versitility- negative camber or not?

[jon_the_accord_man]

I am a decent driver but tuning suspension is new to me, and i have a 1997 accord se with bilstein struts and H&R lowering springs, what is the optimum camber setting for an all around versitile ride?

 

[austin20110]

that is going to be something you want to talk about with the guy thats going to do your alignment.. we cant tell you how you want it.... but i would say dont go negative

 

[jon_the_accord_man]

why not negative? im at a neg 3 right now with my drop but thats too much for normal driving.... i was thinking more a .5 or at most 1 degree negative. why do you dissagree?

 

[austin20110]

Just from what i have heard... a guy at work races spec miata's and has 10 grand in suspension work and he is a big fan of positive if any camber.. it all really depends on what your going to be doing with it are you going to be going around the track or drag racing is it your daily driver???? any control arm upgrades?

 

[BrutalB83]

why not negative? im at a neg 3 right now with my drop but thats too much for normal driving.... i was thinking more a .5 or at most 1 degree negative. why do you dissagree?

I would attempt to keep negative camber to a minimum on a car that's daily driven. True, some negative camber will help with handling, but only to a certain point. At negative three degrees your tires are going to wear out on the inside edge pretty damn quickly. Keeping it within the range you specified will certainly help. If you have a repair manual for your vehicle it will probably list the factory suspension settings. If the car is lowered significantly (and I assume it is with that extreme of a camber angle) then you may need to buy after-market camber adjusters to get it back within the acceptable range...

 

[jon_the_accord_man]

track/daily driver i have never heard of anyone liking positive camber.... and i only have springs and strut upgrades but im getting adjustable camber plates soon

 

[FLounder]

i think the factory honda specs are just slightly negative camber.... just keep it within those specs and you will be fine. by having negative 3 degrees you are not going to have any major handling gains on your accord. its not like you have a fully built suspension on a track car.... you will just eat tires and feel dumb later when are your 3rd set in one year.

 

[jon_the_accord_man]

i know it will eat tires i have friends that made the mistake. i need to get the camber plates before i really drive it much more. its my first asian tuner build so i only know most things in theory so thanks for the help. im an ex euro fan. too expensive dont play with european stuff...

 

[K2e2vin]

Double-wishbone Hondas don't use camber plates.

Definitely go for -.5-0 camber. I doubt you're running "race" spring rates so you shouldn't need much initial camber.

 

[BrutalB83]

I'm pretty sure they don't make camber plates for your car. You'll need to buy adjustable camber arms. Actually, you can fix the rear by just spacing out the factory arms with washers. Run a Google search on it, there are plenty of write-ups on the Internet about how to do it...

 

[zone90cb7lx]

i second that, they do it on cb7's all the time, and gets you were you want it give ur take very lil...

 

[austin20110]

unless your doing some searious racing or whatever with your accord i suggest putting it back to factory like they said your going to wear out them tires QUICK

 

[jon_the_accord_man]

yeah i dont want them where they are but i just felt like trying out the whole lowered thing... it kinda pisses me off having to dodge speed bumps and pot holes though...

 

[BrutalB83]

yeah i dont want them where they are but i just felt like trying out the whole lowered thing... it kinda pisses me off having to dodge speed bumps and pot holes though...

Welcome to driving a lowered car. In order to get the benefits you give up some of the daily-driver-ability...