Hey everyone, I have a little background story to explain. I have a 89 Honda CRX. I have had a few suspension setups and that is what this thread is about. I first had a set of Sprint springs on 17's (back in the ricer days). Since then I got some omnipower coilovers because I wanted to go lower. Ok well for a year I was slammed on the coilovers but the camber was wearing through my tires fairly quickly. Also note that the car drove fine to me in my opinion. Next, I get some Ingalls adjustable ball joints to fix the problem. I have my dad's friend put them on who works at a tire shop. The guy has been doing this stuff for years but I don't believe he has much/any experience working with lowered vechiles.

So he installs the ball joints while I am away at college and I come home to pick up my CRX. I look at it and freak out. The front was JACKED up about 2.5 inches while the rear was lowered like before? Long story short, he put the passenger side ball joint on the drivers side and vice versa. So due to this my arm was getting hung up underneath. Ok and next thing, he was supposed to install a rear camber kit also. Well according to his alignment machine, only ONE of my rear wheels needed a camber kit?? So the guy puts only ONE correction kit on my rear.

So now you have some background about the initial situation. We finally get the guy to correct the Ingalls ball joint issue. But now the car rides HORRIBLE due to how low it is. It turns out the new ball joint increased the height so the nut on top of my control arm is now hitting my frame on every slight bump.

So I rode like this for about 6 months but I have moved to Florida to do an internship. I drove a 97 Civic here but it's having some mechanical problems so I want my CRX back. Knowing that the ride is horrible due to the Ingalls ball joints, I tell my dad to take the CRX back to that guys shop and have my stock ball joints put back on. I am fine with negative camber as long as the ball joint doesnt smack my frame on every bump.

Ok this morning my dad takes the car up there to have the work done. The guy said the best you can align the car is -3 degrees with the stock ball joints. He then tells me Dad that the car is SO low that I won't make it to Florida before having a blowout. My parents aren't car professionals and now they are scared to death.

I just wanted to hear some reactions to this situation. I think my car is fine to drive back to Florida and I don't trust this guys opinion considering that he can't install aftermarket ball joints correctly the first go around.

I am using this thread as valid responses to share with my parents. Many of you have much more knowledge than I do and I'd love to hear your comments.

Here is a picture of the car's height for a reference.

 

Just zero out the toe (or leave just a slight bit of toe-in for safety) and you won't have any problems. Blow-outs? Find another mechanic!

 

You wrote too much; most people on here are to lazy to read something that long. Recently it's been discovered that if you run the correct toe that camber actually has little effect on tire wear. I do not think that I have any experience with the kit you speak of. I did have the adjustable mount kit for the front upper control arms. That kit made it very hard to get the camber right, which in turn cost me a lot of money to get my car aligned. I took the kit back off and now I'm using revo technica adjustable ball joint control arms. I had to cut a tiny little bit out of the frame to free up the control arm's swing path.

Your final answer is: If the mechanic gets the toe within factory specs you will be perfectly fine even on a trip cross country.

 

Sorry for the length. I wanted to fully explain the situation.

 

car height is fine. Just make sure that the toe is neutral spec.

 

i wouldnt use any camber kit on my crx, just get the toe at 0. the mechanics who align my car always try to scare me and tell me that crap too, tell them to set it at zero and not to worry about your camber then you will be good to go

 

Your fine, look into rhino or revo camber kits, they sell em on ebay, more clearance than that spc one

Nice crx btw

 

my CRX is drop like your and i'm using no camber kit at all and my car run perfecly straith....when you go to a place where the guy know is job you don't need any crap camber kit that rub under your body!

and top of that i used 1991 Integras 10.3 brake and full spindle!