My A-spec suspension is fully settled, so I brought it in today for an alignment. One thing this shows is that the rear camber is adjustable, to a degree. The amount of rear camber is fixed, be it can be shifted from one side to the other by loosening the bolts that hold the carriage and moving the carriage to one side or the other. My car ended up at -1.7 left and right, which is not enough (for me, anyway) to warrant a camber kit. It is .2 degrees out of spec. Everything else lined up well within spec. I only drove it a couple miles so far; I'll give more feedback after I get a chance to push it a little.



Front Caster (spec range 2.47 to 3.97)
Before: L: 2.5_____After: L: 2.5
______R: 2.7_____R: 2.7

Front Camber (spec range -0.75 to 0.75)
Before L: 0.02__________After: L: 0.02
______R: 0____________R: 0.0

Front Toe (spec range -1.00mm to 1.00mm)
Before: L: -0.4mm_________After: L: 0.0mm
______R: -1.1mm__________R: 0.0mm

Rear Camber (spec range -1.5 to -0.5)
Before L: -1.4____________After: L: -1.7
______R: -2.0_____________R: -1.7

Rear Toe (spec range 0.00mm to 2.00mm)
Before L: 0.1mm_________After: L: 0.9mm
______R: 0.5mm__________R 0.8mm

Rear Thrust Angle
Before 0.02_____________After: 0.01

 

not terrible, at least they could even it out so the car with drive straight. personally I think its worth it to get the camber kit if you're already dropping a bunch of $$ on the spring/shock

 

With that rear camber spec, it will easily go out of spec with a full tank of gas and two passengers in the back... Imagine how the tires will wear after a long trip.

 

Actually, the car felt fine before the alignment; the out of whack rear camber does not affect tracking.

I'm going to keep an eye on rear innner tire wear, but unless it wears badly, I don't see the point in getting one, as the handling is right where I want it. My plan is to use the el crappo stockies through the winter anyway, and get some summer tires or better all seasons next year, maybe Pilot A/S.

That being said, any aftermarket setup is absolutely going to require a rear camber kit, with the possible exception of the Comptech springs, which are rated at a 1" drop. Prokit, Nuespeed, etc are all at least 1.5" drop, which has got to put the rear camber up into the -2.0 or more range........

 

The factory outer limit is -1.5 degrees. Every TSX I've seen is showing a fair amount of negative rear camber stock. Loading up a stock TSX with rear passangers, gas, luggage, etc. would also cause it to go more "out of spec". I'm sure this is taken into account when the final specs are determined.

My extra .2 degrees is not all that much worse than stock.

I'm dumping the stock rubber next spring, so I really don't care if it wears unevenly, but I do not think it will. If I am wrong about the tire wear, surely I will be able to see it by next March, at which point I would add a camber kit.

 

I got the Comptech springs along with the camber kit. I think this falls under the catagory of better safe then sorry.

 

That is not entirely true- thrust line CAN be out enough to cause a vehicle to dog track. This is more typical with toe, however, it can happen when cross camber is an issue.

Also what alignment rack was used??? it still measures toe in mm, was it powered by a hamster in a wheel chasing a cheeto?

 

Well, let me rephrase then. MY out of whack rear camber had no affect on tracking. I put around 400 miles on the car and the car didn't drift left or right, could roll miles on straight highways without touching the wheel. Coupled with improved handling, I really felt the settings were pretty close to factory spec, and they were.

Ummm, I think it was a Dorito.

It was done at the dealer, just like the install. I called a couple of shops that have "state-of-the-art" alignment machines, but when I asked about adjusting the rear camber on the TSX, they told me there was no way they could change it. The guy at the dealer, however, knew the trick about moving the carriage. So while I may have had a hamster powering the machine, at least I didn't have one running it .

 

I think its a myth that excessive negative camber causes significantly more tire wear.

In my experience with lowering cars (all 5 of the cars I've ever owned have been lowered) I have found minor additional inner tire wear with additional negative camber. The tires still last a good 90% of their typical life.

OTOH, excessive toe in or toe out will chew up a set of brand new tires in literally a few thousand miles. I went through a set of front tires in only 5,000 miles b/c the front toe was out of alignment.

 

Do you have any pics? I just ordered mines monday.... Comptech springs+SPC rear camber kit and progress lower rear sway bar.

 

I think you're probably right, assuming the amount of neg camber is even on both sides. A lot of cars (VW's come to mind) seem to have a lot of neg camber in their stock configuration without any lowering springs. Bad toe is much more likely to cause uneven or excessive wear.

 

Not on the car yet, just have the parts. A friend of mine is helping with the install, so I need to wait for him to free up some time.

 

hey LannyM, how did you have the alignment shop adjust the rear cambers to even out at -1.7 degrees both sides? I took my car to the alignment shop @ Firestone today and my rear left is it -1.4 while rear right is -2.3 degrees. They told me it wouldn't be possible to adjust the rear. I'm hoping that before I get my camber kit, they can at least even out both sides to -1.8 or -1.9 degrees, please advise.

-K

 

This whole deal is confusing the hell out of me. I feel confident about what I want one day and then I read a thread like this and question myself again. Damn it.

 

The best you can do without a kit is -2 on both sides if you're at -1.7 and -2.3. He explains how it can be done in the first post but you should still get a kit to bring you below -1.5.

 

Thanks guys, hopefully Firestone will know how to adjust it through moving the carriage before I get my camber kit.

Virtualbong, all cars have problems, and believe me, the joy you will get out of your TSX will slam on the camber issue like a giant stepping on a lil worm. The Firestone technician actually commented on how sweet my car looks doing the alignment

 

Is the rear toe adjustable on the TSX? I agree with AlterZgo with toe wearing your tires not camber.

 

Oh believe me, I will totally enjoy the TSX even though I'll be throwing in mucho dinero into it! LOL

And I've already decided that I'm going to get the Rear Ingalls Camber Kit since the install is pretty simple. Now I have to decide on used A-Spec Manual Kit (I have auto) for $400 or brand new Eibach Pro-System Kit for $500

 

400 bucks. Where's that from?

 

I am thinking about purchasing LannyM's Manual A-Spec suspension. Right now, I'm leaning towards the Eibach Pro-System Kit since I just purchased the Rear Ingalls Camber Kit and I like the Eibach drop more. Let me know if you want to get in contact with him or just look for one of his posts and PM him directly.

 

Interesting... didn't realize he was selling it. He doesn't like it?

 

You can ask him directly, but I believe his reasoning was that he wants something stiffer since he doesn't have to drive his baby around in his car (which was his intentions before purchasing the A-Spec)

 

Yeah, I haven't listed it yet, because it's not off the car. I haven't made a final decision on what to replace it with, but I''m looking for a stiffer spring rate and damper adjustability.

I haven't changed my opinion of it, for the money, it really gives a ton of benefits with really no downside; but it's not as stiff as I would like, and my wife's Ody is get 99% of the baby toting duties, so I can definitely go stiffer.....

 

i installed the a-spec a few weeks ago...but i was never told to get an alignment after awhile...do you guys think i should?

 

VB,

Just jump into it. I know you've done your research. After a while, you just have to make a decision. Of course, you could end up like I did with my last car and bought 3 sets of different shocks and 3 different sets of different springs and kept messing around with the various combinations. I got pretty good at uninstalling and installing my suspension. It was a pricey experience, but I learned a lot in the process. It felt great when I finally found the perfect mix of handling and ride quality.

I don't think you can go wrong w/ Lanny's A-spec suspension or the Eibach Pro-System. Of course, no one here has experience w/ the Pro-System yet. But, given that Eibach is a very reputable German manufacturer, I'm sure it is fine.

 

Yes. You should always have an alignment done when you make changes to your suspension system.

 

Thanks AlterZgo!

I did jump into it, I made the first step and that was to purchase the Rear Ingalls Camber Kit from Ultrarev.com. I was never going to get this if I were to just get A-Spec, so now I'm leaning towards the Eibach Pro-System Kit because it has the drop I like. Plus, now that they have matched a set of struts to their springs, I am confident that this would be a great combination. I understand though that this doesn't come with any type of adjustability, but that's not what I'm looking for in my suspension setup.

 

So LannyM, what do you think? Do you see any noticeable/abnormal wear with the A-Spec?

 

So far, there has been no uneven wear to report.

Since I installed the kit, there have been multiple reports of both out of spec rear camber and some uneven tire wear even with people who are on stock suspension.

I'm installing Tein Flex this weekend, and I do have the Ingalls camber kit on order, because with the Flex drop I'll be over -2.0 for sure, and I'm also switching to soft rubber (Yokie ES100s) so I'm going to dial it back to around -1.3 or so.

 

Thanks.

 

lol

Me too. I was convinced that the A-spec was the "safest" bet since it's the official Acura upgrade and that I wouldn't have to mess around with camber adjustments or anything, but this thread makes me wonder.

The other thing that's tempting me is Neuspeed Konis with Neuspeed sport springs. But I'm nervous about not going with a "matched" system like the A-spec or Eibach Prosystem.

 

Well they're both made by Neuspeed, though I don't know if they were made for each other. This is what I'm going with after researching and figuring out what I would like. I know that the Neuspeed Sport Springs drop it 1.5"F+1"R and that would balance out my car perfectly since I measured my front wheel gap to be 2.5" and my rear wheel gap to be 1.75"-2".

I also just purchased the Neuspeed Konis this morning for $576.99 shipped on Ebay!

 

The nice thing about your setup is that you can alter the height a little with the perches if you don't like the way it sits. You may need to drop the rear perch down a little to even out the car.......

 

Just an FYI. People who have installed the Neuspeed Springs were getting more than 1.5" F and 1" R drop. I think JTso may have gotten something like 1.9" or so drop up front. So he had to lower the rear spring perch to get a more even front to rear drop.

 

Lanny,

Did you get some rims too or are you going with 17" ES100 on stock rims?

 

The Neuspeed actually drops about 1.75" to 1.80" F & 1.0" R. I lowered the rear by another 0.5" using the Koni perch adjustment.

This is what it looks like after the drop with Neuspeed/Koni combo.

 

I've got a set of '05 RSX-S 17"s coming from a C-RSX member out in Cali. Took me a while to find a set, there's lot of demand for them right now. If I waited a while, I'm sure they'd be a dime a dozen, like TSX rims are now, but it's still way cheaper than any other rim I'd considered.

But, having said that, I'm somewhat concerned about putting a 225 on a 7" rim. It falls within the manufacturer's spec (range is 7"-8.5"), but I've always liked the way a wider rim spreads the tire out, and disliked the "donut" effect that a wide tire has on a narrow rim, so I'm still kinda up in the air. The thing is, the sidewall on the ES100 is so stiff that it may not look bad, but it might be pulling the tread off the road, crowning little in the middle, and that's not good either.

I've already got two people interested in the Type S rims, (they're due on Monday) so I may look to go wider......I'm going to mount one up and see how it goes.

 

Soon, you will be able to post a pic of what EVERY suspension combo looks like

 

It looks like my Neuspeed Koni Yellows are coming in early next week, so I have to purchase some Neuspeed Sports soon!

One question to prepare for the install. I'll probably need to lower the rear .5" as well. From what I've read, please let me know if this is what I have to do for my suspension install.

1. Uninstall the stock suspension
2. For the rear shocks, adjust the perch to 0.5" lower (how many rotations is this or will the instructions tell me?)
3. Assemble the Neuspeed Sports springs with the Neuspeed Koni Yellows and reuse the top mount from the stock suspension
4. Install the new suspension setup to the car.

Sound good? Anything else I need to do other than the steps I mentioned above?

 

You will also need to enlarge the top hole on the stock dust boot and use new included Koni mounting hardware. The height is adjusted by relocating a snap ring on the shock body, not by rotation like a coilover.