Sorry I'm posting up all these different threads today but I have alot of suspension questions.

After I lowered my car I did not get an alignment since I thought I was gonna sell the rims right afterwards. My front two tires got really bald on the inside which showed me that there was some sort of camber issue. Would an alignment fix this or do I need a camber kit? I have smaller rims coming in later this week so I need to know if I should order a kit or not.

If yes what kit do you all recommend that is not too expensive

 

Toe is a tire killer. It can be corrected with an alignment. I'd get an alignment first -- find a place that does free alignments for a year or something so if it turns out you need a camber kit you can install it and bring the car back for another alignment.

I've driven on 3 different sets of tires with -2deg of camber in the rear over a span of 1.5 years with no serious tire wear.
I drove 7 months on brand new tires with -3.2mm of toe on the front right wheel. Inner portion of the tire was bald.
Toe should be between -1 and 1mm. lol.
.02

 

Wow this is just the kind of info i needed. Thanks alot. Do you know if alot of places do free alignments for a year? and would they do it if I also added new shocks?

 

if you lowered i dought and alignment is gonna help much. ur best bet is to get a chamber kit for the front and rear, then do the alignment, or do what jayunsplanet said

 

Would this front kit work ok?

[mod edit -- no ebay links]

and this rear?
[mod edit -- no ebay links]

 

go to the black market under sponsored sales, our vendors sell good quality camber kits

 

A camber kit is required if you are really low. What springs or coilover setup did you end up using? The suspension has some tolerance to camber (I think it can be adjusted by +/- 1 degree) but if you're really low, you will definitely require a camber kit.

Technically, you should get an alignment done about a couple weeks after you have changed up your suspension. That allows to springs to properly "settle".

I agree with DC3328 -- check out what the official vendors to this site -- they'll have what you need.

Good luck with your decision.

 

I just used Tein H-Tech's so its not a really significant drop. Those tires might have been getting eaten up cuz of toe and not camber so when my wheels come in this weekend I'm gonna go get an alignment and see if they say I need a camber kit or not

 

When I was on H-Techs, I didn't need a camber kit. Now when I bought the Tein SS, THEN I needed one lol.

And your problem is a combo of toe and camber. You don't need a camber kit to adjust toe. Camber really doesnt wear tires that bad, but a combo of toe AND camber does. Go get an alignment and have them set the toe. That should solve your issue.

 

What were your camber specs pre-camber kit install? And what are they now?

 

Thanks 02, if you didn't need one on H-Techs I don't see why i would. Rims coming in on Friday

 

God that was so long ago. I have no clue, all he said was in was still in factory spec. I don't remeber what the readout said.

Now I run -1.5 up front and -1.75 rear camber.

 

Ingalls makes good camber kits. The front kit (adjustable ball joint) from SPC and Ingalls are nearly identical, but Ingalls makes a better rear kit b/c it has 2 arms per side to adjust camber and toe.

 

^ ok if the guy who's doing my alignment says I need a camber kit i'll come to you

 

If your car is drop and the camber is more than -1.0, then most if not all alignment shop will tell you that you need a camber kit!

My last set of tires last me little over 25,000 miles (almost a year and a half) on Tein SS drop almost to the bottom (1 more thread in front, 3 more threads in the back). The front has -1.7/ -1.8 camber, the rear has -2.1/ -2.3 camber. No camber kit is used. I realize that I can get out more miles if I have camber kit but rotate the tires and alignment every 3,000 miles help tremendously in keeping the tires last that long.

 

When I first put my HR Sport springs on, I did not need a camber kit. Now that the springs are 100% fully settled, I fell out of acceptable specs in the rear about 2.5 years after getting the springs on. So, I got the Ingalls 38720 rear kit and it took care of my rear camber issues and the rear kit also slightly helped the front wheels to be better within spec

 

Ya I've heard alot of good things about Ingalls kits if I do have a camber issue

 

Toe will wear tires 10x faster than camber. If he lowered it and has wear on the FRONT tires its TOE which an alignment will fix He needs to go to an alignment shop, have an alignment and get teh specs. Ive had 2.2 on the rears (on other cars) and they dont wear funny at all. Ive got 1.something on the rear now and never have any funny wear (running H&R sports)

 

The rear toe can't be corrected with the SPC kit?

 

The stock rear arms has some adjustment but it's minimal. The SPC rear kit only adjusts camber, not toe.