Camber diy or pro

Do u do camber yourself or u let the shop do the job? If u do it urself, I wanted to learn... :-[

umm, what are you trying to learn? for mild - moderate camber, on one of my cars, i have adjustable rear upper arms, i just set them to pretty close to what i need, just by eyeball, then go over to the alignment shop and have it set accuratley on the rack. although you couldnt do that if you dont have a nice alignment shop in town.

for extreme camber you would probably have to custom shorten some camber arms which could be done by a machine shop on a jig

or do you mean you want to learn how to do like a garage alignment?

I did it myself, but it depends entirely on the setup of the car.I have no idea what the camry suspension is like so i couldnt tell you. For example I know i wouldnt attempt to camber a TCR10 Previa/Estima/Tarago - thats for sure

Also, how mechanically minded are you? Do you know which way to turn nuts/bolts to loosen them? I would think that if you needed to ask, you probably shouldnt do it yourself the first time...

Oh, and when i did mine i eyeballed it (did it by eye), and it turned out to be spot-on when i got the wheels aligned

[quote=Dominik ]
For example I know i wouldnt attempt to camber a TCR10 Previa/Estima/Tarago - thats for sure
[/quote]

Just Curious but how come?
 ;D

Cos the TCR10 has a live axle rear suspension setup. Its a solid rod between both rear wheels - cambering that means heating and bending the 'arms' coming out of the diff, or swapping the entire rear suspension setup for the IRS assembly from a TCR11... Thats why ;)

Most other cars will have a concentric bolt with marks notched on it - loosen the nut on the other side, then turn the concentric bolt to add/reduce camber. I believe you can only usually get 1-2 degrees of adjustment on it though

^^isn't it an eccentric bolt, not concentric?

[quote=NYC03Alti ]
^^isn't it an eccentric bolt, not concentric?
[/quote]

yes.

with my 240sx (similar to Y33 Q45 suspension) w/ full front and rear aftermarket arms... you NEED a good alignment shop. I eyeballed it (I must have bad eyes) and drove a couple miles to the shop... I was at +/- 2* of toe front and rear and my camber was ~.25* different from side to side.

So.. if you only have adjustable camber, it's not too hard to eye ball, it gets tricky on toe though. Also, caster's pretty easy if you just match up tension rods to ~stock length and adjust from there equal parts for both sides.

ALWAYS have it double checked on an alignment rack after you mess with it though... and not just anyone, someone with experience w/ aftermarket arms.

Ah, my bad... Yes eccentric may be the right word. alls i know is that it has an off-centre spacer looking thing and notches on it.

My toe was out by ALOT when i lowered/cambered my car. I tried driving to the wheel alignment shop and it was so scary because the car would switch lanes on each bump. Then i got there and the shop was closed so i had to go home again.

I did it by eye again and then the car seemed to drive fine. The next day when i went for an alignment the toe was at 0 and -2, camber was 6.48 and 6.48 - even the guy at the shop was surprised. But it wasnt hard - aftermarket camber arms completely maxed and eccentric bolts on the same position :)

what if i dont have adjustable suspension?my car is lowered heaps and i gained camber.and it just chews badly my tyres.i went to the shop to get it alligned and aligment was ok.and yeh my car is pretty much all over the road when on bumps.anyone can help?

cheers

Sounds like toe is out but it could be anything. The first time the shop aligned my car he used his training to determine that since my car had negative camber, it needed toe to ensure even tyre wear. I drove up the road from the place and came straight back and said "make it 0 toe" because the car was all over the road.

He admitted his mistake when i pointed out that no amount of adjustment could give me even tyre wear when the outside of my tyre doesnt even touch the ground. I'm riding on 0 toe now and its fine. Not really chewing tyres like i thought it would but obviously one side has wear and the other does not.

so dominik. Ur negative camber have an even tyre wear? that's cool... I always wanted to know whether negative would only wear the inner tyre only or wear even.

[quote=Dominik ]
Not really chewing tyres like i thought it would [b]but obviously one side has wear and the other does not.[/b]
[/quote]

yes it only wears the inner side. But so what? In a few thousand km, i will swap my rear tyres from left to right and vice versa, and before i know it i will have had almost a year out of my tyres. In comparison i will have spent over $2000 on gas during that time, many thousands on repairs, mods and registration taxes. $320 on tyres is nothing at all...

Common perception is that camber is what kills tires quickly... NOT SO!!!

TOE KILLS TIRES MUCH MORE QUICKLY!!!

whenever you lower your car though, you will inevitably get more toe than stock from the change in height... so dialing out the toe (if you car has adjustable arms stock or aftermarket) will save your tires much more than just pulling out camber.

well my tyres wernt new when i got the car.but so far i traveled about 1500 in last month and camber wear is bad.well i will go to the shop again and let him have a look on toe...

cheers

Some cars have not-so-efficiently-designed multi-link suspensions that still have a lot of bump steer. With such cars, you will still get accelerated tire wear once you lower and/or camber it more than stock... not really much you can do with those except live with it. Getting the toe alignment as close to spec as possible at ride height is your best bet to get as much life out of the tires as possible... Some cars have very complex, well-designed susps where tire wear isn't that large a problem even when the car is sliggity slammed, AND the camber is tweaked way beyond factory specs

Leave it to the pros