I know there are a bunch of threads for this, but I have a specific question. I just went and got an alignment after I lowered my car and my toe is set to 0. My front camber is -2" and my rear camber is -3". The place I went to get my car aligned told me I need to get a camber kit or I will chew through tires. I know people on here say that toe kills tires, not camber...but in my case, can the decent amount of negative camber I have wear my tires at a tremendous speed? Even if I rotate my tires every 3,000 miles? Thanks guys

 

you'll be fine, i run -2.5 and -3 something and get a little bit more wear on the inside edge but that's fine with me. i've had the same snow tires on for about 20 months straight and they're fine. time to get this thing running and put on some azenis, which also wear a little quicker on the inside but still no big deal. negative camber is good

drive the car for a few weeks and if you think you need one, get one.

 

Thanks for the response man. I know negative camber is better for handling to a certain degree...but was unsure of the degree. I just figured since I had exact numbers on my negative camber that I would post this up just to make sure since the guy at the shop told me my tires might not even last 3k miles...haha.

 

when i first got my car aligned the guy said the same thing. then he wanted some $300 for a camber kit. as long as your toe is in spec you'll be fine, zeroing out the camber will save them even more but it's not worth the kit and the bad hanlding.

 

Yeah I saw skunk2's kit was $300+ and that was the cheapest "good quality" kit I could find.

 

300+?? haha where have you been lookin? im pretty sure if you look long and hard enough, you could pick up a front AND rear kit for 300+. I know skunk2 JUST came out with a pro series plus camber kit thats MSRP is $260 for the front. the normal pro series is a little cheaper than that. go to RMS-USA.com and look at there prices. Im pretty sure you can find everything you need there for a good price. If you call.. ask for tanner. Good guy

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors...QrdZ1

I bought that kit a install was simple. Once i got the alignment done everything was great handling is just damn perfect...
Oh but one thing the uppper control arms are not grey/sliver they come to you yellow... oouch.... so i painted them red to match my coil over kit. but main thing is they work just fine. the ball joint is adjustable.

 

i ran mine for about 3 months without a kit, not even an aggressive drop, just about 1-2 inches, chewed my tires down to the metal. so i got the omnipower front kit and it came with washers for the rear. i like it much better to run with proper camber, and it saves you money in the long run. and YES i had an alignment before so my toe was alright.

 

perfect alignment is nessary. if off just so slight, you'll feel the loss in handling and cornering i did...

 

it will also depend on the tires you run, and the air pressure, etc. negative camber will cause increased tire wear, but there are tricks to keeping your tires from wearing.

 

so do tell, for the people that can't afford a cambet kit. for the rear and back.

 

In response to B18c1 I was referring to the full camber kit being being around $300.

Also, it looks like this thread as well as most other "camber kit" threads are getting mixed responses...Real life examples would be great. For example, exact amount of negative camber you have/had and how long your tires have lasted you. Thanks guys!

 

real world examples, ok, i do this for a living, so: 205/40/16 kumho 2" drop -2.0° camber front -1.5° in rear, absolutely no camber wear w/ 10k miles. other cars: buddys eg hatch:205/50/15 kumho 2.5" drop -2.5° camber front, -1.75° rear, slight wear after 40k. keep in mind these are both performance tires rated at 50k miles. both where aligned by me, and neither have camber kits.

 

Awesome, thanks for the info man! My rear tires I can start to see a little bit of camber wear already (on about 3k miles) but it doesn't seem bad at all. Bump for more examples

 

if you are seeing wear that quickly you have a problem, what tire size and brand are you running. and how much drop??? what psi you run in them???

 

I'm not sure of the exact drop, but my rear camber is -3" and my tires are Ventus HRII's 195-50-15 I believe. The psi I'm running is about 34-36.

 

-3° camber is going to eat the soft hancook tires. i would say raise the air pressure around 40-42psi, to put more load in the center, and if you cant afford camber kit for the rear do the washer/bolt fix, its $10 max, and can easily do .5-.75° w/ just 2 washers.

 

Ok, thanks for the tip man. Should I raise the pressure to 40-42 psi in both the front and the rear? Also, won't I need to get another alignment after I do the washer trick?

 

anytime negative camber is present air pressure should be raised, it will help take load off the shoulder of the tire where it normally is at its greatest. so if you dont have camber kit in the front also raise them. you should get another alignment after shimming the rear w/ washers, as a matter of fact, i would suggest getting one anyways, 3k miles even on a bad alignment is rediculous.

 

Well I just got an alignment about a week ago and got the toe set to 0. I haven't touched anything since then. I will raise my air pressure asap and try to do the washer trick sometime in the next week. Do you think I would be safe to put 3 washers in the rear, or should I just stick to 2?

 

depends on the thickness of the washers really, i mean, in every case i have seen 1 standard washer = .25° camber change. just make sure you get longer bolts if you do it. even 2 washers on the stock bolts is pushing your luck.

 

So theoretically, if each standard washer = .25, 3 washes will = .75 which will reduce my rear camber to about -2.25? That is around what I'm looking for..

Thanks for the responses in both threads, I really appreciate the help

 

no problem, im standing in my alignment bay as i type right now, so it was on my mind anyways. LOL.

 

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Not with more in the rear than in the front.

 

negative camber is not needed for street driven vehicle. if you push your car that hard on the streets you dont care about tires anyways.