I was talking to this guy at my work who has a gay *** little civic (which he totaled this week lmao at the stupid kid). Anyways he said when he lowered his car he got a camber kit and adjusted the camber i forget which way is + and - but he adjusted it so that the bottom was a little farther out and the top a little farther in. He just did it by a couple of degrees and said that it he did it to improve handling. Does this make any sense? I always thought it was bad to have your tires + or - camber. I was just under the impression that you wanted everything to be nice and centered. Someone care to explain the logic behind changing the camber like that? or changing it in general.

 

camber is how straight up and down the tire is. as far as i know,u want it straight up and down...the more tire that touches the road,the better it would handle right?

that ricer just told u that prob. b/c he lowered his honda so much that the top of the tires wouldnt clear the finers while turning after he adjusted the camber! i didnt even know u could adjust the amber on a honda,i thought the struts weres adjustable under the hood,maybe i was wrong

 

with the bottom of the tire being out farther than the top is negative camber. having negative camber makes for better cornering. having too much will wear out the tires. for the thirdgen cars use -0.5* camber. will give better handling w/o tire wear. i own/run a suspension/alignment shop. do this all day long.

here's a spec chart and explanation of the angles.

http://www.fl-thirdgen.org/alignmentspecs.html

 

technically there is no adjustment for camber or caster on hondas. but with the correct aftermarket kit you can adjust them. they even make rear camber arms for them. just did one today as a matter of fact.

 

when you have - camber it CAN affect your handling in a good way because when you go into a turn your tire's sidewall flex's, if the tire is leaned in when it flex's you will get a better contact patch....in a str8 line having your tire str8 up and down is better....but for drag racing, a little - camber is good because on acceleration your front end is higher then when it's sitting still and your tire straightens up....How much is too much is up too the alignment man that replied earlier

 

okay i checked out that chart and i have a couple questions.
are those the GM specifications?
If so is there any advantage to increasing or decreasing some of those numbers?
Why would you want to have any toe on your wheels?
these are the three numbers for my car im not exactly sure what it means i expected it just to be one number and + or - silly me obviously could someone explain?
Camber 0.30 +/- 0.50
Caster 4.80 +/- 0.50
Total Toe 0.00 +/- 0.20
thanx for all the info

 

yes those are GM specs out of my Hunter alignment machine the +/- means camber range is +0.80 to -0.20 or 0.30 +/- 0.50. i run -0.50 on my camber. by making the tire lean in from the top (- camber) when you turn, the outer tire will end up flat on the ground. so biggest contact patch in turns. anything past 0.50 either way will wear the tires on that side. you want + toe. wht happens is when you drive the car, the tires will want to pull away from the car. this creates -toe. toe is the biggest killer of tires. so start with say 0,06 total toe and when you drive the tires virtually end up at 0.00 start at 0.00 and they might end up -0.06

 

Last question what would you reccomend for the caster?

 

the factory one @ 4.80 is fine. just make the left side 0.50 lower to offset road crown.

 

wow thats some really great advice thanx a ton. Ill take my car soon to get adjusted to the numbers that you sugested. Thanx again for the tips.

 

no prob and your welcome