I am a noob so please bear with me. I have a 98 ls. My friend helped me install hr sports on tokico blues. After installation, the driver side cambers more than the passenger side. I searched to see if camber kits are necessary and found out they're not. I was going to just get an alignment and make sure the toe is correct. But since one side cambers more than the other, should I get a kit to even out both sides? What might be cause the problem? Another friend took a look at it and said that the driver side camber is what people get after dropping 3-4. Any help would be great, thanks in advanced.

 

ttt anyone?

 

what were the specs?

 

I'm sorry but do you mean the exact numbers of the driver side and passenger side? I dont know what it would be and I don't exactly know how to get those numbers. But what exactly do you mean by the specs?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by jaysexxin &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I'm sorry but do you mean the exact numbers of the driver side and passenger side? </TD></TR></TABLE>

have you gotten an alignment yet?

 

No I havent. I was going to get an alignment but noticed that my driver and passenger side camber were different, with the driver side being more cambered. I know that camber isnt what causes the abnormal wear, but I thought that they should at least be even so I was thinking of at least making the them even, then getting the alignment.

 

personally, i wouldnt over it.

if the car has any damage from hitting curbs or harsh bumps/holes then its possible things are bent and causing camber differences. if its more than 1* then i would look into why. but the best answer wouldnt always be just get adjustable camber kits, that would just be a bandaid.

get an alignment first before over what may be nothing.

 

alright cool. The previous owner did get in an accident. Is there a way to measure camber at home? An alignment will not fix camber right? It will only correct toe? When I do get an alignment, and if the camber is still the same, any suggestions on what I should do? I think its just peace of mind that both sides are cambered evenly. Thanks for your help Tyson.

 

well if the car indeed was in an accident, then you have reasons to .

but like i said, if camber is off, getting a kit is just a bandaid. it might be the cheapest and most practical thing to do, but not really solving the real issue.

you can measure camber at home with costly equipment racers use. the cheaper ones are just a bubble gauge and arent that accurate.

just get an alignment first.

 

Cool, one more thing. If I decide to go with a camber kit after the alignment, Ill need another alignment because the kit will throw it off correct? Thanks again.

 

Yep that's right.

The driver side is usually going to have a little more static negative camber because the driver side usually sits a bit lower than the right side.

How are you determining that the driver side has more negative camber? Just eyeballing it?

You can somewhat easily measure negative camber by placing a large metal framing square on the ground with the long leg pointing up along the vertical centerline of the wheel. Take a measurement between the leg of the framing square at the top of the rim and another measurement at the bottom of the rim. Subtract the smaller measurement from the larger, divide that by the diameter of the wheel (the very outer-most lip of the rim is usually an inch larger than the actual wheel diameter, so 17" across on a 16" wheel), and then find the inverse tangent on a calculator.

You can find the inverse tangent on the Windows scientific calculator by clicking the Inverse box before hitting the TAN button.


Modified by PatrickGSR94 at 2:27 PM 11/5/2007

 

firestone offers lifetime alignments for like $160 now.

ive used it frequently with my s2000.

 

Oh, I did not know that. Is there any reason for the driver side cambering more than the passenger side? Also.. Should the difference be noticeable by just eyeballing it? Is there another way to measure, I don't have expensive tools. Thanks patrick.

 

Oh cool, thanks for the tip. ill probably head over to firestone so that I can get another alignment if I decide to get a camber kit after my first alignment.

 

Will adding bumpstops throw off the alignment?

 

I added more to my post above, but got sidetracked before finishing it.

Bumpstops should not affect ride height (or camber) at all unless it's so low that it's actually riding on the bumpstops.

 

An example of using a framing square that I mentioned above:

Say you place a framing square on the ground against the bottom of your tire, with the long leg of the square pointing up.

Then you measure from the edge of the square to the bottom lip of the rim as being 0.5", and then at the top edge of the rim you measure 1.0".

That's a difference of 0.5". If you have 16" wheels, it should be 17" across the outer lip, so divide .5 by 17. That's .029. Take the inverse tangent of that and you get 1.68. So that's about 1.7 degrees negative camber.

 

Wow, you're a big help. Thanks a lot. I don't know if I have a sqaure, but is it possible to have any straight-edge that will be perpendicular to the ground and just put that up against the wheel and measure the distance of the top/bottom of the rim from the straight-edge and then do the calculations? What is the acceptable difference in camber between the passenger and driver side? And what is acceptable camber? Thanks again!!

 

Well it needs to be something large enough that will extend up past the top-most part of the rim, and it needs to be perfectly square so that the vertical part is plumb with the ground. A plumb bob could work, but the floor would have to be nearly perfectly level for that to work.

A straight-edge by itself won't really work unless you have a square or triangle or something along with it to make sure it's square, but then you'll probably need someone else to hold those in place for you while you measure. That's really too much for 2 hands to handle.

As for camber, I have run as much as -2.8 in front w/o camber kits, no excessive tire wear. You should be fine as long as the toe is straight and you rotate tires every 5K miles.

 

Cool, ill get to measuring after work. Ill post my calculations. Thanks again