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Alignment Problem, Camber Adjusters And Fast Road Set Up

Gunn79

Gunn79

Messages
2,310
Over the last couple of days, I noticed my CTR was pulling to the right, and I needed to hold the steering wheel off center to the left whilst driving straight. This is a little strange as I havent hit a curb, pothole etc... I guess its just down to the particularly bad roads around where I live.

So today I went down to a tyre center in Plymouth to have a 4 wheel laser alignment. The quoted cost was very reasonable - £5 for just a check and printout, and £45 for a check and adjustment where needed.

My results were ('= degree symbol);

Front Left;
Camber -0'47
Toe 5.0

Front Right
Camber 0'20
Toe 0.1

Rear Left;
Camber -1'29
Toe 0.1

Rear Right
Camber -1'04
Toe 1.2

Now the big problem with the above concerns the front left wheel. The toe is way out, which explains why it was pulling to the right. Also the camber is out.

The fact the camber is out is a problem because the front camber is non adjustable. With this in mind I did not have anything corrected (so cost me only £5) as I am going to show my Honda dealer the results and see what they have to say. I presume they will want to check it themselves, and if it is outside the factory tollerances, I guess it will be rectified under warranty along with a 4 wheel alignent (hence I didnt pay to correct the toe today).

Does anyone know the tollerances for the front camber?? I have read the rears can be up to -1.5?? I guess the fronts would be a lot lower??

If Honda decide they dont want to rectify it under warranty, I guess I will have to go down the route of front camber bolts to allow adjustment and a 4 wheel alignment.

I am also considering getting the camber bolts anyway, and getting the tyre center to adjust the settings to a 'fast road' spec. I found this quote from ABP;

You will need the front camber bolts for sure (35.00 inc vat pair) but it really depends to what degree your rear camber is out of spec whether you will require the rear adjustable camber arms (150.00 inc vat pair). In our experience (quite vast ) only about 20% of cars actually need the rear arms fitting.
Click to expand...

So for the fast road set up - I only need the front camber bolts?? I guess the rear camber arms are only needed if your rear camber is out from factory, and I believe mine are ok.

So finally, can someone tell me the settings for the fast road spec - So if I decide to go down that route, I can fit the camber adjusters and then get the tyre centre to set it up to fast road spec for their charge of £45.

Any help much appreciated. :)
 
Fast road set up on mine (done at ABP) is:

Camber.
Front: 1 deg neg. 1mm toe out.
Rear: 1 deg neg. 2mm toe in.

That is if I am reading it right, the writing is a tad sketchy.....:D

Mind you looking at mine again I'd swear it was running more camber than that on the front.

I may get id re-checked again as it may have moved slightly. As I have been running the fast road set up not for 20k plus.


Well worth it however. One of the simplest best value mods going. And of course once you have the arms (if needed, I did as the car was lowered as well) and bolts fitted it does give you the ability to play around with settings acording to your situation. I.E if you do trackdays and want to run something more agressive.
 
If I were you I wouldn't bother taking it to Honda - just get a decent alignment place to set it up properly to the settings suggested by G above.

I think you should be able to do this with just the front camber bolts. Your rear camber and toe are not that far out and it should be possible to get them right (or at least very close) without needing adjustable upper arms which are relatively expensive. Front toe is obviously dead easy to sort by adjusting the track rod ends.

IMO the asymmetric rear toe is probably the reason it feels like it's pulling to one side - the right rear wheel will be trying to steer itself to the right slightly. You'll correct asymmetric front toe yourself by turning the steering wheel, which is why the wheel is off centre when steering straight ahead. That amount of toe out is excessive though.

As you recognise, your setup is pretty untidy atm, so you should feel a massive improvement when you get it sorted.

HTH?
 
Thankyou very much for both of the inputs above. I think I will get the front camber bolts, and have the set up changed to something simmilar to that mentioned above.

With regards to Honda - They are gonna call me on Monday, as I dropped off a copy of the results sheet to them today after having the check done. There were no service staff - But the sales people made notes and are passing it onto them. I will see what they have to say, and will go from there.

So is it possible to adjust the rear camber a small ammount without the adjustable arms??

My driving is done mainly on the twisty, but very poor surfaced roads of Devon. Virtually no motorway style driving, all small A & B roads. I dont do any track days etc...
 
Gunn79 said:
So is it possible to adjust the rear camber a small ammount without the adjustable arms??
Click to expand...
Yes (at least it is on a DC5, which AFAIK is the same) - the rear lower bush that holds the hub carrier onto the trailing arm has an eccentric bolt as standard, which gives some limited adjustment.

Best of luck with it :)
 
Evs said:
Gunn79 said:
So is it possible to adjust the rear camber a small ammount without the adjustable arms??
Click to expand...
Yes (at least it is on a DC5, which AFAIK is the same) - the rear lower bush that holds the hub carrier onto the trailing arm has an eccentric bolt as standard, which gives some limited adjustment.

Best of luck with it :)
Click to expand...

Thats not the case on the EP3. You can NOT adjust the rear camber at all without adjustable camber arms.
 
Hmmm... In that case I think I will get the front and rear adjustable items.

Does anyone know the amount of time, difficulty there is in fitting the front and rear adjustable camber items - Is it relatively straight forward??
 
Gunn79 said:
Hmmm... In that case I think I will get the front and rear adjustable items.

Does anyone know the amount of time, difficulty there is in fitting the front and rear adjustable camber items - Is it relatively straight forward??
Click to expand...

The front camber bolts are easy to fit, you just remove the standard bolt and replace it with the adjustable one. The rear camber arms are easy to change as well (about half hour each) but, I would leave those to whoever is setting up your wheel alignment otherwise they could be way out when you fit them yourself.
 
Found this - would it be a good set up to go with?? Loooks to be very similar spec to what you mentioned G

Settings.jpg
 
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