camber and lowering ??

[emorale3]

So i am in the process of installing some steeda sport springs on my GT. and as i barely finished one side on the front, i remembered about camber bolts. so my question is, am i going to have to buy camber bolts for my car to adjust the camber. or will the stock bolts do?? and do i have to take apart the whole spring again to install the camber bolt?? its only a 1" drop so i dont know. will i need the bolts??

 

[Miracle]

You cannot adjust camber with the stock strut to hub mounting bolts. You need to pick up a set of BMR or similar eccentric camber bolts or a set of Maximum Motorsports or J&M Caster/Camber plates.

And if/when you do get the bolts, you'll only have to remove the top strut/hub bolt... you wont have to take the strut out of the car, or take it apart.

And you will have a bit of negative camber introduced when you break in the springs, so bolts would be a good consideration, if you don't want to eat through front tires a little quicker.

 

[emorale3]

You cannot adjust camber with the stock strut to hub mounting bolts. You need to pick up a set of BMR or similar eccentric camber bolts or a set of Maximum Motorsports or J&M Caster/Camber plates.

And if/when you do get the bolts, you'll only have to remove the top strut/hub bolt... you wont have to take the strut out of the car, or take it apart.

And you will have a bit of negative camber introduced when you break in the springs, so bolts would be a good consideration, if you don't want to eat through front tires a little quicker.

ok so where do the camber bolts go?? are they the four bolts that hold the strut, the ones that you have to loosen from the top of the hood?? or is it just the bolt that goes in the middle of the strut??

 

[Miracle]

ok so where do the camber bolts go?? are they the four bolts that hold the strut, the ones that you have to loosen from the top of the hood?? or is it just the bolt that goes in the middle of the strut??

Neither.

There are a total of 6 fasteners that actually hold the strut inside the car. The 4 at the top of the strut, at the shock tower, under the hood, and 2 more at the wheel end of the strut, behind the brake rotor.

If you were to get the camber bolts, you would pull out the top bolt that holds the bottom of the strut to the wheel hub or spindle, and replace it with the camber adjusting bolt. That would then give you about 2 degrees of camber adjustment, either positive or negative.

 

[TexasBlownV8]

I installed the same springs and used a set of Eibach camber bolts from latemodelrestoration.com.
I put one bolt on each side in the top knuckle bolt hole (there's 2 large bolts on the knuckle below the shock body).
These bolts give you the camber adjustment you need. If you use stock bolts instead, you'll be at or just outside the spec limit and have a little too much camber.

BTW, you can make the adjustments on the bolts yourself and get alignment very very close, and well within the spec range.

For the back, the sport springs shifted the rear end about 1/4-3/8"; an adjustable panhard will solve that.

The springs resulted in a 7/8" drop up front on my car, and the camber was at -1.5*. For a few bucks, it's worth getting it back to less camber.
And of course, toe alignment needs to be checked and adjusted as needed.

 

[Miracle]

And for the record, although you probably won't EVER need it, you COULD run 2 camber bolts on each side, for 4 degrees total.

But doubt anybody ever needs THAT much camber...

 

[emorale3]

ok guys, that was really helpful thanks alot. I guess im about to order some bolts from BMR

 

[ScottW311]

emorale3....I purchased the Eibach camber bolts recently and found the best overall price + shipping to be at drivewire.com. The product is called "Eibach pro alignment kit."

 

[1FastS197]

okay, installing the lowering springs and the camber bolts up front tonight... here's the question, how do you get the camber close? does the hub need to be level when the car is jacked up or when the wheel is on?

 

[07 Boss]

When I put my Pro-Kit springs in I used some Steeda billet camber plates. Then I switched to Bilstein struts and had to buy some camber bolts. I never put them in though. I have -1.85* on the driver's side and -2.15* on the passenger side. I happen to like the way my car handles with it set like that. Yes, the tires will wear uneven, but I flip them on the rims every so often to even them out. I won't get the full mileage out of the fronts, but it is a small price to pay to take corners like a BMW.

 

[1fastpony]

Here is my before and after alignment numbers. The before was with the OE springs and BFG’s tire with 22k miles. The after is with the Steeda UL springs with Nitto’s 555E, 26k mile on them. I may be rotated the OE tire three times, same with the Nittos’.

No camber kit used…Steeda informed me that the Sport and UL springs keep the car within spec. Now my toe is fixed the car is not pigeon toe’d but a little knocked kneed. Most of my inside wear was the same with the OE tires as the Nitto’s and the toe being out that far was most probably the culprit.

 

[1FastS197]

okay, installing the lowering springs and the camber bolts up front tonight... here's the question, how do you get the camber close? does the hub need to be level when the car is jacked up or when the wheel is on?

TTT

 

[NastyStang113]

Here is my before and after alignment numbers. The before was with the OE springs and BFG’s tire with 22k miles. The after is with the Steeda UL springs with Nitto’s 555E, 26k mile on them. I may be rotated the OE tire three times, same with the Nittos’.

No camber kit used…Steeda informed me that the Sport and UL springs keep the car within spec. Now my toe is fixed the car is not pigeon toe’d but a little knocked kneed. Most of my inside wear was the same with the OE tires as the Nitto’s and the toe being out that far was most probably the culprit.

My car and my woman's car both had similar camber with the Steeda Sport and Ultralite springs.

 

[TexasBlownV8]

That's close; -1.5 is indeed the spec. On my Sports, they pushed the camber out to right close to 1.5*; camber bolts helped get it back to -.65 or so, where they were before.

 

[Vapour Trails]

No real need to get camber bolts - camber is good. I run -1.8 degrees on the street.

 

[Timbostang]

You could try not getting the bolts and see where it puts the camber. On my car it had quite a bit of negative camber and wore my tires out on the inside. It handled really well but the tire wear sucked. I put in the camber bolts and took out all the negative I could and now the new tires have wore perfect for the first 15k.

 

[08Spdemon]

for that minimal of a drop i wouldnt even bother with any camber adjustment, now on my car(i have h&r ss, about a 2" drop or maybe a lil more now that theyre settled), my camber was bad and started to eat my tires after about 7k miles or so, so i bought the eibach bolts and pretty much maxed them out for positive camber and i havent had a problem since, just my .02