How To Fix My Camber?

[suwidji]

Hi all,

went in to get pink slip today, and was told the inner part of my front tyres were completely bald. I didn't even realise because it's not on the showing side, and I was told it was due to the camber on it.

I bought 2 new tyres and chucked them on to get my pinks approved, but was advised to get camber kits to fix the wear.

I'm not very knowledgeable in this area and thought it would be quicker to ask.

I've dropped my car a while ago with king springs (i think ultra low?) and the final measurement done by the workshop for camber was:

left: -2º08'

right: -2º16'

individual toe (both left and right): +0.8mm

setback: +0º07'

Wondering if camber kits is the way to go to fix up the wear, and if so, what is a reliable brand to go with?

[Legendaryl]

What car do you have?

Are the figures on camber you gave for the rear or front?

what suspension do you have? Typically everyone has a coilovers with top hats to adjust camber at the front and rear camber arms for the rear.

Ideal camber front and rear for spirited road and light track is -2 all round anyways.

[suwidji]

oh sorry,

i have a 1998 r34 gtt with stock shocks, and low king springs.

If -2 is normal, is there any way to allow the tread to wear evenly on the tyres?

[niZmO_Man]

Wow I didn't know you can get that much negative camber from height drop. You might have aftermarket arms (have a look).

-2deg is the most you would want to run on the street. You can add more toe in for more contact patch. But if you're daily driving it, better off bringing it out to -1.5

Have a look here: http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/topic/409304-installing-front-camber-arms-and-radius-rods-r34/

[GTSBoy]

Legendary,

Ideal camber is not -2°. If you have that and spend a reasonable proportion of time driving straight, you will wear out the inside edges. IDEAL camber depends on the usage model of the car. -1 to -1.5° is a more sensible amount for a typical streeter. If your "typical" actually means "flogged through the hills 90% of the time" then 2° will work well.

Furthermore, Skylines do not have front camber adjustment via strut tops because they do not have MacPherson strut suspension. Regardless of what it looks like, they do in fact need upper arm adjustment to gain camber adjustment.

suwidji,

Adjustable length upper arms that have rose joints on the end are not street legal. So if roadworthies are a concern for you do not consider them. Also do not consider cheap ones of these anyway, as they are crap. Sadly that means spending up big on some decent ones if you're going to use them.

Adjustable length uppers with rubber (or poly) bushes on the end are legal, although you may still get an argument from a dumb cop or a stupid inspector. It's not the adjustable length that's a problem, it's the rose joints that are not legal, but the rule gets misinterpreted.

The only almost completely invisible no legal trouble option is eccentric poly bushes for the existing arms, but they only offer a small range of adjustment. Still, it should be enough to dial out half a degree of camber, which should help.

[Legendaryl]

GTSBoy,

Thanks for the info. In hindsight almost every car I owned was macpherson strut so just naturally assumed.

With the ideal camber, I had Toyo R1R's, Proxes 4 and Goodyear F1's all on -2 degree all round, and I did not see any camber wear on the inside. Hence my comment.

I had -1 to all around before and the car felt unwilling when I came into a corner (normally). Each to there own.

Legendary,

Ideal camber is not -2°. If you have that and spend a reasonable proportion of time driving straight, you will wear out the inside edges. IDEAL camber depends on the usage model of the car. -1 to -1.5° is a more sensible amount for a typical streeter. If your "typical" actually means "flogged through the hills 90% of the time" then 2° will work well.

Furthermore, Skylines do not have front camber adjustment via strut tops because they do not have MacPherson strut suspension. Regardless of what it looks like, they do in fact need upper arm adjustment to gain camber adjustment.

[suwidji]

lots of terms that i had to google lol, not familiar with suspension terms.

So what you're saying is, I won't need camber kit, but getting an aftermarket upper arm with poly bushes (or rubber) OR just getting eccentric poly bushes and replacing the ones on the current arms is the way to go?

& that's correct, i drive the car straight pretty much all the time, and the inside of the tyre was worn completely. So just a 0.5 or 1 degree adjustment would be sufficient to fix my tread wear?

Any recommendations to reliable brands for upper arms/eccentric poly bushes? Don't want to cheap out on this lol

[GTSBoy]

Adjustable arms or eccentric bushes are both "camber kits". "Camber kit" is a bit of a crap term brought about by the shitful rear suspension on early IRS Commodores that needed a kit to fix the 1970's geometry. Adjustable length arms are a somewhat more aggressive "fix" to the problem. Eccentric bushes are essentially the same thing as the "camber kit" for Commodores.

I don't know if pulling back to 1.5° will be enough to "fix" your camber wear, but it will certainly alleviate it. You'll get more miles out of the tyres. That really really depends on exactly how the car gets used. I have somewhere between 1 - 1.5 on my car and I don't see any noticable camber wear by the time the tyres get shifted to the rear of the car. They then proceed to get raped to the canvas at the rear anyway. I drive most of my miles just commuting to work, but I make it work hard in every corner I can, so my usage may be different enough to yours that the results will be different.

[niZmO_Man]

-2° front and -1.5° rear on my car. Front obviously wear the inside but the rears wears down evenly. If you like to push it a bit around corners (as I like to do) then -1.5° should be fine. If you're just putting around in your car then -1° is about as much as you want to run. Note that toe can also affect wear patterns.