Alignment Issues - Need Help!

[SuperG]

The alignment plates up front have the welds cut and I have eccentric busings in the rear. However, today, Firestone informed me that the best they can get on the alignment is:

Front maximum camber is -0.7 on the left and -4.0 on the right! They claim they cannot increase the negative camber on the left nor decrease the negative camber on the right...

Rear maximum camber is -2.4 on the left and -2.0 on the right. I wanted at least -3.0...

What on earth can prevent the camber from being limited? And let's assume the tech actually knows what he is doing.

I would appreciate any ideas. I will check the struts for bending, as suggested by the techv (but not checked by him). Can tie-rods, tension rods, or other components cause this?

BTW, toe is .02 in both front and rear and caster is 3.7 left and 3.9 right.

If I cannot resolve the alignment quickly...would you suggest I not drive the car until the camber problem is corrected?

Thanks for any help!

 

[FAST4DR]

Is your front subframe shifted to one side? Did you try loosening the four subframe bolts and center the subframe with a rod or 3/4" socket extension in the alignment hole? The alignment shop should be able to do this.

You want -3 degrees on the rear? I am running -1.3 front and -1.0 rear camber, zero toe all around and the car is glued to the road. I am going to increase the front camber to -2.0 soon and see how that works out.

Will

 

[SuperG]

Thanks Will...that's the 2nd time someone brought up the subframe possibility...not something I ever would of thought about.

I was running similar numbers to you, but I wanted to try something new for a while. The setup is more for autocross than roadcoarse and it will be interesting to see how the tires fair, both street and track!

 

[Mr Anonymous]

With the factory camber plates popped and the best they can do on the right side is -4 degrees camber I'd say your car was probably smacked pretty hard in the right corner or side at some point in its life.

What you'll have to do jack up the car, unbolt the strut mount from the tower to let the strut drop a couple of inches, remove the plate and hog out the three holes outboard at least about 1/2" to 3/4" I'd say (a carbide grinding bit on a drill will help do this). You still might only be able to get it down to around -2, but that's going to be a major improvement over -4. You might be able to install the camber kits in the fronts to allow for even more adjustment, but I suspect making the alignment perfectly square may effect how the car sits and it may look crooked or have a strange rake.

Why on Earth would you want -3 degrees camber on the rear wheels? Do you have some sort of unlimited free tire deal, or want to look like a ghetto Civic or something? For 99.999% of SHO's out there, whether they're daily drivers or track cars, -1.0 to -1.5 is about the maximum negative camber all around that is needed for optimal handling. For a car that's a daily driver I think it's best to stay right around -1.0 to balance very good handling with reasonable tire longevity. -3.0 in the rear is going to eat through tires at an absurd rate. The reason you can't get any more negative camber with the eccentrics is because they were never designed to provide such a drastic (almost bordering on unsafe IMHO) change in camber -- they are meant to correct for minor changes in the wheel geometry due to age, accidents, non-factory suspension components, etc.