What camber degree should I shoot for

[Dee]

I have ST coilovers, rear lca, and front camber bolts on the way.

After some research on the forums I am still not sure what I should request of my alignment technician. (They will not recommend anything other than stock settings)

My car is a weekend warrior. I love to hit some corners in my local mountains occasionally, and lastly I’m not afraid to kick it out every now and then when it rains.

I do not do any track or autox. Wish I had some local, but I do not do any.

Finally, I am still paying the car off, and still in school, so... I would rather not have premature tire wear. So for that reason, getting as little camber as possible and getting toe to 0 is definitely a high ranking option.

Would you guys mind to give me some numbers and degrees for camber and toe? Also could you please explain why you think these numbers will be good.

Thank you!

P.S. I plan to lower the car 1.5in

[Twinz]

If you just plan on DD the car and want your tires to last, stock specs are fine.

[TommyW]

Lowering will automatically reduce camber. Since no tracking you should be fine with that

[Code Monkey]

-1 camber in front, -1.5 camber in rear, 0 toe all around.

[Leonardo]

I'm lowered on Prokit springs. My natural camber in the rear is -1.8 & -2.2. Since I have not purchased any way to adjust the rear, thats where it has sat for 60,000 miles.

Camber bolts in the front. -1 is great no camber wear on the tires. I'm sitting at -1.5 & -1.4 front now.

I agree with the suggestions above.

[jamal]

You could go up to somewhere between -1.5 to -2 degrees up front without seeing much more tire wear, and it will give you a little more front end grip. I drive around with -2.5 and it's still not really an issue.

[akahenry]

F: -1.7° to -2°
R: -1.5°
0 Toe all around or about 0.04° to 0.08° Toe in the rear for highway stability--that's if you do long highway commutes.

[Dee]

Conflicting info, should there be more camber in front than back? Or vice versa

[Boomerang]

Originally Posted by Dee

Conflicting info, should there be more camber in front than back? Or vice versa

Apparently it is better to have more at front than rear.

Lots of info already on here if you search

[NoHaveMSG]

Originally Posted by Boomerang

Apparently it is better to have more at front than rear.

Lots of info already on here if you search

From what I have understood the Mac strut in the front does not gain as much negative camber through it's travel as the multi link in the rear. So you run around .5ish less camber on the rear.

[churchx]

Dee: stock alignment is 0 front, -1.2 rear. But many feel it being TOO understeer-ish, thus one of most common way to change bias/make car closer to neutral with more neg. camber front, often for it to be by some 0.5 degree more then rear neg. camber.
Imho -1.5 front (which is somewhat max that can be dialed in with single set of camberbolts), stock camber rear (but tried to be even out within mounting bolt slack), zero toe front, slight toe-in rear, should be nice DD only alignment.
Going for more camber is if you are visiting track & want more grip / even out threadwear.
Upto -2.5 camber shouldn't affect much DD thread wear (toe affects it more then camber), but no need to, especially as it will rise extra parts needed (like rear LCA, extra camberbolts, camberplates, etc). Fast weekend canyon driving but still within legal limits will never really be nowhere close loads on track, so i'd put it same as normal daily driving, not track, for considering alignment to dial.

[guybo]

My car is very well balanced (yes, I do sometimes drift in a parking lot for fun), but I have reduced a lot of weight from the rear so you may want to change your settings from what I have. More weight balance to the front will want to make the car push, my alignment has gotten rid of that tendency though. I also have a front strut tower bar.

Front-

Camber -2.1 (my SPC cambolts are maxed out and I swapped the top OEM bolt for the bottom bolt)
Toe .07 toe in (I kinda wish I had gone with 0, but I didn't want my car to wander lanes on the highway so I went with a little toe in)

Rear-

Camber -1.7 (I have LBC lower camber arms and I went very conservative which worked out well because the balance is right where I want it. If I had gone with -2.0 it would be more tail happy)

toe .13 toe in (again, conservative, I wish I had gone with .05 in or 0 though)

[churchx]

guybo: it's not "more weight" balance to the front with camber changes.
It's changing "grip" bias/balance. Adding more camber to one end, eg. front, adds grip to that end in curves, as due leaning on outside tire during turn static negative camber compensates tire sidewall flex and you get more even/better contact with that outside tire during turn, making that end less tending to loose traction. Reducing camber makes that contact patch worse during turn, reducing grip on that end.

That aside your camber settings do exactly that, with more camber (versus stock almost zero camber) in front.

Also increasing rear camber will not make car more tail happy, rather opposite, as now you are adding more grip mid turns to rear. Though due little change from -1.7 to -2, not by much.

Toe in adds stability and with to self-center to end too (and toe-out increases tendency to loose traction, to steer that end out) where it's dialed in. It impacts more tire wear and fuel economy though, so imho best would be to get wished balance by camber, thus zero toe front (if it's even, and camber is not at too high, imho not too much of lane wandering), and slight toe-in rear, like you have.

[bfrank1972]

Max out your front camber bolts, get adjustable rear LCA's, set them about -.5 what your fronts end up being. Make sure your toe f/r is pretty much zeroed out. Your car's front end will be much more responsive this way. If you have your toe right, camber wear is pretty much a non-issue, as someone said earlier having your toe out of spec really kills your tires. Downsides - typically few, depending on your tire setup (what kind of tire, tire pressures, how stiff the sidewalls are, rim width & are they stretched at all) you may or may not get some tram-lining issues.