I've purchased Koni Yellows and H&R Sport Springs (1.75"f & 1.5"r) over the winter. I'm gonna install them this summer. I'm also going to be running 16" Rota Subzeros (+40 offset) and Toyo Proxes T1-S. I was told if you're 2" inches low, you should get a camber kit. I did a bit of reseach and found a really good deal on an Ingalls Kit.

Now I'm reading all kinds of posts that ingalls will dent my shock tower. A guy at a local shop told me the've had problems with them coming through the shock tower!
I also hear that they squeak...

Should I even bother? I want no problems at all, and I don't mind rotating my tires during the summer....

Should I just sell the kit and go "camberless"? Or should I consider a more expensive alternative?

 

Install the suspension and wheels, get an alignment, and check your specs.

If its over -2.5deg, you *may* need a camber kit. That spec will just give you an idea....there are too many variables to make a blanket statement like "over a 2 inch drop" or "-2deg and youll need a kit". Just monitor your tire wear for a while after popping everything on. The alignment sheet will just give you an idea of if you should even worry about it or not.

 

Get the car aligned after the install, and see what the specs. turn out to be. If you determine that you need/want a camber correction kit, there are a number of other options you could choose besides Ingalls.

 

Beat me to it.


[Modified by Padawan, 11:41 AM 2/1/2003]

 

Yes the camber kits do not work to well. I have seen them put bends in the shock tower, make noises, and the just do not work that great. If you dont go to low, you should be okay with just an alignment.

 

well..my integra is dumped about 2 inches...on ground controlls and koni reds...tires startin sittin in just a pinch...could barley tell..so i threw on a skunk camber kit..and got it alligned again...and its clean..wheels sit striaght..and my car sits low...and my tires dont ware retarded..hope this helps....

 

if the tires are straight up you're hurting the handling. Some negative camber is good.

To answer the original question, you should not need a camber kit if the alignment shop does a good job getting the tires to point straight ahead (zero toe). I have Koni + H&R Sport with about -2.25 deg. camber and after 25K miles like this my tires are still wearing even all across.

 

ahh i see...didnt know..but id still sacrafice the handling for tires that ware normally..

 

i will take my camber kit over paying 150/tire every couple months
18 inch rubber blows.

 

I get at least a front and shim out the back. It also depends on road conditions and how you treat your tires.

 

I've been hearing and reading the same exact stuff about what Ohlias is talking about.. I hear that ingalls is a great kit but it also dents your inner fender walls, and some of the people that went with SKUNK2 instead said that their ball joint's slip when you hit bumps hard. They have alternative methods to fix the SKUNK2 kit, replacing the bolts with regular sized ones, using lock washers, and stripping down the powder coating around the area where the bolts lock onto the control arm.. As for Ingalls I haven't heard anything that you can do to prevent it from hitting the inner fender except doing body work.. I ordered a SKUNK2 camber kit just last week and I obviously read the wrong posts (since all I heard were positive things about it) until after. I'm not in any rush anymore since I heard all these downfalls to camber kits, in fact I'm probably just gonna leave it how it is, and if another problem arises then I'll always have the kit to slap on. I think its alright to have negative camber but just watch your tire wear on the inside, I was slammed on Ground Controls for over 6 months and the tires started to bald a couple weeks later so I just rotated the tires.. Like everyone said, negative camber helps on your turning (but just be careful when your tires wear down). Peace


[Modified by NTGR8D, 6:56 PM 2/1/2003]

 

Well, I had mine installed a couple days ago (Jan 30th) and so far nothing major has happened. They do squeak, but you don't really notice it if you have a radio going and an exhaust note drowning it out. I put mine on after waiting six months. I did this because my front tires were balding on the inside edges and I plan on getting some nice rims and tires in the near future. I think as long as you take it easy on your car and don't abuse it, you would be fine. I can't imagine a respectable company like Ingalls would put something out that will consistantly damage someone's car. Again, your car is a machine, and if you push the envelope a lot, you could be looking for trouble.

 

Are there any other negative drawbacks to NOT putting on the camber kit other than tire wear...?

 

I'm not sacrificing handling (-2.3 deg. camber is GREAT for handling), and my tires are still wearing normally.

 

I don't know if this means any thing but im lowered on h&r sports with koni yellows. i set the rears on the lowest perch. so im about 1.75 all around. I have falken azenis with 6000 miles on them, which is concidered about 50% of their life. So far there are no visual signs of uneven wearing. I have NO camber kit and i have not aligned my car, EVER. Although I did add washers to the rears. I just rotate my tires every oil change(every 5k)

 

Im over -2.5deg with 20k+ on my 712's, with tons of tread left and no major camber problems either.

 

I would recommend a camber kit, I have one and it did its job. I have the extreme ingalls kit and yes it will hit your fender if you have it pulled out the max to correct the camber. We had this happen on my buddies civic, the whole front suspension was resting on the fender/strut towers). Its pretty obvious as soon as you try driving the car. All we had to do was adjust them in more to clear the fenders and it was fine. Just driving a few blocks didn't cause any damage.
I have Eibach Sportlines (1.8" drop) and my brother has the Prokit (1.0-1.2" drop) and both of us put on the Ingalls camber kit to resolve our excessive camber. Obviously if your car has alot of negative camber, the quicker the tires are going to wear. From what I saw even my brothers car with the Prokit had noticable negative camber b4 the camber kit, so I would assume almost all lowering springs would need a camber kit to get your camber to somewhere close to spec.
Just my 2 cents.

 

I think this summer I'll give it a try without the kit and if my camber is out of spec, I'll put it in next year. I just look for a nice tourque wrench so I can rotate my tires.

Thanks for all of your help guys...

 

I was just told the Skunk2 is a better kit than the Ingalls, as it replaces the whole arm. Just a little pricey, but at least its done right.

Just MHO.

-Diabolik

 

Lowered on H&R Sports + Stock Shocks.

I took my wheels off yesterday, and I can see it is wearing on the inside. Noticeably there is camber wear.

 

then why'd you lower the car?

 

Have anyone tried the Eibach camber/alignment kit???

 

Me personally i dont take my dam car out and smobb thru canyons tryin to be this super *** driver and all that ****..so how often am i ganna need to handle? ...Leave that to my RWD 280ZX..cant swing a turn i a FWD car like a RWD so why bother..and also... lowered cars are nicer then cars that aint lowered..does that answer your question...

 

The tires can have a considerable amount of negative camber and will wear as normal as any other tire as long as the toe is set correctly and tires are rotated often. If you're getting excessive tire wear with ProKit springs, then you definitely need to get that alignment checked, I guarantee the toe will be out of spec.

 

you cant adjust toe though....