Negative camber question

[doctorz]

I'm sitting in the Goodyear tire shop getting Kumho Ecsta LX Platinums installed and they told me that the rear wheels are at -2.4 and -2.7 camber. Their specs say it should be -2.3 to -0.3 and the only way to fix that is to replace the control arms since camber are not adjustable. They did not want me to replace them because it's only so slightly out of spec but advised me to watch. I haven't noticed any cupping or uneven wear on my old tires (Michelin Pilot Exaltos) but I'm guessing that's because I typically rotate every 5,000 miles and keep them inflated to 36 psi, plus the Michelins were a great set of tires.

Typically the car is dealer serviced and they haven't said anything. They did a 75K service earlier in the summer and they just did another oil change, and said everything is fine.

What do you guys think? Is this actually just normal for the car, or should I bring it back up to the dealer next time I'm there?

 

[thaxman]

Get a 2nd opinion. Then adjust your actions based on the 2 together.

 

[phunky.buddha]

Wow, how low are you? I'm guessing you're on S.Tech springs- probably just under a 2" drop. I'm currently sitting on about -1.8 degrees of camber in the rear, but I'm running VERY minimal toe-in to both increase responsiveness and cut the tire wear. It's a good thing I like a slightly twitchy car. If you zero out your toe (or go just slightly toe in, like .02 or something to get dynamic toe to zero while driving, just a guess) you'll minimize camber wear on your tires. The combination of scrubbing from excessive toe plus large amounts of camber is what really kills tires, not camber on its own.

But I'd definitely try to dial out a little bit of that rear camber- that's a LOT for a street alignment- more than I run in my S2000.

 

[doctorz]

this is a completely stock 2006 model. The shop did straighten out the toe. I'm also pretty zealous about getting the wheels aligned every 10K or so, regardless of how the car is tracking.

 

[qcoffey]

That does seem like a lot of negative camber for stock height. I'm running -2.7 and I'm lowered on S-tech springs for a Mz3. I'd get it checked again. I have about 9 years of alignment experience and some of the younger techs I've worked with have ad the heads improperly installed throwing off the specs. A second opinion wouldn't hurt.

 

[phunky.buddha]

Yeah... stock should be around -1.0ish. Something's wrong.