Upgrading suspension from stock, do I need to consider rear negative camber?

[Alexr]

Hi all, I have a stock 2013 frs and I am planning on upgrading suspension soon. From my understanding after reading the ft86club forums is that realistically tires, alignment, and camber will be the biggest help to this car and I plan on getting Bilstein B6's in addition. My question though is for negative camber if I'm getting Camber bolts for the front to add just a degree and a half of negative camber do I need to think about mods for the rear to adjust negative camber to it? Or is the rear fine at stock camber?

My suspension is all stock and I am running stock wheels with some Conti ExtremeContact DW's. So would I just get camber bolts for the front and call it a day? I have tried searching the forums and reddit for info on this. I have seen people adjusting negative camber but I have not seen anyone say whether or not it is necessary if I'm changing the front.

I am new to suspension upgrades the only thing experience I have with anything mechanical is doing my standard maintenance and changing a throwout bearing.

[Ohio Enthusiast]

Are you planning on changing springs as well as dampers? Most people start from just lowering springs or lowering springs with dampers.
Lowering the car will gain you quite a bit of negative camber in the rear without any additional parts. It seems that up to a 1" drop no additional suspension parts to the rear are needed.
For the front, camber bolts are a cheap and easy way to add negative camber. Pedders offset top hats can be added if you want even more negative camber (plus they give some extra caster as well).

[Alexr]

Originally Posted by Ohio Enthusiast

Are you planning on changing springs as well as dampers? Most people start from just lowering springs or lowering springs with dampers.
Lowering the car will gain you quite a bit of negative camber in the rear without any additional parts. It seems that up to a 1" drop no additional suspension parts to the rear are needed.
For the front, camber bolts are a cheap and easy way to add negative camber. Pedders offset top hats can be added if you want even more negative camber (plus they give some extra caster as well).

I have no plans on lowering the car at this moment. I just wanted to know if it's okay to add negative camber to the front via camber bolts and not touch the back at all. I don't know if leaving the stock camber in the rear will cause any problems performance wise.

[Ohio Enthusiast]

Originally Posted by Alexr

I have no plans on lowering the car at this moment

In that case I would suggest finding used suspension from 2017+ Twins as a cheaper alternative. Just replacing dampers on stock springs won't give you much.

Originally Posted by Alexr

I don't know if leaving the stock camber in the rear will cause any problems performance wise.

Not an issue. For performance driving it is recommended to have more front camber than rear anyway. With camber bolts up front and without lowering you might be about even front to rear or maybe a little more front.

The stock setup of zero front camber with some negative rear camber is to promote understeer for safety.

[Alexr]

Good to know, I'll definitely do some more research then. Thanks for the replies!

Originally Posted by Ohio Enthusiast

In that case I would suggest finding used suspension from 2017+ Twins as a cheaper alternative. Just replacing dampers on stock springs won't give you much.



Not an issue. For performance driving it is recommended to have more front camber than rear anyway. With camber bolts up front and without lowering you might be about even front to rear or maybe a little more front.

The stock setup of zero front camber with some negative rear camber is to promote understeer for safety.

[RToyo86]

Camber is fine in the rear unless it's way off left/right and that bothers you. B6s are a great upgrade, or grab lightly used 17-20 shock/spring for better riding OEM solution.

Camber up front is good, we basically zero from the factory. Single lower camber bolt is good for roughly -1°. Upper crash bolt or pedders are good for roughly another 1°.

Keep in mind camber/crash bolts reduce wheel clearance to the lower spring perch on the front shocks if you are running different wheels

[Clipdat]

Is it true that you don't want front and rear camber to be more than a half degree off from each other? That's what my alignment tech recently said when he did -2.0 up front and -1.5 in back for me.

[jflogerzi]

I second if you can get some used 2017 Dampers with RCE Yellow Springs and Peddler Top hats+Camber bolts

[jflogerzi]

Originally Posted by Clipdat

Is it true that you don't want front and rear camber to be more than a half degree off from each other? That's what my alignment tech recently said when he did -2.0 up front and -1.5 in back for me.

No....

I have -4 in the front and 2.5 in the rear and its fine.

[NoHaveMSG]

Originally Posted by Clipdat

Is it true that you don't want front and rear camber to be more than a half degree off from each other? That's what my alignment tech recently said when he did -2.0 up front and -1.5 in back for me.

No.

The front and rear suspension on our cars are totally different designs. The front has basically no camber curve, the rear gains negative camber through travel. That is why track and autox cars need to run so much front static camber. If we are talking an ND2 or S2k, yeah, static camber is going to be closer front and rear.

[Clipdat]

Interesting. He said he "didn't like" for the front and rear to be more than a half degree different. Maybe he's basing this off previous platforms.

I can always go to different specs for my next alignment, just not sure what makes the most sense for street & canyon carving.

[Ultramaroon]

Originally Posted by Alexr

I have no plans on lowering the car at this moment. I just wanted to know if it's okay to add negative camber to the front via camber bolts and not touch the back at all. I don't know if leaving the stock camber in the rear will cause any problems performance wise.

Nothing wrong with your plan. It's the first essential performance oriented step.

[norcalpb]

Originally Posted by NoHaveMSG

No.

The front and rear suspension on our cars are totally different designs. The front has basically no camber curve, the rear gains negative camber through travel. That is why track and autox cars need to run so much front static camber. If we are talking an ND2 or S2k, yeah, static camber is going to be closer front and rear.

As a refresher, is it the trailing arms that allow for rear camber to gain camber or stay the same?

[NoHaveMSG]

Originally Posted by norcalpb

As a refresher, is it the trailing arms that allow for rear camber to gain camber or stay the same?

It's the double wishbone design in the rear. The front is macpherson strut. A lot of other performance oriented cars use double wishbone or double a-arm on both ends. They chose not to in the twins because of how wide the boxer is, not enough room for upper control arm in the front. Or at least that is the rumor as to why.