negative camber is recommended for track. you can do a little still on street cars but not as aggressive. sorry i don't know the #'s though. My ae86 has -2.5 degrees on the front and you can tell.

 

front
camber 0 ±1°
caster 3°45' ±1°
toe-in 0 ±3mm
turning angle in 38°00' ±2° out 32°00'

rear
camber –1°30'±1'
toe-in 2.5mm ±2.5mm

 

Generally for most cars you can adjust toe settings front and rear. Some cars have a little adjustment possible for camber front or rear but it depends on model and which year.

Anytime you lower your suspension you change the alignment settings alot.
The lower you go the more likely you have increased negative camber. This helps handling if you do fast cornering but increases ride roughness and noise. Bumpy roads get very annoying and your interior can rattle alot.

Owners that track their cars usually need to add camber plates in front or control arms in the rear to help adjust the amount of camber for the events they drive in. Front camber can be about -2 to -2.5 degrees while rear camber about -1 to -1.5 degrees. The more negative the camber the more you can wear the inside edges of the tires when used on the street. If you rotate tires often it's not that bad.

For most street driven cars stock alignment for toe settings is for toe in for both front and rear. This gives predictable handling and straight tracking. For track and autocross often toe is set for slightly out in the front about 1/16" out and in the rear 1/16" toe in or zero toe. In the front a little toe out helps with quicker turn in response but excessive toe out can lead to more tire wear in street use and a more twitchy handling.

Most brake and alignment speciality shops can set your car to factory specs even after lowering is done but there can be limits. Rule of thumb is to make right and left sides as equal as possible. Less negative camber improves ride comfort but you can compromise a little on performance. Front camber is often very mild (not much negative) compared to the rear (often more negative camber after lowering is done).

So if you have lowered your FIT for looks you can choose factory alignment settings or as close to them as possible. If you have lowered your car and want to track it, go to autocross or do driving school events then more negative camber would be most helpful in using and wearing your performance tires more evenly. Stock camber and performance driving usually results in very easily worn tires in just one day.

 

As delivered from the factory, the only adjustable alignment parameter is front toe.

Honda makes "crash bolts" that allow for front camber adjustment, but it's necessary to order them from a dealer's parts counter. I've noticed a couple of people talking about getting slightly more front negative camber by loosening bolts and pushing everything to the limits. I don't think you'll get a big increase, however.

Nothing on the rear is adjustable without shims behind the hubs. This is a product of the torsion beam rear suspension.

 

Is it me, or does the rear of the fit have a bit of negative camber?

When I look at it from the rear, I can see the top of the rear tire pointed inwards more than the front. Actually the fronts look good, but the rears are cambered in.

Kinda annoying..

 

not you. mine does it too. i really noticed it with my 17s that are 7.5" wide. i'm worried when it's dropped a little what it will do.

 

It's normal. The manual specifies 1.5 degrees negative camber in the rear. Many factory alignments include more negative camber in the rear than in the front because that setup encourages the car to understeer.

Negative camber by itself, if it's not excessive, isn't necessarily a huge cause of tire wear. It's a combination of incorrect toe and camber (or even incorrect toe by itself) that's really bad for tires.

If you're running wider tires or the car's lowered, get an alignment. If it's necessary to make rear wheel corrections, a shop will need to shim the rear hubs. If they do this and your toe settings are good, you should be fine.

 

good to know. i wonder how many alignment shops will shim the hubs though.

 

I see.. that's really good to know. I did notice when I had my 16's on there, the inside wore out pretty quick. So i took them off and stuffed them in the storage room and put the stocks back on.

-Tomi

 

i found these new tires which i read help combat camber wear.

Nitto Tire: Neo Gen Overview

 

Maybe... but still no substitute for a proper alignment. If a car's alignment is off enough that tire wear is bad, handling will suffer too. Those tires are not a bad idea, but it's better to know your alignment is correct and not be forced into using one type of tire to help the problem.

 

Excellent responses!

Unless the camber goes out of factory range, don't worry about it too much. Just make sure left and right sides are the same. For street use, the biggest thing to watch is toe adjustment. Point 'em straight ahead for the street (or maybe just a tad toe IN) and you'll be fine.

Mike

 

anybody know what bolt it is to change toe?

 

I'm assuming you're asking about front toe because rear toe isn't easily adjustable (at least not with bolts).

Front toe is adjusted with the tie rods. Find the steering rack and follow it out to one of the wheels. Just before the wheel, you should see a threaded portion of the tie rod end. To adjust toe, loosen the lock nut and twist the threaded rack side of the tie rod into or out of the other end (to shorten or lengthen it).

 

I've installed a set of T1R ver.1 springs few weeks ago and I ordered the SPC camber bolts while letting the springs settled.

The bolts came in and I slap them on with the track tires setup. I tried to max it out to the negative side before I go get alignment done today. Here is how it looks like before camber bolt is on:



Here is how it looks like now:







I've adjusted it to 0 toe now up front w/-1.5degree camber for now. I can go as much as -2.0degree for autocross/lapping as u can see below.....

 

Nice wheels and drop and very good alignment spec. (except
for cross caster but it's in specs...)

We have 3' of snow right now in Montreal so no drop
till spring but I just cannot wait ! Please, could you stop
posting pics of that baby , I'm gonna die for shure...

I'm trying to decide (spel???) between Eibach pro kit
springs or waiting for Tein to do something, like pillow
ball coilover...

By that time, a pics of my car

Philippe.

 

Looking good Phil! It depends on what kinda driving you do. If u just use the Proxes4 and do normal street driving most of the time then I guess the Eibach setup will be good enough. With the 032R I have right now, it handles great under high speed when the road is smooth but a lil bit unstable while it gets bumpy. It's "manage-able" though!

IMO pillow ball upper mount setup is overkill for most street driven vehicles. More noise and they don't last. Those pot(?) holes will just kill the pillow mounts. -2degrees just with the camber bolts is more than enough for most sports driving. It will probably weaken the brake's efficiency if u use too much neg camber.

 

Where did you get the camber bolts at? Price? TIA

 

I just got them from a local parts store. The part# is "81260" and they are roughly around 60usd. Very easy to install.

 

Hmmm Welcome to SPC Performance - Applications and Parts - Honda says its for a Honda Civic 2001+