I've been toying with the idea of putting back the stock components replaced by the progress alignment kit. Do you guys think I can get near to factory spec camber or at least close with koni yellows and eibach prokit? The camber kit squeeks too much and it chips the paint on the inside of the engine bay by the shock tower. I somehow think the stock parts will be cleaner and quieter, hopefully even quiet down the ride.

 

well the prokit is about a 1.3" drop so it wont be a drastic drop but you will still have some camber issues, what springs/shocks are you running on right now? I mean as long as you rotate your tires every 5-7k or so the prokit should be fine w/o a camber kit.

 

a camber kit is totally not necessary w/ prokit springs. Your car will handle better w/ the negative camber anyway.

 

thats what I thought. Thanks for the input guys. Any other experiences?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by PatrickGSR94 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">a camber kit is totally not necessary w/ prokit springs. Your car will handle better w/ the negative camber anyway. </TD></TR></TABLE>


but having tires that wear unevenly aint good... with a camber kit you will save when it comes to the longevity of your tires...

 

maybe I'll just grease up the bushings with lithium grease. It's a fix but just a temporary one. With proper tire rotation, how much of a decrease in tire life will I see? And how close can an alignment shop get to proper camber spec?

 

i have kyb struts and neuspeed race springs. i bent my upper control arm. should i buy new control arm or camber kit that comes with new arms, and who makes good camber kits?

 

used to have prokit in my car. while there is some negative camber, its almost nonexistant. just switch the tires every oil change or two. I didn't and it was fine.

 

what camber kit are you using? i'm looking for one. . .

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by UnionCity LS &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
but having tires that wear unevenly aint good... with a camber kit you will save when it comes to the longevity of your tires...</TD></TR></TABLE>

repeat after me, camber does not make tires wear unevely, toe does... repeate

Afteer running my tires for 35000 miles with -2 degress of camber in the front and -1.5 in the rear, the wear bars where showing on the outside edge and the there was no tread on the inside, while that is unever wear I'll take that anytime.


Modified by Solracer at 2:34 PM 10/27/2003

 

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

repeat after me, camber odes not make tires wear unevely, toe does... repeate
</TD></TR></TABLE>

 

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

repeat after me, camber does not make tires wear unevely, toe does... repeate

Afteer running my tires for 35000 miles with -2 degress of camber in the front and -1.5 in the rear, the wear bars where showing on the outside edge and the there was no tread on the inside, while that is unever wear I'll take that anytime.


Modified by Solracer at 2:34 PM 10/27/2003</TD></TR></TABLE>

After an alignment, I've had -2.1 on the front left and -3.1 on the front right, -1.3 on the rear left and -1.6 on the rear right. The tires on my car are crappy tires that are pretty bad to begin with. I threw them on to see if I would get any uneven tire wear since they need to be replaced soon anyway. My insides wore noticeably faster than my outsides on each front side, but the outsides are also pretty much at the wear bars. This is on 205/16/40 tires, so I imagine that on thicker tires it would be less severe. Plus I was riding on underinflated tires for a long time, which is probably a bigger contributor to tire wear than negative camber alone.

 

neg camber does make the inside if your tire wear. I had like a 7 inch drop on my truck with more then -3 deg and the toe was adjusted i had to wait like 4 months to get a camber kit becuase i had to find a company that made one for that much of a drop. in that time my tires almost completly wore out on the insides

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by [ iLL &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> iNt3GrA]neg camber does make the inside if your tire wear. I had like a 7 inch drop on my truck with more then -3 deg and the toe was adjusted i had to wait like 4 months to get a camber kit becuase i had to find a company that made one for that much of a drop. in that time my tires almost completly wore out on the insides </TD></TR></TABLE>

well duhh of course it's going to wear unevenly w/ that much drop. But ProKits give less than 1.5" drop, and I would be surprised if it gave any more than -1.5 camber on the front. With my 3" drop, my old tires lasted 25K miles after spring installation w/ -2.3 deg. camber. I got 40K total out of them. By the time steel belt showed on the inside edge, the entire tread was long past the wear bars all the way across.

Now on my current tires, I was down to 2/32 on the inside edge, but still after 15K miles which is pretty good w/ that much camber. Just last week I flipped the tires around on the wheels and rebalanced them, which now gives me 6/32 on the inside edge. While it's not the best solution, I cannot afford tires until I'm done with school this coming May, so that's what I had to do.

But w/ ProKits, a camber should not be necessary at all. Get the toe set properly, and rotate every 3-5K miles (which you should do whether the car is lowered or not) and I guarantee you'll be fine.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by PatrickGSR94 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Now on my current tires, I was down to 2/32 on the inside edge, but still after 15K miles which is pretty good w/ that much camber. Just last week I flipped the tires around on the wheels and rebalanced them, which now gives me 6/32 on the inside edge. While it's not the best solution, I cannot afford tires until I'm done with school this coming May, so that's what I had to do.

</TD></TR></TABLE>

Just curious, but what do you mean by 2/32, 6/32, and flipping the tires around? I've been getting concerned about my tire wear lately, but I'm still holding off on the camber kit because I can't tell where my uneven wear is coming from. The tires were worn on the inside since before I got an alignment. Wouldn't that favor more uneven wear in itself? Along with that, I think my tires were underinflated for a while...

 

i waited on a camber kit too, till i sparked every time i shifted!! then i got new tires and camber kit... its much cheaper to go with the camber kit right away!!!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by lopey &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I've been toying with the idea of putting back the stock components replaced by the progress alignment kit. Do you guys think I can get near to factory spec camber or at least close with koni yellows and eibach prokit? The camber kit squeeks too much and it chips the paint on the inside of the engine bay by the shock tower. I somehow think the stock parts will be cleaner and quieter, hopefully even quiet down the ride. </TD></TR></TABLE>

I threw in prokit/illuminas on my wife's 97 4 dr gs and never had an issue. Just make sure the toe adjustment is right on the money. yo can have negative camber as long as your toe is adjusted properly. I used to own a 510 and when lowered the rears are butterflied like crazy and they dont seem to have a problem.

 

I was referring to tread depth. Most tires' tread depth is 10/32" when new. 2/32" is considered the safe (and sometimes legal) limit before needing new tires. After 15K miles on my tires at -2.3 deg. front camber, I was down to 2/32 on the inside edge, but still had 6/32 on the outside edge. So I flipped the tires around on the wheels, and swapped the wheels side-to-side, so now I have 6/32" on the inside edge. This isn't the best solution, but for the most part my tire tread still has significant depth across the whole width of the tire, while only the one edge (now the outside edges) are worn down.