Wheel alignment

[freeon]

I recently changed my wheels and my suspension and also drop the ride ride height. After doing all this I brought the car for a 4 wheel alignment. As I have read in on the forum before I knew that I probably not be able to get back to OEM camber in the back. The first pictures shown here are the new wheels installed with OEM suspension. Second pictures is of the new wheel with new suspension installed and car lowered and aligned. Third picture is a scan of the alignment results. As you can see from pictures 1 and 2 the wheel seems a lot more cambered than OEM. I know by looking at the alignment sheet I'm not at OEM camber but it looks to be off by a lot just looking at it. Picture 4 is the other side and it looks even worst as the alignment sheet would suggest. The guy that did the alignment said he It's not off by that much and I shouldn't worry about. Seems worst that that to me looking at it. Hopefully you guy's can look at the pictures and the alignment sheet and giving some advise.

 

[TURBO2GO]

This should have been posted in the suspension section.

-2.4 seems OK to me, -3.2 is a bit high, definitely track oriented. Can he not reduce that further? you may need a camber kit or TiDave's non-compliance rear beam bushings.

 

[freeon]

-3.2 is the best he could get on the passenger side. Is it normal that he could get -2.4 on one side and only -3.2 on the other.

 

[TURBO2GO]

-3.2 is the best he could get on the passenger side. Is it normal that he could get -2.4 on one side and only -3.2 on the other.

From my experience thats not that unusual. Have you changed to non-compliant beam bushings?

 

[freeon]

I havent changed anyrhing. Unless the previous owner did.

 

[TURBO2GO]

Well thats how I fixed mine. I don't know what other guys are doing. Search the forum for camber kit. Maybe someone else can chime in.

 

[dablackgoku1234]

Not doubting your alignment guy, but are you sure he did it right? When I had my alignment done, the guy "got confused" to which way the camber bolt spun and thus gave me max negative camber instead of max positive. This resulted in 1 side having -2.5 and the other side -3.2. After I took a look at the bolts, I pointed it out to him and got -2.5 on both sides.

 

[freeon]

Not doubting your alignment guy, but are you sure he did it right? When I had my alignment done, the guy "got confused" to which way the camber bolt spun and thus gave me max negative camber instead of max positive. This resulted in 1 side having -2.5 and the other side -3.2. After I took a look at the bolts, I pointed it out to him and got -2.5 on both sides.

I don't know him personally but he did come highly recommended. That being said there is a good chance this was his first NSX. Anything I can do to check or will I have to bring it back just to have him double check it.

 

[dablackgoku1234]

You can take a photo of your rear camber bolts. It is pretty easy to tell if it has been maxed out or not. The rear camber bolt is on the rear lower control arm.

Here is a sample of what the bolt looks like:

 

[freeon]

Is this the one. How does it look

 

[dablackgoku1234]

Is this the passenger side? If so, then the adjustment is correct; it is in max positive position.

 

[freeon]

Yes that is the passenger side. Guess I'll have to leave it or get a camber kit. I did a search for one but only find old post and i don't think the one I found is even available anymore. Any suggestion on one. Will tire wear be that bad

 

[dablackgoku1234]

Having uneven camber would just look weird from behind. The tire wear is more due to your toe setting. 0.14 is on the low end, but 0.00 would be best. Do you track the car? 0.00 toe would make the car not handle as well as having toe.

 

[freeon]

No i don't track the car and yes your right it kind of looks weird from the back.

 

[Troon]

Alignment issue

Your photo looks to me like it was taken from behind the car looking forward at the RR lower control arm. I have a 96 NSX so I double checked your photo against mine in the garage. In that case your alignment guy put your camber in the most negitive position possible. He went the wrong way on the adjustment. He moved the lower control arm out which effectivly made the lower portion of your tire move out further than the top of your tire. Which means more negitive camber. Not uncommon. I see it all the time. I have been aligning cars for 28 yrs and it is very easy to get it wrong. I am now a automotive instructor at a college in Oregon and just aligned my NSX and had no problem getting it to close to -1.5deg. camber in the back. Anything more that that and you will wear the inside of the tire out prematurly. At -2.5 to -3 deg those tires will not last long at all. That is the problem when lowering a car. Have someone who knows what they are doing readjust the camber back there. You should be able to get it close to or within specs unless you really slammed the car way down. Once the camber is set then the toe will be easy to get within specs. Try to keep the specs front and back as close to manufactures specs possible. For most normal driving conditions I believe the factory knows what they are doing as far as wanting certain specs on their car. I included my printout I am not sure if it will come thru on this post?

 

[freeon]

Yes picture is from the back of the car on the right rear side

- - - Updated - - -

OK so I got 2 reply to the picture and one said it was correct and one said it was in correct. I have no idea just by looking at the bolt but looking at my print out he had less negative camber than what he started with so wouldn't that suggest that he went the right way.

 

[Troon]

I apologize. I stand corrected, sorry it is a bit confusing. Your alignment guy did move the lower control arm in as far as possible. It is maxed out. The cam in your photo does show that the lower control arm is pulled as far to the center of the car as possible which would indeed bring the lower portion of the tire in thus producing the most positive camber possible. You may have to research out a camber kit for getting more pos. camber back there. One thing I am not mistaken about and that is that that is way to much neg. camber for everyday use. Again sorry I mixed up your cam bolt position and told you the opposite of what I meant.