Front camber after lowering

[wrenchturner1980]

I lowered my car and in the rear I used the upper arms made from speedway motor parts to correct my rear camber. I got factory camber bolts for the front but they don't adjust the camber enough to prevent tire wear. What's everyone doing to correct their front camber? I know there's kmac bushings, but $500 shipped seems like a ton of money for bushings.

[mbsickness]

I have the same set up on my C280 and with the factory repair bolts was able to get the front camber to -1.5 degrees. From what I understand the bolts are only good for .5 degrees. My tire wear has be okay and pretty even. Any additional adjustment will have to come by the KMAC kit so there is the trade off of tire wear vs cost of the kit plus install. No cheap solution unfortunately. Did you aggressively lower the car? The lower you go the more negative camber you will need to correct. i have H&R springs with #3 pads and no cut coils.

[SD202]

I dont run any camber correction up front. Just live with having my tires flipped. The arms in the rear are awesome though cant beat the price.

[nelius]

I haven't had any camber problems and I've lowered it around 2.5 inches in the front and 2 in the rear. Should prbly invest in some rear arms though which ones do you guys have?

[wichipong]

I haven't had any camber problems and I've lowered it around 2.5 inches in the front and 2 in the rear. Should prbly invest in some rear arms though which ones do you guys have?


just do the DIY camber arms.. costs around 100 bucks for a pair... that's my next mod...

[mbsickness]

The camber arms work great but only work for the rear. The most inexpensive thing to do for the front is get the factory repair bolts and flip your tires like SD202 said. Just don't buy directional asymmetric tires.

[chimchongdlight]

Anyone got anymore information on these bolts for the front? Where can I get them? What do they look like and how do I install them? I'm going to be doing my suspension soon and need to gather everything up

[Nine Four One]

Honestly i used some grade 8 bolts an just took an egged the bolt slots out. Works perfect. You wont need the camber bolts. But if you have them eh....just grind out all the slots for the bolts an you can run a dead nuts alignment. Id like to scoop up some rear arms but for the front you dont need them. Just drop the lower arms out an get a carbine bit on a grinder an egg them out. Then preload the arms so you dont tear your bushings an your all set.

[Nine Four One]

Ill try to take pics tomorrow

[mbsickness]

941, the factory kit has washers which keep the position of the "egged" out bolts. Are you using something similar?

[chimchongdlight]

Ill try to take pics tomorrow

Please do. I have no idea what either of u said. Lol. I'm more of a visual learner with step by step DIY. Lol sorry

[nelius]

just do the DIY camber arms.. costs around 100 bucks for a pair... that's my next mod...

any idea where i can get em? and who did your sig i want one!

[Nine Four One]

Yeah...i just egged it out an put lock washers then regular washers on to sandwich them. Which now that i know what the theroy of it is i have some other bolts that ive tack welded the washer offset. But while it was up in the air i did the work an left the bolts finger tight....drove around the parking lot to settle it out. Then drove up onto our alignment rack so the weight of the car was on it. THEN...tighten up everything. Last thing you wanna do is install those bushing an then tear the damn things. When your wheels/suspension hangs real low from being in the air an you tighten the hell out the bolts as soon as you lower it back on the ground your stretching the shit out of them. An i didnt have the special tool to do them so they were a pain in the ass. So doing them a second time is not something i wanna do. But looks like my drivrr side suffered some trama at one point an the factory bolt was waaaaay bent .so once i got it out an done i just did it out of a have to kinda thing. Then i got my car on the alignment rack an seen my camber readings so thats when i just removed an replaced.all the bolts. Egg out the holes an double nutted them. There not going anywhere i promise. Only issue i have now is since that repair i got my alignment dead nuts how i want it an a few weeks ago i removed my spring pads up front which gave it a nicer drop an now i need more adjustment ....no biggie i have plenty of the "slot" to play with. I took my wifes car in today for service so i didnt grt mine on the lift ill have to do it tomorrow. ...sorry for the long post

[mbsickness]

941, your way certainly involves more work but I'm sure you are getting much more adjustment range out of your setup.

[mbsickness]

Please do. I have no idea what either of u said. Lol. I'm more of a visual learner with step by step DIY. Lol sorry

This is how I see the front repair bolts for correcting camber and caster. I say repair bolts as they aren’t true eccentric bolts in that you can adjust a value within a range. These bolts will let you have one of two settings -3 or +3 with a 0 reading being the stock bolt. Since we are all trying to compensate for negative camber as a result of lowering you will be dealing with the forward of the two LCA mount bolts. The rearward one would change the caster. First of all the car body has a hole which looks like a square with two dimples on either side. The factory bolt has a rear protrusion which matches this opening and centers the bolt (like in the lower left drawing).

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v185/geraldch/IMG_3297.jpg

The repair bolts have a washer with a positive image of the dimple and forces the bolt head to one side of the opening (depending on which side you have the washer pointed to). On the rear of the bolt or the side where the nut goes, there is a cutout in half the length of the bolt which one of the dimples can fit into (like in the lower right drawing). Once the dimple is placed in the cutout the positive relief washer will fit in the opening locking the repair bolt in the opening. Also attached is a picture of actual bolts and washers.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v185/geraldch/IMG_3298.jpg

These are available at the dealer for $25 or so if I remember correctly or from Autohaus AZ for about $10 each. The website says you need two bolts per side but you only need one per side as you are not changing the caster. Note that once you install these you cannot have a zero setting…..it is either -3 or +3(and “3” is not in degrees as the overall adjustment is more like .5 of a degree) your toe will change by quite a bit. Don’t plan on driving more than a mile or two. You have to be the judge if this is something to preinstall or if it is something the alignment shop should install. Also note that the spring does need to be compressed to change the bolts so the installatio is not trivial. I hope this all makes sense. Good Luck.

[Nine Four One]

941, your way certainly involves more work but I'm sure you are getting much more adjustment range out of your setup.

To a point....its hard to type a reply as what I chose to do but i see your point. I just wasnt able to get the readings the way i would like. ...i do my own alignments an have so for the past 10 years...so iam not of the skool of "in the green,print the screen" like you may get at a shop on a lowered car. I know how an what i want the end reading to be. But again to just dumb it down yeah egg them out. I wanted a certain caster reading as well to deal with the heavy road crown in my area so thats why i did bolth bolts. Iam not sure but i dont think i would have gotten my readings using the updated bolts....also i was dealing with a damaged mounting flange. To each his own though lol

[Kropf]

Anyone got anymore information on these bolts for the front? Where can I get them?

My 1999 C43 had the rear bolts of the front LCA replaced by the selling dealer and original owner to correct 'road crown wear' (as mentioned above by 'Nine Four One').

I lowered the front and bought a pair of the 'Repair' bolt sets from a dealership to have them in time for my alignment appointment, but would have bought them from AutohausAZ if I had a few extra days to wait.
http://www.autohausaz.com/search/product.aspx?sid=dmsufw452wfmuv55ncyajgbu&partnumber=2023300118

Turns out that I couldn't convince the alignment ?tech? to install them, so I have a LF -1.48 Camber and 4.47 Caster, and RF -1.37 Camber and 4.32 Caster with the original Torx head front bolts and existing hex head rear 'Repair' bolts.
They agreed to redo the alignment after _I_ put the 'Repair Bolts' in.

(I have a lift in my garage :-), but no alignment rack :-( . Also been about 35 years since I've done an alignment myself, but maybe it's time to hunt for a rack? ;-)

'mbsickness', Very nice details of the 'Repair' bolt set you posted above!!

[wrenchturner1980]

I also installed the camber bolts after I lowered my car to try and get the most adjustment out of the front as I can, but it wasn't enough. You can egg out the control arm hole like 941 is explaining, but I'm a little anal and a bit of a perfectionist. I just ordered my bushings from KMAC today. I'll post pictures of them and the install when I get them. I lowered my car with Eibach springs. With the front camber so negative my steering is really labored near the locks and I can feel the tires scrubbing in tight radiused turns.

http://gallery.me.com/wrenchturner1980/100117/Lowered/web.jpg?ver=13022961990001

[eman]

i actually love the front camber on my 202! lol