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I got the alignment done twice. The fronts are dead on but the rears are still off by -3 degrees on both sides. The shop manager said that the camber is maxed out. I'm only lowered an inch on Espelir Springs. How can this be? Is there a camber kit available just for the rears?
Which way do you want to go? When the manager said it was "maxed out", did he mean that was as much negative camber as he could get, or did he mean that he couldn't get any less than that?
For a purely street-driven car, anything over 2degrees negative camber in the rear is excessive. With only 1" drop, if you can't hit 2degrees negative camber, then either:
1) The person doing the alignment is a moron, or
2) Something is wrong with your suspension.
I'm leaning towards #1.
By the way, I'd highly recommend adding some negative camber up front, too.
Maxed out meaning they could not bring it back in to spec. All I wanted was -1 tops. I went to two separate shops. The first shop gave me a reading of -2.2 on the right rear and -0.7 on the left rear. I drove it like that for a while but now I am lowered an inch.
What is surprising is that the first shop could not align the right rear correctly. The second could not align the left rear. The reason both are -3 is because I told them at least get both of them to sit the same.
I'd still wager that the techs don't know what they're doing, but I guess it's possible that your car is damaged (although seems unlikely that both sides would be damaged in the same way). Have you ever had an accident? Do you make a habit of sliding in to curbs?
If your car has never been in an accident, I'd ask on your local forum for a recommendation of a reputable alignment shop and go there to see if they can figure out the problem.
A couple of years back I picked up some Buddy Clubs from another owner who had pretty aggressive specs (-3 point something camber in the rear, etc.). Nothing was changed, we just moved them over to my car.
When I had mine aligned (about 5 times in a row by the same shop over the course of a month or so) they had issues getting the same specs on all four corners. The best they could do was a few tenths less than stock on the fronts! I ended up letting the dealer do it and they were able to get within a few tenths of the previous owner's specs, but still couldn't match it. I think I went with about -2.3-2.5 camber on the rears, and I'm afraid to touch it.
My car is even lower now than it was then (due to Veilside front bumper), so getting it on the lift will be damn near impossible. I've been tempted on many an occasion to raise the car a bit and readjust, hoping to get the specs I wanted in the first place.
Originally Posted by S~Factor,Jun 12 2007, 04:48 PM
I'm starting to think being 1" lowered and having -3 camber is "normal" and therefore considered acceptable.
No, it's not. I'm lowered about 1", and I'm running the Honda UK alignment specs. I still have plenty adjustability in any direction, too.
The fact that one tech was able to get one side aligned while the other tech could get the other side aligned should indicate that neither one of them really knows what they're doing.
06-11-2007, 12:30 PM
Alignment off by -3!
