hey guys, i need help. i've never fully understood the whole topic about camber and such. so first off, since i'm not really that educated in these issues, i apologize. all i know is that i just recently purchased a 2002 accord, and want to drop the car with some 17s.

i don't want to make the same mistake as i did with my crx, because i bought some really cheap springs that lowers it close to 3 inches, finding myself buying new tires sooner than i had wished. i just want a decent stance, so i plan to buy some eibach prokit. i've rode in cars with these springs before, and they ride quite close to stock (as in comfort). but i want some rims to replace my nasty v6 rims. i was wondering if 215/45/17 would be a problem with premature tire wear or camber issues. thanks for any help and sorry for the newb question!

 

Well anytime you drop a car lower than stock, it's gonna make the camber go negative (which makes your tires look like this: /-----\, or like \-----/ if it's positive). Camber is what makes the top of your tires go towards or away from the vehicle. If you only drop about 1-1.5 inches then usually you can get away with leaving the camber the way it is and not having any problems. Anything after that though you'll need a camber kit (assuming the new accords still don't have adjustable camber). The size tires and rims that fit really depend on how low you go. The offset you mentioned in the title is for the rims, and represents the distance of the wheels mounting surface from the center of the wheel (0mm is exactly in the middle, +40mm is moved 40mm OUT from the center, -26mm would be 26mm IN from the center). You have to get the right offset for your particular car, as FWD and RWD, as well as just different vehicles, use completely different offsets. You shouldn't have any problems running the size rim and tire you mentioned, unless you really drop it waaay low. If that's the case you may still be able to roll the fenders to make them fit, but I doubt it will come to that.

So just get your springs, wheels and tires, and a camber kit, get it all in then take it in for an alignment. Be sure and explain to whoever is doing the alignment what you've done so they know to adjust the camber as well. On the alignment machine it will show camber as "non adjustable", so they probably won't if you don't tell them.

Hope that helps some

 

You won't need a camber kit for the front, but it would be best to get a camber kit for the rear. (6th gen Accords are known to have bad camber in the rear, no matter how much you drop it.)

You shouldn't have premature wear on your tires... size 215/45/17 is the correct size for our year Accords. Just keep in mind that tires in that size are typically sportier tires (i.e. stickier) and thus do not last as long as the factory tires.

Oh, and don't buy the Kumho Supra tires... I think they're the 712's... the have problems with wearing out way too fast on the outside and inside edges, while still having plenty of tread in the middle. I've seen some 20+ cars in my area with those tires, and ALL of them seem to have that problem. (The majority of the cars were NOT dropped.)

 

89_LXi and philadd,

thanks for the information. i really appreciate your help!