Ok so I just installed my coilovers last night, Im going to have my alignment done tomorrow, the guy I purchased the coilovers from said his rear camber was at 1.5 degrees. I dropped it lower than what he had. I dont have rear adjustable control arms yet, before I purchase them I had a few questions. Is the rear camber adjustable from factory? If so I know its not alot. Also is it possible to do the washer method with the rear camber? Im not trying to be cheap here, but I have done it on other cars in the past and it worked fine. Thanks for your input.

 

Sounds like your going to need rear camber links for sure. On an R53 that's about the only way you'll get your camber right.

 

What are the camber specs on the car supposed to be? Like what is the range that is acceptable?

 

Most of us trackheads go with between -1.5 and -2.0 on the rear wheels with .5 to 1 more negative up front.

 

Okay and will 1.5 degrees wear tires out? Because this is my daily.

 

Any degree of negative camber will increase wear on the tires' inside edge. Negative 1 may be enough for your daily driver if you want to limit uneven wear. If your readings are close to spec when it is on the alignment unit, I would probably leave it at that and save the cost of adjustable control links, especially for a daily driver that doesn't see any track time.

 

most people set the toe in the rear to 0 (for good tire wear )and with the springs lowered in order to keep the camber from getting to radical, adjustable links are required.

 

Ok and is there any rear camber adjustment from factory?

 

 

ughh haha why cant this be easy lol. So with there being no rear adjustment, Im guessing you cant even get like camber bolts or anything like that. Guess Ill be taking a trip down to helix this week.

 

Why don't you drive the car for a while and see how the lowering affects the handling before worrying about rear camber? I suspect you will feel a huge difference in the car with the new geometry, and increasing negative camber will not make that much of a difference, unless you take it to the track. Did you upgrade your rear swaybar yet? I don't see it in your sig. You would feel that a lot more than the camber and cost you less.

 

Im not worried about the camber because of the handling affects, Im worried about it because of the tire wear. Also a rear sway bar will be next on my list after I get the pulley I have installed.

 

Gotcha. You might be OK without doing anything, depending on what the lasers say at the alignment shop.

 

There is a verry small amount of camber correction but only on the 05 and up R53's. Looks like from your sig that you just missed out. HELIX does make some really top notch arms, in fact I have 2 sets sitting in my garage waiting for my AST coilovers to get here so they can go on the car. But for daily driver duty I would stay away from the solid johnny joint type arms (AKA, ALTA, HELIX, and a few others), theese arms have prooven over time to be a little much for a DD. HOTCHKISS and MEGAN both have rubber or polly bushings in the ends and do the same job without the solid metal to metal feel us track rats want. The MEGANS would be your cheapest option, I havent heared anything bad about them but I havent heard any good either.

For a DD I would have the rears set to 0.5 degrees up to 1.0 if you realy beat on it. The fronts for the tires sake on the street go to a 1.5 or maby a 2.0.

OH and change your rear bar and links already! You wont regret the cost.

 

I want to be able to auto-x the car occasionally, and possibly a track day. So I mean I cant believe the metal to metal would be so harsh I wouldnt like it. Im going to have a shop put the car on the rack tomorrow or tuesday and see where its at. Also, How should have have the shop adjust front camber? Im guessing the only adjustment on these cars is through the camber plates?

 

After lowering my 03 MCS (no stock camber adjustment) about an inch I had too much negative rear camber (about -2.5 to -3) with some toe which caused unacceptable tire wear. I added H-Sport lower adjustable arms to adjust to -1. As was pointed out, adjusting the rear toe to zero will help reduce the wear with negative camber because the tire does not scrub across the ground right on the tire edge.
If lowering around an inch or more, you will want lower adj control arms to reduce negative camber and increase the tire life.
I beleive the stock rear camber spec is -1.6 to -2.6.

 

Okay, So i got my rear arms and going for an alignment tomorrow. My specs are going to look like this. -1*camber up front, -.5* rear and 0* rear toe. Is this good? Or what are some other suggestions?

 

Since from your signature you have Megan Coilovers, I believe you have front adjustable camber plates. Since you can adjust the front camber I would suggest settings for the street such as:
Front Camber: -2 deg (each wheel)
Total Front Toe: -0.14 deg (-0.07 Toe-Out on each wheel)
Rear Camber: -1.5 deg (each wheel)
Rear Toe: Zero or a little Toe-In (Toe-In should be a positive deg number)

 

Will the negative 2 degrees in the front chew my tires up?

 

No it should not. I run about 1.8 (fixed camber plates) on mine with no visible signs of excessive wear.
Better yet if you do track days, auto-cross or very spirited twisties your tires will wear better and last longer.

I'm running almost the exact settings that 'quickmini' is recomending and they work well for me.

Hope this helps...

 

My tires actually wear a little better, probably in a big part to not a lot of toe scrubing the tread off. However, it probably depends on how you use/drive your car. Mine is a daily driver but I only drive 10 miles to work, no long distance freeway commute. I drive pretty aggresive and do a few Auto-Xs a year.

 

The toe will wear the tires more than camber.

For a street car 1.5 neg in the front is really good.

 

I do drive pretty aggressive in the twisties And I plan on doing atleast one auto x and track day. So Ill have them do between 1.5 and 2 degrees negative. on the front. So total camber will be negative 4*. -.14* total toe, -1* rear and 0 toe.

 

This. People get all worked up about camber but toe is really what wears tires unless you're running so much negative camber that it looks like an Accord trying to tuck an 11" wide wheel.

 

Here's my take:
Stock alignment for the rear is -1.5 degrees +/- 0.5 degrees, or -1 to -2 degrees camber.
-1 will give reasonably even wear if you drive like a granny, and -2 will if you drive like you stole it
(harder cornering preferentially increases wear at the outside edges of the loaded wheel).
Somewhere in between works well for most folk.