Looking to buy a new camber kit for the rear of my 96 honda civic HB. I have seen quiet a few different brands out there to choose from.

What brand camber kits are you all running and what makes it better than other brands?

 

I have Blox rears in my eg, and Skunk 2 in the front, would have got all skunk but was sold out of the rear, there is virtually no difference that I see at least between skunk rears and blox rear other then the blox are much cheaper. they work just as good

 

what does the camber kit exactly do?

 

i was wondering the same thing because i have really bad problems with my rear being bad and i am going through tires like most people go through oil more often then i should but i am thinking about buying the skunk2 off of ebay for like 340 for front and rear

 

http://www.team-integra.net/sections...?ArticleID=943

 

Can't you just put washers and longer bolts in like on a 92-95 ?

It's easy.

 

http://www.hondaautomotiveparts.com/auto/jsp/mws/prddisplay.jsp?inputstate=5&catcgry1=CIVIC&catcgry 2=1997&catcgry3=3DR+CX&catcgry4=KA5MT&catcgry5=REA R+LOWER+ARM

Yea, pull out bolts 16 and put washers behind part 10 that will move the top of the tire outward and get it straight.

 

^yup, that does work as i have used that trick before. however, i needed more negative camber so i ended up buying a Skunk2 one to replace the washer-trick.

redprelude98 - sounds like you have more a toe issue than camber if you're mulching tires up. get an alignment done and get your toe zero'd out (ie: tires are not pointed in our out when looking down the side of your car).

if you decide to buy the skunk2, i highly recommend you guys take apart the c-clips, slide out the pivot bushing and pack it full of silicone grease or some sort of bushing-safe grease. if you don't, you're going to get some pretty creaky suspension action in the rear.

 

i have a blox camber kit up front and stock in the rear since i didn't lower it much. I would recommend a blox kit its cheaper and honestly a camber kit is a camber kit. If you buy a sk2 kit your buying the name.

 

When you lower your car the tires want to go inward(I know theres a technical word out there) and thats why you buy a camber kit to make them straight again. If you dont have one your tires will wear fast on the inside. Just as a side note you do need alignment after you put on the kit.

 

This is a great article! I suggest that everyone reads at least the first 3 pages of this article! It explains why camber kits in most cases are NOT needed.

 

Camber, Toe, and Caster, all play a role. Camber settings do not affect tire wear as much as toe settings, to a certain extent. That article has lots of information.

 

i did what you said read the first few pages and didnt show anything of interest. Their right negative camber does give you better turning ability but is he going for road racing? Probably not! Now the facts that we are all concern with, if you correct your camber it will give you better traction on drag because all of your tire surface will meet the ground and your tires will not wear as fast on the inside. To me the article was just saying correct the camber so your tires dont wear as fast in the future or leave it and you can corner better in your car.

 

It's an article to explain the affects of different settings. Most people get confused between Camber and Toe settings. An "alignment" is usually for changing toe settings, even though they can give you a camber setting value. Bad toe settings will affect tire wear MORE than negative/positive camber settings.

For example, if your rear driver side wheel has -1.0 toe and rear pass. side wheel has -1.0, both tires will wear out on the inside of the tire... becuase the wheels look like / \ .. If both sides have + toe settings, \ / .. for most applications, rear toe, for tire life, should be zero || ... essentially same concept for front tires as well.

 

0 0k, My friend 2000 EX did this when he dropped it it looked funny lol. my car didn't do it at all im surprised.

 

*sigh* there's a little good info in this thread, and quite a bit of hearsay.


How low are you? Post your alignment specs.

Here's the deal. You don't need a camber kit unless A.) you're really dropped a lot, B.) you're compensating for other bent suspension components, or C.) you autocross/race, know what you're doing, and want to manually adjust your camber.

And, if you're really dropped a lot, you're going to have to run some camber anyway, or else you'll rub fenders.

From what I've seen, a 2" drop on an 96-00 seems to add about -1.7 to -2 degrees front camber, and about -1.9 to -2.2 degrees rear camber. Keep in mind that negative camber actually *HELPS* your cornering. Think about it - when you go into a corner hard and the suspension loads up, the wheel moves from a state of negative camber to a state of zero camber. Therefore, when the suspension is LOADED, you have a full contact patch of the tire, precisely because you had a little negative camber to begin with.

So everybody whines about how camber destroys tires, and it's somewhat true that excessive camber can wear tires quicker. However, toe REALLY destroys tires, and what I see most people calling camber wear is really toe wear. So they go out and pay a ton for a camber kit and get it aligned... then go thinking the camber kit is what fixed it, when it was actually the alignment.

If you have your toe zeroed out (within about .02 degrees), you WILL NOT have excessive tire wear with 2 degrees of camber. All kinds of cars run that much camber *stock* and don't have huge wear issues... BMWs, s2Ks, 350zs, G35s. The key is keeping your toe as close to zero as possible.

Don't trust me on this, go ask the guys in the suspension forum. There are people there who have been running 3-4 degrees of negative camber for years with only a little camber wear. -2 degrees is worth it for the gain in cornering that it gives you.


So, moral of the story: GET AN ALIGNMENT FIRST. IF THE GUY TELLS YOU YOU NEED A CAMBER KIT, ASK TO SEE THE PRINTOUT. YOU DO NOT NEED A CAMBER KIT IF YOU HAVE LESS THAN 2 DEGREES OF NEGATIVE CAMBER. Find out how far out your camber and ESPECIALLY your TOE is BEFORE you throw money at parts that you probably don't need and will probably affect your performance adversely.

 

Also, to correct some wrong info earlier:

TOE:
Toe is the amount that your tires point inward or outward horizontally... for example, if both front tires steer towards each other, that's toe. The ONLY alignment adjustment that exists on your Civic from the factory is toe adjustment, and this is because Honda realizes that toe is very bad and destroys tires.

CAMBER:
Camber is the amount that the wheel leans in our out of the wheelwell. If the bottom of the wheel sticks out a little bit further than the top of the wheel, that's negative camber, and is common on lowered cars. If the top of the wheel sticks out a little further than the bottom, that's positive camber, and somewhat common on raised trucks. Negative camber helps handling, and a little bit will not hurt your tires if toe is aligned.

CASTER:
Caster is the amount forward or back of the knuckle that the wheel sits. There is no caster adjustment on a Honda, and if your caster is ever more than a few hundredths out, then you probably have a bent knuckle or control arm.

 

yup, just buy longer bolts and thick washers at the hardware store.

took about 3/8" of spacers to get -6 degrees down to -1 IIRC

 

wow some very good info in this thread.

 

Thanks guys for the helpful input. that article does point out some great facts.