Camber Kit Issues

[EG6Civic83]

Okay so I just spent a crap load of money on my car (like $3500) for motor swap, tires, alignment, the works. But I have a problem. The alignment shop says I need a camber kit. They wanted $1000 for a camber kit install and adjustment on my car. I know there are cheaper kits out there than the one they want to use. Anybody got any suggestions on a good camber kit for a decent price? I know I can get a Skunk2 kit for the front for around $150. But I have heard there have been some issues with this kit (bushing failure, slipping, etc) that I don't want to deal with. Any help would be great. Oh yeah... my car is a 1992 Civic Si Hatchback.

 

[CRX-YEM]

There are a few reasons as to why you should need a camber kit and there are reasons that you don't need to use a camber kit. If you have hit a curb or had some other structural damage that could put the camber out of spec in an unequal manner at all four wheels than most likely a camber kit is the least of your worries. As the most likely reason would be a twaeaked frame. But in a case like this a camber kit would be used to make the corrections.

If you have lowered your car with lowering springs you don't necessarily need a camber kit. I have lowered my crx about 1.8" front and rear. I have had to sacrifice rotating my tires more often for the added gains in hadling/stabilty in hard cornering.

A shop is going to want to align the vehicle to be within the factory specs. As I've stated above if you have a slightly more negative camber than the factory specs isn't really a bad thing

Do you have the readings of the front and rear camber when they did the alignment ?? If so it will help guide you to the right camber kit.

As far as camber kits go, Ingells and Progressive both have descent kits. Skunk2 also has a good product overall. They all seem to have a cost of about $150.00 If you feel you really want to add a camber kit, you should do it yourself it's not very dificult to do.

The quoted cost of $1000 from the alignment shop is quite steep. Your looking at labor of 2hrs tops and an alighment, and even if labor is $80hr, you're looking at parts and labor total of $310.00 plus an alignment so no more than $400.