Dipping my toes in over here as the UK isn't really cut out for the kind of car i drive. I have to go to a VW specialist to get any advice haha.

So, i've lowered my car, got camber arms all round but i've got the age old problem of the camber arms hitting the inside of the strut at the top.

Now, i've seen a tonne of decked US Civic's with no modifications to the strut which is what i was advised against doing; cutting the strut to create "grooves" where the camber arm could swing freely into.

So how do you guys do it? I'm using hard race style camber arms and in future i really want to go lower, but of course with the amount it hits at the moment, that isn't a possiblity. It's making the ride crazy annoying too, 'cause obviously when the camber arms hit the top of the strut, regardless of how much suspension travel there is, it can't move anymore.

I'm in touch with a guy about custom camber arms, or customizing my current camber arms which will give me (i imagine) around 1cm of extra room.

Help!

 

How low is your car?

 

Not that low really, annoyingly!

 

This type/brand?

 

Yup, mine are copy's of them.

 

Rock the stock. I had the Hardrace on my EG and wasn't as low as you. They still hit. Now that I've gone back to stock there's no clearance problems.

 

Upgrade front spring rate.

 

We don't rock camber kits here in the USA. Take them off.

 

Read the sticky at the top of the forum about camber kits.

Ditch the camber kit and get an alignment.

What suspension setup are you using?

 

Sooooo.... when you say "strut" I'm guessing you're really referring to the shock tower. "Strut" is another type of damper used on some cars, whereas the dampers used on 88-00 Civics is referred to as a "shock absorber"

 

What size rim/tire/offset are you running? The reason why I am asking a lot of these guys are telling you not to run camber kits but I think you are running them because of your wheels. If that's the case then you're gonna have to go with skunk2's or buddy club's if you don't want to hit your shock towers and even then your arm to shock tower clearance is gonna suck. The hardrace type are just too bulky.

 

Wo, you don't use camber arms?

So how do you get camber? I've got like -3 on the front, there's not a chance in hell you'd achieve that on OEM, and i can't have much less or my wheels would be contacting the arch at an almost constant level.

Strut tower in the UK is what you are calling the "shock tower".

Just read some of the stickys, so you guys do actually drive your cars with the camber arms hitting the shocks, or rock crazy hard spring rates which is almost the same in effect.

Oh dear, not good news.

 

Do you not have enough negative camber at that ride height with stock arms? My Integra was about that low on GC's and I had about -2.8* up front. It's a catch 22 really when you run crazy wheel fitments like that. You need more negative camber to clear the fenders, but camber kits reduce available suspension travel due to their increased height over OEM.

 

Hmmm, after reading other threads, like the guy who put ground controls on his EK with extended top hats, his hit too, so might just stiffen the front up a bit and see if i can put something on the inside of the strut to stop the noise being so loud, will seeee.

To be honest, i thought you guys didn't have this problem, but you do, so i'm going to have find another way around this.

 

extended top hats really have nothing to do with your upper control arms hitting.

 

Extended top hats will make the problem worse...

 

No they don't. Ride height and spring stiffness determine whether the UCA hits the shock tower, and extended top hats do not affect ride height. They only extend the shock piston out some from where it would be otherwise at ride height, and limit droop a bit.

 

If you need more negative camber than lowering provided and want to preserve the full suspension compression range, while you can't run a replacement UCA (due to them all being taller than stock), you can always bend the knuckle...

Or, if you keep driving it as is and allow the UCA to repeatedly hit the shock tower hard enough, you'll find that the knuckles will bend themselves. Or mine did at least.

 

If you bend the knuckle inwards it will run directly into the coilover collars and get engraved away, just like other parts that get eaten away form being so low.

 

He doesnt even look that low, or at least to me he doesn't. Im lower then that and have stock uca's and i have no problems what so ever. I would never use a camber kit in the front, rear only.

EDIT- just noticed this thread is kinda old, did you fix the issue?

 

Your probably not running 16x8 with a +15 offset.

 

But if it's the only variable that has changed, and the bump stop was stopping the control arm from hitting, moving it up with a top hat will now allow the control arm to hit.

 

What kind of camber kit do you have? K-Mac made a camber- caster kit a while back. This kit came with a super long ball joint stud - probably made for a different application. My car was lowerd by 15mm - a little more than a 1/2" and the arms came into contact with the uni-body using Koni and 400lb/in Eibach...if I remember the bumpstops barely engaged before these hit the uni-body.

Otherwise, I agree, the car is perhaps a little too low...or you've dialed in a lot more neg camber which will raise the LCA more.

 

some camber kits do that

 

Major thread bump, but i'm so active on other forums i completely forgot i had posted this!

Basically, my aim is to have the wheel as least cambered as possible, and as flush with the arch as possible. This means i need camber arms all round so i can 100% adjust the camber and pull it out so it meets the arch. I've achieved this, and it knocks. Badly. Because of what i want to achieve, not running after market UCA's is not an option.

I'm going to get new shock tower extensions welded in when ever i get the money so hopefully it wont be so bad, but to be honest, with how close they are, i can't see it sorting the issues. Really, i need to try other camber arms and see how bad it is then, as i think a large factor in all this, is the camber arms and how hugely largely they are.

Cheers for all your help, but sound's like my problem is quite unique with the look i'm aiming for, and the hardware i've used.