out of our hands.

 

Please explain how castor settings effect tire wear, this is new to me. I understand the return to center of the steering after cornering, and castor changes the amount of camber when turning the wheel.

Either way no castor changes need to be made when you install lowering springs.

 

dude, youre totally confusing caster with camber.

you described camber.

caster is not easily adjusted.

nor is camber.

toe is easily adjusted.

incorrect toe is what eats tires.

get an alignment and correct your toe whenever you change ride heights.

negative camber benefits handling dont bother "correcting" it, unless you see it completely off AFTER youve gotten your alignment.

 

A camber kit is only needed when the straight-line traction loss of the camber outweighs the benefit in the corners. If you're not racing regularly, it really doesn't matter either way. Just get your toe set close to 0 and you'll be good.

 

I used to work at Pep-boys. We did a lot of alignments.

I would say get a camber kit whenever you lower your car even if you are not racing. A drop WILL throw off your alignment. At Pep-boys the mechanics did not touch the alignments on lowered cars unless if there was a camber kit. The only thing you can adjust on a lowered car without a camber kit is toe. Save your money and tires and buy a camber kit and get a good alignment.

 

what type of camber kits are out there that aren't a fortune!?

 

Define fortunes, I like SPC balljoints.

 

forget the pepboys comment above... like most places of it's kind, the people there know what they're taught and it's often incorrect (kinda like installing an altenator incorrectly and setting my ex-wife's volvo on fire...). Camber will not hurt your tires significantly unless you are running 4+ degrees of negative camber. You won't get that without at least a 4-5" drop (basically impossible). I run 2.5-3 degrees negative on my cars for the past several years. When I replace my tires, there's only a slight difference between the inner and outer edges of the tires. There's basically no wear beyond the useable tread (i.e. the insides aren't bald with the outsides having good tread left). Toe will eat tires quickly. Put the springs on, take it to get it aligned at a GOOD shop and you shouldn't have any issues.

 

so camber kit?

and whats a "good" place?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by dr_latino999 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Define fortunes, I like SPC balljoints.</TD></TR></TABLE>
thats what i rock

 

bump for this thread as I am interested in this topic

 

firestone is a good place to get an allignment $120 gets you a lifetime allignment for the car

 

ok, so i have been getting mixed opinions.

camber kit and alignment....
just an alignment.....

some one is selling a progress camber kit, is that any good? I'm not tryin to spend $200 on a camber kit.

and how many washers usally work in the rear?

 

You need an alignment whenever you change your suspension setup, simple as that. If you need a camber kit, that is up to you unless you are running massively negative camber, then it is a definite.

 

My granny uses "castor" for a laxitive.

Without a doubt, get an alignment to correct your toe after you do anything with ride-hieght, camber, or caster adjustments.

As Tyson has pointed out, camber or caster wont accelerate the wear on your tires. TOE will. and having camber plus bad toe will accelerate the wear on the inside.

Honestly, having some negative camber from the drop is not at all a bad thing performance-wise unless you just dont like the way it looks... some people dont.

Sometimes on these aging cars, you'll want to get camber kits solely for evening out your camber specs. Personally I bought mine for this, and also for actually adding negative camber to all four corners... because it's really helpful in autocrossing.

So my answer to you is: put the springs on, get an alignment so the toe is zero, and wait a while before you decide on the kit. Your tires will be fine like that.

 

ok. i ordered the springs. i guess i'll get alignment when it comes. and see what the place says.

progess camber kit... any good?


Modified by GreenMachineRex at 8:07 PM 4/14/2005

 

bump.....

anyone know how many washers are good for the rear?

and do i want my camber in the front and the rear @ 0 degrees?