Hi Iowa ,
glad we can avoid the "fighting on forum" crazyness.
I'd like only to point that the FSM is a really good thing but is not the only way.
Is like for an electrician: he follows technical rules or standards (I hope it's easy to understand because the above translation isn't really good) to get the job done in a good way, so people that will use the electrical system will be safe. It's done to make him able to do the job in the right manner also if he isn't an electrical engineer and he doesn't understand well the "why" of electrical systems behaviour.
The FSM help trained people to work on the car without damage something, also if they are not mechanical engineers and don't know fatigue, strain, momentum and so on.
But if you know that there is a % statistic error during production you can immagine that the eccentric lobe can also be not in the same position from L and R, if you know that trying to move a part hold by 2 bolts is easier if you lose them instead only one and you can't damage the car.
But, if someone doesn't know well these facts, the first thing is to read carefully the FSM and do what reported inside to be as the electrician before and get the job done well, but without understanding why.

 

I agree with your electrician analogy, which is why I mentioned knowing how to interpret the specific shape of the bolt-head. That will also tell you that it's a remove-flip-and-reinstall bolt that cannot be rotated in place without causing damage.

As to the idea that there is variability in production, I suppose that I must admit that such is also true. But variability in the fine details of the bolts will not cause the bolt to switch from one type to another. The differences between a infinitely-adjustable camber bolt and a remove-flip-and-reinstall camber bolt are qualitative, not quantitative. The variability in production cannot turn one into the other. That would be close to suggesting that, due to production variability, every now and then an STi is produced on the Evo X production line. It reminds me of the rather silly counter-arguments that Young Earthers try to throw against evolutionary theory.

 

OP-- one more item to consider is while the dot or arrow placement is the significant deciding factor in camber adjustment as point out-- placing to bolt at -1 or -2 doesn't mean you will necessarily get that exact adjustment as a result. It could be more or less. The most I get out of my VIII with the bolt set at -2 is -1.7. My point being it could be that -1.6 is all you can get out of your set up.. FYI.

 

Yep. That's one of the serious downsides of remove-flip-and-reinstall bolts: you can't use them to match camber from side to side. But, given that a major determinant of camber on a car with OE-style springs is the tilt of the chassis, which is all over the place in my experience, this isn't such a big deal.

 

I never gave really too much attention to camber limit. I read that maximum was around -2° with stock components and I got it quite easy.
I also misunderstood something that only now, thanks to Iowa's post, I see.
I was trying to explain (sorry for my bad English) that you can reach the value of -2° turning the bolt. And it's right but not clear.
It's also right Iowa when tells to extract the eccentric, turning and reinstall it.
I was speaking about fine tuning.
Just to be clear: nothing wrong obviously to remove-flip-and-reinstall the camber bolt. But when I have done it my camber was less than -2°, then loosening the other bolt I was able to get 2 degrees of negative camber turning caber bolt (little angle) for fine tuning.
The end is that my camber is -2° FL and FR and my camber bolt are not in the same exact clock position.
I can't understand on stock cars the reason not to get -2° because from my point of view was really simple.

Sorry if I wasn't able to be clear enought before.

 

Cool. And, yes, you should always loosen the lower bolt, too, not only so that the knuckle can move between the ears of the strut easily, but also because there's a small amount of "slop" that you can capitalize on. As to rotating the upper bolt (a little), this, too, is using the small amount of slop. If it isn't hard to rotate the bolt, you're OK, but as soon as it is taking significant torque to rotate that bolt (e.g., anything over about 15 Ft-lbs), stop or you'll break something.

But, again, people get a little too hung up (IMO) with getting the camber to match exactly. On a softly-sprung car, the petty details are close to irrelevant since the body roll as soon as you are going any direction other than straight ahead will alter the camber (a lot). I was once in the shop, waiting for my turn to use the alignment rack, and watched as this semi-serious autocrosser struggled to get EXACTLY 2.2 front and 1.6 rear on a Stock-class Honda. If I hadn't been so annoyed by him taking way longer than his turn, I would have been laughing my head off at his level of ****-retentiveness.