Word on the street is that Skunk2 is the best, thats what I'm leaning toward. Apparently there's 3 kinds of Skunk2 kits. I think I'm gonna get the front and rear. (but I dont know a whole lot about camber kits)

2000 GSR
Daily driver

If I go Skunk2, which one should i go with?

If not Skunk2, then which brand?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by DJLikwid &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Word on the street is that Skunk2 is the best, thats what I'm leaning toward. Apparently there's 3 kinds of Skunk2 kits. I think I'm gonna get the front and rear. (but I dont know a whole lot about camber kits)

2000 GSR
Daily driver

If I go Skunk2, which one should i go with?

If not Skunk2, then which brand?</TD></TR></TABLE>

I also have a 00 GSR. I would highly recommend no camber kit.

All camber kits that either replace the upper balljoint or the entire UCA itself, are taller than stock. This means, instead of the bumpstop on your shock shaft stopping the car from bottoming it's front suspension, your UCAs will collide with the inner fender. Mine certainly do, and the SPC UCAs I have are probably some of the thinnest camber adjusting UCAs I've seen.

Besides, even if you drop the car to "flushed tires" height, you'll still only have around -2" of front camber, which is a perfectly streetable setting to run.

 

I'm a nooB to this, so I dont understand everything youre saying, but I get the point.

Half the people I've asked said to get the kit and half the people said dont get it, I hate when that happens.

So you're saying get no kit, just get an alignment done to zero out toe? and that it?

thx for the input

 

Yes all you need is a good alignment and no camber kit, unless you plan on going all out autocross.

 

ok

So lemme ask you guys this then... got my car lowered about 3 months ago (havent gotten an alignment yet). If I raise my car back up for the winter, do I still need an alignment now, or can I wait until next season when I lower it again?

 

Anytime when you alter the suspension you should get an alignment. If you higher and lower the car for seasons, that could get pretty spendy.

 

Is an alignment an alignment or there is a big variance depending on who does it?

 

An alignment should be just an alignment, they should check camber, toe, and caster. The key is finding a reputable shop that knows what they're doing with lowered cars and if you do choose to get a camber kit, that they know how to adjust it.

 

Find a good place. Anyone could do one but not all people can do a good job an a lowered car.

 

I'll have to look into that, I'm guessing local shops are much better than any big chains for that kinda stuff.

 

Not quite true, it really varies. My friends around where I live use National Tire and Battery and Firestone for their cars and they've done the job taking care of their slammed cars. When I lived in Austin I took my car to a small do-it-all shop cause he had experience in working with the lowest of low cars. Just make sure to talk to the mechanics that are doing the alignment and find out if they know what they're doing. I've heard my friends' horror stories about having to deal with shitty shops that ended up screwing them over on their alignments because they didn't know how to deal with lowered cars.

 

i have a 96 gsr and i have skunk 2 camber kits =]

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by DJLikwid &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Is an alignment an alignment or there is a big variance depending on who does it?</TD></TR></TABLE>

make sure you get before and after print outs. A good alignment shop is hard to find. Most places just wanna produce fast work. So they will get you in and out fast without always taking their time to make sure every angle is absolutely correct. They get it close enough though.

You can also buy a lifetime alignment from a lot of places. So when you raise your car for the winter, get it aligned. When you lower your car for the summer, get it aligned.

Toe is really the only angle you need to be concerned with. err....unless you're doing burn outs or if you have like -10 degrees of camber or something stupid.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by TunerN00b &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

I also have a 00 GSR. I would highly recommend no camber kit.

All camber kits that either replace the upper balljoint or the entire UCA itself, are taller than stock. This means, instead of the bumpstop on your shock shaft stopping the car from bottoming it's front suspension, your UCAs will collide with the inner fender. Mine certainly do, and the SPC UCAs I have are probably some of the thinnest camber adjusting UCAs I've seen.

Besides, even if you drop the car to "flushed tires" height, you'll still only have around -2" of front camber, which is a perfectly streetable setting to run.</TD></TR></TABLE>

^^ It's a shame how few people realize that. Pretty much any camber kit you get in the front is GOING to result in the arm hitting the inner fender/shock tower when the suspension compresses, which will not only chip away at the paint and allow for rust, but it will eventually start punching holes (after a while). In bad cases, this would end up negatively affecting handling and could wear out your dampers prematurely.

Now this problem is apparently worse with Civics and CRXs, but it still happens on Integras.

So long as you're not tucking tire, your camber will not be bad enough to kill your tires. Yes you will get slightly more premature wear than you would if you had no camber, but not only does camber help in cornering, but having around 2-degrees of negative camber is not gonna kill your tires.

Get your toe adjusted to spec and you'll be fine. I'd say try to find an NTB (National Tire and Battery, as superchi mentioned), cause they have long-term plans for alignments were you pay up front and get unlimited alignments for like 2 years or something like that.

 

Yep, and Firestone also offers lifetime alignments for around $150 around where I am at.

 

IMO get the ignalls. Ihave had them for 7 years now and only changed tires twice. Good performance tires are not cheap. If this is for a daily driver it works out more economical, less time at the shop getting allignments and changing tires. What the other guys are saying about the shock towers being hit by the suspension is true, but how bad are the roads by you? I live in Brooklyn, and the streets are unbearable here, but you learn how to dodge pot holes and slow down for bump. I would recomend good HID's for bad roads. Watch for shadows and dark spots, those are the holes, dips and bumps.

 

I live in the Chicago suburbs, where the roads are somewhat bad, but not horrible.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by superchi &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Yep, and Firestone also offers lifetime alignments for around $150 around where I am at.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I'm ideally looking for a lifetime alignment deal, but i've heard A LOT of horror stories about firestone. I've read a bunch of reviews (by people who weren't even car enthusiasts and dont take as much care of their car as most of us) say that they come out of Firestone with problems that they didnt come in with -- brake pads have been replaced, check engine lights on, etc etc. and Firestone denies any wrongdoing.

 

Some Firestone reviews...

I will not take my car to Firestone because I found my neighbor's Camry was damaged along with charging $1300 for brake job and oil change. Initially, Firestone was not acknowledging the damage, but when my neighbor decided to call the police, the manager then admitted the damage.

I will never, ever do business with Firestone again and I recommend no one else do so either. Firestone is where you take your car when you want other odd things to start popping up with your vehicle after you take it in for routine maintenance. Like your spark plug wires getting re-arranged so only 3 out of 4 cylinders fire. Or fluid leaks developing. Or your break pads mysteriously getting replaced with worn break pads of a different brand. You know, just the standard thing.

I paid for the life-time rotation/balance and alignment. I took it to the firestone to have those services performed. I also had the oil and the air filter changed. I had dropped my car off and went back to pick it up at closing time. On the way home the engine light came on and the car started jerking and sputtering. I called them as soon as they opened the next morning and told them that they'd done something to my car and it wasn't working properly. They told me that they hadn't done anything, they accepted no responsibility and that they'd be happy to hook it up to their computer for $99 to find out what was wrong with it. The next morning I took it to another firestone and played the "helpless girl in tears" act. They hooked it up to their computer for free. It turns out that the other location had not replaced the air intake valve that they moved in order to change my air filter. So I agree with the previous poster, don't take your car to firestone unless you want to leave with more things wrong than when you got there!

Amen...beware Firestone. Bad experiences for my family too.

I have to put in my $0.02. I bought the lifetime alignment 13 years ago when they first offered it and haven't had a minutes trouble. It's a bummer you weren't able to have the same experience. IMO, if you plan on buying, rather than leasing a car, and plan on keeping it for many years, this is a good deal.