nicksolheim

Well, I first of all I had my car lowered in March, by Les Schwab. They performed the weight and balance and the alignment, which they said they were able to get in factory specs, including my camber. :scratch: So I believed them, I mean heck these guys do this kind of stuff on a daily basis, who was I to argue.

Well 9,000 miles and a few months later :bang: , I find out the hard way. :bang:

So, I took it back to Les Schwab and they put my car on this machine that uses lasers and grids which they attach to my wheels to check for alignment issues. Turns out my camber was at -1.5 on both front wheels :shock: No wonder my wheels are wearing unevenly :angry: after research I find out that factory specs are no more than -.7 +/- .5.

Now they want to charge me around $200 to install camber bolts. :shock:

this coupled with my quickly depleating front tires kind of mad me really mad. Heck it is not my fault they aligned the car improperly and told me it was good.

I ended up talking to the store manager and after reveiw of my original receipts, I noticed that there were blanks where the alignment numbers for camber, caster and the such is supposed to be. The guy asks me if I have hit anything, which I haven't, then tells me that the car must be settling into the new springs or something (sounds like an excuse)
but they will fix it free of charge, with the exception of the cost for the camber bolts. Yeah that's great but what about the tires? 20in rubber is expensive!

Anyways, long story short. If you lower your car don't believe what the tech says about no need for camber adjusters, and remember you won't see the uneven treadwear until it is too late!

And finally I'll close with this

..............YOU NEED CAMBER ADJUSTERS WHEN LOWERING OR THIS WILL HAPPEN.................
.................. IF YOU DON'T BELIEVE ME, BELIEVE THE PICTURE.......................

GhostGT

holy crap, im worried now

ManEHawke

That really blows, I can't believe they BS'd you like that. IMO they should cover at least the rubber too since they lied that they adjusted the camber to OEM. I bet all they adjusted was the toe, that's what many tire places do as a sorry excuse for an alignment since it's the most common thing to really notice.

GregS2005GT

Way to keep them to their word Nick. I've always liked the service I've gotten there, but as with any company sometimes you have to be a PITA to make them do what's right. Hopefully your tires will even out over time.

Greg

nicksolheim

The problem with this is it's hard to tell until it's too late so
if you're worried about it I would suggest that you get it checked before you wear your tires down.

Nagman

Just remember to get a print out of your align.specs once the align is done,and if your car is within spec you will have no problem.

adrenalin

hmmm, makes me wonder why some people didn't listen to me last March

http://forums.bradbarnett.net/index.php?showtopic=18713

Stoenr

lol. Good call

Id like just to lower the rear 1". I dont think this would effect the camber. Or require a panhard. Or am I wrong?

softbatch

The negative camber shouldn't be doing that much to it make sure they check the toe which can really make big problems with tire wear.

The rearend has no camber without bending the axle and such stuff.

Stoenr

Yeeah I know theres no camber adjustments in the rear, But considering the front alignment isreferenced off the rear I wasnt sure if anything up front would change. Ill ask my alignment tech tomorrow what he thinks.

My car has been aligned already a few days after I got it. toe was out from factory a smidge.

SteedaGus

Agreed, unless you are running a staggered set up that you couldnt rotate at the regular interval they should be rotated at. Even then you should have seen more than 9,000 miles.

We routinely have cars here with 1.3 to 1.5 degrees negative camber. With 7 degrees of factory caster and regular tire rotations tire wear really isnt an issue.

Every 94-04 car we set up here that has camber plates also left here with more negative camber from factory, but only after we added caster.

The 05 Mustang has alot more caster than 04-prior cars. Over 7 degrees versus only about 3 1/2 degrees. The most you would see is about 5 degrees with camber plates on 94-04, and up to 6 if you included offset A-arm bushings.


Adding more caster allowed us to run more negative camber without the bad tire wear effects. My old 96 Cobra used to run 1.2 to 1.4 degrees negative camber with about 5 1/2 degrees of caster. I also had a staggered wheel set up so I could not rotate the tires, and still saw over 17,000 miles before I had to replace them.

Gus

nicksolheim

You're right I should've listened to you earlier in the year, but when I got my car lowered I was told they were able to get the #'s inside the factory specs, meaning the camber was within limits, or so I thought!
This is routine business for the guys at Les Schwab, so of course I believed them. But, you know the saying "hindsight is 20/20."

I just wanted to post, and let others know that even though, you may have been told your alignment dosen't require camber adjusters, they're wrong, lowering will require some kind of camber adjuster, be it bolts or plates.

One last thing............. This weekend before they put in the camber bolts, they put my car on the alignment machine and caster, toe and all that good stuff was fine. Only the camber was off. (-1.5 vice -.7) And yes, my tires are uni-directional and the rears are wider than the fronts. Everything is fixed now, I only wish It wasn't me who had to find out the hard way.

L

adrenalin

Actually, you would require an adjustable panhard rod if you wanted to lower just the rear. After lowering mine, with stock tires it didn't look to bad. However, after putting on my 18x10 rims it was obvious that the rear axle had shifted towards the drivers side by 1/4"-1/2". I still have to get an adjustable panhard rod to fix the problem.

adrenalin

I recently removed my tires from my car (for winter storage) and noticed a little inside wear on the front tires. Since they are staggered I cannot rotate them. I will have to get the tires removed from the rims and remounted so they end up being on the opposite side of the car. There were times I noticed that the tires pointed inward at the top of the tire, but it depending on if my car was parked on an incline. I know the guy that did the alignment said it was the closest he could get to factory spec. I'll be getting it realigned again in the spring after I install a set of Eibach Pro-damper shocks.

Stoenr

Thanks John. Will do when that mod becomes a reality