Has anyone noticed this with their lowering springs??? My H&R springs dropped my car an inch with no settling time yet, and the conventional body of knowledge states that this lowering effect without a new alignment tune-up will yield a slightly negative camber to the rims/tires. A little negative camber reportedly improves handling, too much causes excessive uneven tire wear.

...Well I have noticed that this small change in camber to the negative side has reduced my torque steer on hard launches a little! I know I am not imagining this, in a straight-line acceleration situation off a dead stop my wheels simply stay straighter with less 'muscling' of the steering wheel... Anyone else notice this?

...Maybe I shouldn't get my wheels realigned!

 

Any neg camber over about 1.3% will SIGNIFICANTLY decrease your tire life(like by 1/2). If you can notice your neg camber it's probably waay off.

 

I second that! If you can notice it, your camber is way off! Wait a while and get it aligned!

 

...If it were that far off wouldn't the 'tilt' of the top of the wheel / tire assembly in towards the car body be pretty visible? Mine still appears straight...

 

Yes and as far as visiblity, it depends on how experienced you are at noticing these things.

I can see probably 1 Deg or so. Some Honda riceboys seem unable to notice 2 degrees or more

 

I would wager that the likelihood of my imagining the reduced torque steer is greater than the likelihood of my inability to notice the 'tip'... After the springs were installed I did the rear-quarter panel crouch on each side looking down the length of the body for wheel tip-in and they seemed as straight as before, but maybe it is not so much the camber that is improving my launches but the springs themselves, I definitely notice that the crouch under accel. and the dive under braking is drastically reduced...

 

Isn't that the truth..there are a few guys with Civics around here that have their cars slammed, and the camber on the front wheels is so exaggerated I swear at times you wonder how they get any traction...oh well, I hope those Z-rated tires aren't too expensive

John

 

weeks ago..the camber has definitely gone a bit negative with my springs and yes, there is MUCH LESS torque steer...

I would speculate that the flatter tire contact area -not as much load on the outside edge of the tires- is contributing to this but I cant explain why from a suspension geometry standpoint...me no suspension enganeer, me suspension enganeer wannabe.

 

A little negative camber is a wonderful thing - the Max has too little in stock form. About a degree negative is a good compromise for street use - good cornering without excessive tire wear. Some negative camber also would improve the torque steer problem by moving the contact patch pressure inward (note the massive inset of VW family cars to get the contact patch centered under the steering axis) or toward a "zero scrub radius".

 

main difference - weight

I run -2.5 in the rear of my 2300 lb Miata. yes, I notice the inner tire wear but if I ran that much on a Z or Maxima, the tires wouldn't last 5000+ miles. The inner portion is currently 5/32" and the outer portion is 7/32" in the rear. In the front where it's -1.5, it's 6/32" across the board.

 

Actually, he has a good point, the honda-boys can get away with more negative camber on a 2400-2500 lb. vehicle than we can on a 3200 lb. vehicle w/ 246 ft./lb. of torque! We would shred our front tires with that much neg. camber!

True, true...

 

Yeah I just installed my H&Rs on my 2002 SE and I noticed that my car pulls sligtly to the right. I am gona go get it aligned.

Is that common to align the car after lowering springs were installed?

Thanks.

 

...Very common to realign after spring install... Not necessary unless you feel a pull or extreme negative camber, but it is definitely recommended...

 

you also change caster and toe settings after a lowering spring installation, so yes, get it aligned after 300-500 mile break-in period.