Tweaking camber at home??

[Rockcrawler]

Yes I searched here and in the DIY section ,no results. The rear has two adjustments than can be tweaked a notch at a time. not sure if anyone has done the math or verification after tweaking themselves. I did manage 18.8k out of my sport rears, but it's definately cooking the inside edge a bit faster.

Yes I could go to an alignment shop, but i don't mind doing it myself either. I don't want it simply in spec, I want it uniformly tweaked a bit from where it is.

anyone been there done that?

[kenchan]

Originally Posted by Rockcrawler

Yes I searched here and in the DIY section ,no results. The rear has two adjustments than can be tweaked a notch at a time. not sure if anyone has done the math or verification after tweaking themselves. I did manage 18.8k out of my sport rears, but it's definately cooking the inside edge a bit faster.

Yes I could go to an alignment shop, but i don't mind doing it myself either. I don't want it simply in spec, I want it uniformly tweaked a bit from where it is.

anyone been there done that?

first LOL at complaining about 18.8K miles. thats like more than 2x the expected life of these sport tires.

and no, you will not get good results with home-done alignment unless you've done string alignments as a hobby for many years.

imho, just get new tires, drive and enjoy the car.

[vividracing]

A friend of mine has all the tools to do string alignments, and he does a great job. I've had 2 cars aligned by him, actually. From talking to him, it's not worth it unless you need to change your alignment often. He's got 2 cars that he was changing the alignment on at least twice a month. He bought the tools and learned how to do it, but even he agrees that it's not for everyone.

For your needs, I'd suggest talking to local autocrossers and asking where they get their alignments done. They'll know a shop or a fellow racer that can get you sorted out. Any decent shop will align the car to your specs.

If you're wearing the inside edges more than the outer edges, your camber is likely too aggressive for your driving style.

[Rockcrawler]

figured I'd get some chit for the high miles, a lot of commuting, but the tires are fried, well into the indicators. another 1000 miles and i might show cord on the inner side. It's not that far off, so maybe i'll just leave it alone. I just bought another set of 3k takeoffs with rubber and sensors, so will burn through those, but fully expect the frts to last 2x the rears.

there has to be some correlation that one tick mark on the cam washers = x amount of degrees etc..... but it's not bad enough to spend the coin at a shop.

[kenchan]

it's a lot more complicated then that since the toe angles change while the arm compresses. you can't just change the camber on this car and not mess up the toe angle, vice versa.

also toe angle eats more at your tires than camber alone. it's better to have a computer aided alignment.

and 18K miles is id be lucky to get 8k from RE050A's.

[vividracing]

Originally Posted by Rockcrawler

figured I'd get some chit for the high miles, a lot of commuting, but the tires are fried, well into the indicators. another 1000 miles and i might show cord on the inner side. It's not that far off, so maybe i'll just leave it alone. I just bought another set of 3k takeoffs with rubber and sensors, so will burn through those, but fully expect the frts to last 2x the rears.

there has to be some correlation that one tick mark on the cam washers = x amount of degrees etc..... but it's not bad enough to spend the coin at a shop.

The problem is that because bushings wear at different rates, tires wear differently from side to side, springs settle differently, etc... It's very hard to be precise. You could get it "close enough," but then you've got to set the toe also. Any change in camber affects toe.

Firestone offers a "lifetime alignment" deal that gets you unlimited alignments for one payment. I think it comes out to about the price of 2 alignments. Great deal, actually.

[Rockcrawler]

Originally Posted by vividracing

Firestone offers a "lifetime alignment" deal that gets you unlimited alignments for one payment. I think it comes out to about the price of 2 alignments. Great deal, actually.

thats worth knowing when the time comes....