Ok i'm looking for some expert advice from those that either have coilovers or aligned evo's with coilovers.

Right now I have Tein Flex's on the car and the adjustable camber plates are set
at the zero marker. The car is not by any means "slammed" it's about a 1.5 inch drop all around.

First question can the car be adjusted to spec with a drop like mine? When I say in spec I mean camber and toe. I would like camber to be about -1.5-1.7 front and -1 rear with zero toe all around.I'm bringing the car to my regular alingment shop so I doubt they will mess with the camber plates, they will just use the factory adjustment.

My 2nd question is if the camber cannot be brought into spec with the factory adjustment how can I adjust the camber plates so that I can take a degree off both front sides? Does each individual notch mean one degree? I'd like to get it to a certain range so that the alignment shop can taker care of the rest.

Thanks,

 

I'm not an expert, but I can answer your question.

Yes, you can absolutly set your camber and toe within factory specifications with coilovers.

The little graduation lines on the camber plates don't mean anything. Just pretend they are not there. Have the shop set the camber, at whatever you want, then use a permenent black marker and mark the spot on the plate.

You can build (or buy) a camber gauge to adjust it yourself. But DON'T adjust your camber without correcting the toe at the same time. Adding negitive camber results in increased toe-in.. this is BAD!!! You adjust the camber, then adjust the toe back to zero.

btw, armed with a camber gauge, string, and some accurate measurements, you can adjust your own camber and toe.

 

Ok well here's another question then. If I leave the camber plates at zero can the shop adjust the camber to below -2 degrees with just the factory settings or will the camber plates need to be used?

 

Wow - interesting. On the German cars setting camber at a given street setting and toe at zero results in MORE toe OUT when increased track negative camber is set; a fact we greedily take advantage of for our street/track day guys. So the Evo goes toe IN with increased NEGATIVE camber? You didn't accidently misspeak? Oh yes, paint pens are your friend - but pyrometres are what we sell to our guys to get the camber right for given track, conditions &c. He11 for $150 out the door it's a great investment! Finally, camber doesn't wear tyres anywhere nearly as quickly as toe - remember that for your street settings guys and if running wide tyres will actually help rain condition braking albeit at the expense of dry.

 

The tie-rod is BEHIND the wheel, so yes, increasing camber pushes the rear of the wheel out, resulting in increased TOE-IN. And the effect is significant.. I don't feel sorry for the guy that goes out and buys coilovers, then max's out the camber because it's so easy to adjust, then wears out his front tires in a month because he didn't correct the toe..

 

When you stop by tomorrow I can answer any of your suspension questions..

 

+1 ...

 

Just for fun.. this is what I put together last week based on -2.9 front camber. NOT INTENDED FOR PUBLIC USE..

Notice the difference between 0/32 and +1/32 toe is only about 0.01 inches on the tie-rod, or 1 one-hundredth.. a digital caliper is highly recommended..