How quickly does a couple of degrees of negative camber wear tires? I will need some negative camber with my KSports and want to know what an acceptable range is.

Thanks!

 

One question mark would have been sufficient.

as to your answer, it's all relative, depending on suspension setup, driving habits, and what you want out of the car.

Just because you have Ksports doesn't mean you need negative camber. Lowering your car will cause the suspension to move farther in the negative direction.. If you're talking about doing it for tire clearance, you would be better off rolling your fenders, going to a slightly narrower tire, or a higher offset wheel instead of fubaring everything else in the system to make the tires fit.


now what's an acceptable range? anywhere from +1 to -4, depending on what you want to with the car.
If it's only a street-driven car that never sees the track, then you want 0 to -1. the more track use you will see, the more negative you want to go. When I had my car set for a track alignment, I was running -3.5 in front and -2.5 in back.

now that it's my DD and I have a different track car, I run -1 in front and rear.

If your car is built more for drag, then you'll want to stay somewhere around 0 to -1 as well. as you launch, the front end will raise up some, causing the camber to go closer to 0, or slightly positive. the trick is to get it as close to zero as you can during your launch and through first gear. that's when you need the most tire on the road, and thus your camber needs to be closest to zero.

 

Cool, thanks for that reply. Nice information! I know with KSports I don't need negative camber, I was just stating that because my car is low. I'm planing on rolling my fenders, but I don't think that will be enough for tire clearance. I'm using a 245/40-18 right now in the front. I do not go to the track and this car is my daily driver. I have not gotten an alignment since I lowered my car (about a month ago) and my tires are going bald. I can see my camber is pretty negative, but I was wondering if that could cause the tires to wear that fast. I drive about 500-700 miles a week.

 

subscribing for info. Might be getting ksports soon so I wanted to check in here. Only planning on 2" drop at most for me tho.

 

(Didnt seem to be a lot of threads like this one, so I ressurected this from the dead)

Negative camber doesnt kill tires. When you lower your car, thus adding negative camber, your TOE gets all out of whack and that's what balds em so quickly.

Now I dont have much experience with Maxima alignment settings or suspension in general... With the Subaru I drive, "performace" alignments are a hot topic. They can make or break how a car handles. An agressive street/autoX setup would be -2' camber in front w/ zero toe and 0' camber in rear w/ 0 or slight toe out. It's also optional to add a lil toe in front to avoid tramlining. Negative front camber will provide better grip up front, which you want. Setting the rear camber close to 0 will affect the balance of the car, and in theory reduce understeer since the front will have more grip than rear. That little bit of toe in the rear will prevent the *** end from wandering at high speeds. For the Subaru, the front camber/toe is stock adjustable and rear toe is as well. To mess with rear camber you need camber bolts.

This is where I ask the Max gurus to bridge the gap between manufacturers for me. What is adjustable from the factory on a 4th gen max? The basics of alignments are roughly the same, despite the Subaru being AWD. Anyone care to post their non-factory alignments? Thanks in advance guys!

PS: The max is a street car/weekend autoX-er.

edit: nm figured it out myself. no rear adjustment period w/o plates. front camber and toe adjustable. gonna get camber bolts and set the front as negative as it can go, and zero out toe.

 

I've got -2 degrees of camber up front and 16 minutes of toe-in (just low enough to stay within spec). It's possible to adjust the rear alignment, but you need someone to bend and/or box the beam--rather permanent. Obviously getting rid of the toe in the rear should help a good deal towards improving the handling of the car, and the few people who have had this done have said the same.