How do I get my negative camber back? (couldn't find thread about it)

[alexbartlett93]

I had negative camber on all four wheels on my 95 Ej1 and my suspension is stock to my knoledge, besides being lowered and adjustable rear upper control arms, the guy before me lowered it, and when i bought the car i asked, did you get the alignment done after you lowered it, he said no, so i took it to a tire shop, and said just fix the toe, don't take the negative camber out, and instead of listening to me they decided to zero out my camber and now the back tires rub like hell and i took it back and told them to put the camber back and they said they did, then i got the car back and the tires looked exactly the same... they said they cambered them in as much as they possibly could. So i had the camber before and i don't see why they can't just undo what i asked them not to do in the first place, but they swear the car never had or can have the camber i had before (which wasn't crazy hellabroke kinda thing) which kept the tires from rubbing, so apparently theyre useless. How can i get my camber back? i don't need much, just enough to bring the top of the tires in a good amount to get that good look and cornering ability back, do i need to buy a bunch of things or is there something i can do? the car still has camber in the front, they couldn't get rid of that, but front camber and rear normalness is a drift set up, and it looks ugly and my tires rub and they won't fix it...

 

[CO671]

If it's in the rear, then like you said having rear upper control arms that are adjustable so adjust it.

 

[alexbartlett93]

If it's in the rear, then like you said having rear upper control arms that are adjustable so adjust it.

It is the rear, so were they just full of s*** at the tire shop? Idk its pissing me off, i can't work on my car atm because of housing issues and they messed my car up and swear it can't be put back, its soo annoying. But when i do get around to it, how exactly do i adjust it, i've never done really any suspension work, only engine and interior and sound

 

[CO671]

I apologize I have no experience with rear camber kits, but I do have experience with adjusting my rear camber on stock rear upper control arms.

To my knowledge, the adjustable rear upper control arms have a thread on them which can be loosened and spinned inwards or outwards like a tie-rod end to adjust the length of the adjustable control arms. After removing one end of the control arm, by loosening the locknut (if there is one) and spinning that removed end inwards/outwards to decrease/increase the total length of the arm you will be then adjusting camber for the rear wheels.
Longer arm = positive camber
Shorter arm = negative camber

I think! sorry I don't know but i'm just trying to help

Because you want to bring back negative camber, you want to
Sample photo from Honda-Tech:

 

[alexbartlett93]

I apologize I have no experience with rear camber kits, but I do have experience with adjusting my rear camber on stock rear upper control arms.

To my knowledge, the adjustable rear upper control arms have a thread on them which can be loosened and spinned inwards or outwards like a tie-rod end to adjust the length of the adjustable control arms. After removing one end of the control arm, by loosening the locknut (if there is one) and spinning that removed end inwards/outwards to decrease/increase the total length of the arm you will be then adjusting camber for the rear wheels.
Longer arm = positive camber
Shorter arm = negative camber

I think! sorry I don't know but i'm just trying to help

Because you want to bring back negative camber, you want to
Sample photo from Honda-Tech:

Mine are oem/stock, they aren't skunk2 or anything fancy, but they said at the shop that they negatived the camber as much as possible, but its like my car on the back still has absolutely no camber, i think they just want my money, and i think they toed my back tires so they will wear faster, but i'm for sure never shopping there again so their plan failed, crooked f***s but yeah if i had my tools i could get some pics of the parts and everything but i don't so i can't. Are you by any chance from the los angeles area, or the san luis obispo area and know any shops that can restore my camber? i don't wanna mess up my alignment, and yeah, the tool thing

 

[CO671]

I thought you mentioned that in the first sentence

"besides being lowered and adjustable rear upper control arms, "

oh no sorry i'm not even living in the mainland USA.

 

[alexbartlett93]

I thought you mentioned that in the first sentence

"besides being lowered and adjustable rear upper control arms, "

oh no sorry i'm not even living in the mainland USA.

Yeah.. ha i did, but nine times out of 10 people don't take the time to actually read, and i did type a large post, so thank you for actually reading, but damn, this sucks, this tire shop isn't flush friendly, they just want to do things their way -___- maybe i just need to wreck my car on both ends, that seems to work for people. Oh well, its like four in the morning, so if anyone sees this later, i'm still probably looking for info on this, i'll post otherwise, thank you though

 

[civexspeedy]

Sorry, your posts are confusing. Your OP says you have adjustable upper arms which would mean you are able to adjust rear camber. Then you said you have OE/Stock arms, which would mean you have no camber adjustment. So which one is it?

Stock suspension has slight negative camber, you never want completely 0* camber, that's not good.

If you lowered your car, you will have negative camber even if you have stock upper arms. If you have stock upper arms, there is no way for the shop to adjust your camber to be 0* unless they did the "washer trick" which is highly unlikely. So it just isn't possible for them to have adjusted the camber if you're saying you have stock upper arms.

If you lowered your car and you do have adjustable upper arms, then it's feasible for them to adjust the camber, but again they should not be setting it to 0*.

A print out of your alignment specs would easily clear things up, do you have that?

 

[alexbartlett93]

Sorry, your posts are confusing. Your OP says you have adjustable upper arms which would mean you are able to adjust rear camber. Then you said you have OE/Stock arms, which would mean you have no camber adjustment. So which one is it?

Stock suspension has slight negative camber, you never want completely 0* camber, that's not good.

If you lowered your car, you will have negative camber even if you have stock upper arms. If you have stock upper arms, there is no way for the shop to adjust your camber to be 0* unless they did the "washer trick" which is highly unlikely. So it just isn't possible for them to have adjusted the camber if you're saying you have stock upper arms.

If you lowered your car and you do have adjustable upper arms, then it's feasible for them to adjust the camber, but again they should not be setting it to 0*.

A print out of your alignment specs would easily clear things up, do you have that?

Okay i see how it can be confusing, let me try to clear things up. I'm lowered on melted springs (not my doing, working on getting coilovers) the car was on all stock suspension to my knoledge, and negative camber on all fours, then i took it to get alignment and they said my control arm was bent on the rear passenger, so they replaced it with an adjustable and against what i said they straightened my back wheels to pretty much no camber (i don't have the paper, this shop is s**t) at this point i'm on all stock except for the rear passenger control arm is now adjustable and the front is cambered while the rear is not. I was now rubbing like a mother so i brought it back and told them to fix the camber back to how it was, and they put and adjustable lower control arm on the driverside rear, and said they adjusted the camber to negative as far as they possibly could, their exact words, and when i got the car back they didn't change the camber at all, its exactly the same as it was, they say it can't go in negative anymore for some reason ??? and again, against my words this time they toed my back tires in and further pissed me off because now i'm thinking these guys take me as a fool, and set my car up to burn through tires because they were obviously going to rub, and now they have improper toe settings. So yeah, right now i'm sitting on adjustable control arms in the back and my tires are toed in and at pretty much no camber and rubbing and they've done nothing but charge me for parts i don't need and set my car up to burn through tires. I'm not sure how to do it myself so when i get access to my tools again i'm gonna lift the car up and look at the control arms, but what should i be looking for, and how do i go about this, the tire shop is clearly f**king with me and trying to get my money so i'm not going back there anymore, i just don't wanna mess my rear alignment up trying to fix their mistake. Dude i'm so beyond pissed, my car looks stupid, rides stupid, and is gonna tear through my new tires... hopefully this clears things up lol, it was late at night when i was posting.

 

[Failsafe88]

By the sound of it you are the one at fault. Not the tire shop. You have been driving around on stock suspension that has been "modified". Get your end of the deal fixed first. The tire shop probably were telling you the truth and at the same time I wouldn't personally want to deal with what sounds like a chop shop suspension job.

 

[alexbartlett93]

By the sound of it you are the one at fault. Not the tire shop. You have been driving around on stock suspension that has been "modified". Get your end of the deal fixed first. The tire shop probably were telling you the truth and at the same time I wouldn't personally want to deal with what sounds like a chop shop suspension job.

lol not helpful, but yeah i do this kinda thing all the time, my other car was melted springs, it rides smooth and its not bothering me, but yeah, its not my fault they can't listen when i say, just do the toe, don't do the camber. I specifically requested no change to my camber and they made it so my car rubs, my wheels have a bit of offset so the "professionals" should have known that they would rub, plus, it was visually obvious, and now they're just messing my car up in more ways, not doing what i ask and trying to take my money, the negative camber existed before, but now they say it can't be done, even though i see civics all day with cambered in wheels, and both my civics were on negative camber, i just don't understand how they "fixed" my camber, but now it can't be put back, i don't know how they even got the wheels to sit up straight, if i knew that part i could fix it easier. My choice to ride on modified suspension that is stock has nothing to do with a tire shop failing to listen to a customer, sorry but i don't see the correlation.. ha

 

[Failsafe88]

lol not helpful, but yeah i do this kinda thing all the time, my other car was melted springs, it rides smooth and its not bothering me, but yeah, its not my fault they can't listen when i say, just do the toe, don't do the camber. I specifically requested no change to my camber and they made it so my car rubs, my wheels have a bit of offset so the "professionals" should have known that they would rub, plus, it was visually obvious, and now they're just messing my car up in more ways, not doing what i ask and trying to take my money, the negative camber existed before, but now they say it can't be done, even though i see civics all day with cambered in wheels, and both my civics were on negative camber, i just don't understand how they "fixed" my camber, but now it can't be put back, i don't know how they even got the wheels to sit up straight, if i knew that part i could fix it easier. My choice to ride on modified suspension that is stock has nothing to do with a tire shop failing to listen to a customer, sorry but i don't see the correlation.. ha

Your suspension was tampered with before the tire shop. Obviously you never by the sound if it dealt with it. If you are honestly saying your hack job suspension is so great then cut your losses and try the next shop. My guess is your s**t car was probably messed up and parts not installed correctly to begin with. Btw ever heard of rolling your fenders. You say your car looks like a ricer. By the sound of it you are the definition of a ricer. I'm done, I gave my opinion on the matter.

 

[civexspeedy]

I'm not even going to attempt to help solve your issue other than tell you to completely fix your jacked up suspension. If you don't want your new tires to get ruined, pick up a used OEM suspension for dirt cheap, replace everything that is f'd up and get an alignment. Otherwise, spend the hundreds of dollars to get good aftermarket suspension bits, then get an alignment.

Sorry but I side with the alignment shop. You brought in a hack job of a car..

 

[alexbartlett93]

Your suspension was tampered with before the tire shop. Obviously you never by the sound if it dealt with it. If you are honestly saying your hack job suspension is so great then cut your losses and try the next shop. My guess is your s*** car was probably messed up and parts not installed correctly to begin with. Btw ever heard of rolling your fenders. You say your car looks like a ricer. By the sound of it you are the definition of a ricer. I'm done, I gave my opinion on the matter.

My car isn't a s*** car, its not messed up and you're not reading everything properly. Rolling my fenders does NOT camber my wheels in to negative degrees, you understand that yeah? I'm looking for negative camber, not just wheel well clearance, I never said my car looks like a ricer i'm pretty sure, because it doesn't, and i'm not running around with altezza lights spoiler, body kits and projectors, you have a rice fetish i take it, and seems like all you wanna do is come on and talk s*** rather than help, so good, be gone(:

I'm not even going to attempt to help solve your issue other than tell you to completely fix your jacked up suspension. If you don't want your new tires to get ruined, pick up a used OEM suspension for dirt cheap, replace everything that is f'd up and get an alignment. Otherwise, spend the hundreds of dollars to get good aftermarket suspension bits, then get an alignment.

Sorry but I side with the alignment shop. You brought in a hack job of a car..

I don't feel that my suspension is jacked up, i've used melted springs in the past and guess what, tens of thousands of miles later my car never broke! The only thing that was "jacked up" was my bent control arm, which got fixed, improper toe angles are a sure tire killer, more than a little negative camber ever will be, these are facts, i don't want stock ride height, so i'm good on lifting my car, and the shop is going around saying they put my camber back as much as they could when in reality i'm driving on a drift set up in a front wheel drive car, its not particularly safe and it looks stupid seeing how they didn't adjust the camber in the front to close to 0, only the rear, if you don't want to help, don't post? Its not a hack job of a car, its actually the cleanest ej1 i've had aside from a cracked fog light. And getting an alignment isn't going to help... You aren't reading, the alignment is what f***ed the car up in the first place, the tires rub, and its a visual thing, you can see the tire top lining up with the fender and sticking out a bit, no professional should think that is acceptable especially when a customer requested only changes to toe angles. Thanks for reading(: and btw i've replaced just about every part on this car in the last two months including my rack and pinion and everything else under and in the car, so really there's not a lot of parts messed up, i've put thousands into getting this car up and running and not leaking my p/s fluids

 

[civexspeedy]

Quit digging your own grave.. what's done to your suspension is a hack job at best, and you're only further proving that point by what you said..

its not messed up and you're not reading everything properly.
yes, it is messed up which is why you are seeking help in the first place..
I never said my car looks like a ricer i'm pretty sure, because it doesn't, and i'm not running around with altezza lights spoiler, body kits and projectors,
Rice doesn't just mean the items you mentioned, it generally refers to someone who cuts corners and does things improperly. Which is very clearly what you have going on with your car since your alignment is jacked, your springs are ruined, your tires are rubbing, etc...

I don't feel that my suspension is jacked up, i've used melted springs in the past and guess what, tens of thousands of miles later my car never broke!
Just because something hasn't broke, doesn't mean it's not messed up. Heating the springs to lower the car changes the spring rate to some unknown rate. THAT means your suspension is jacked up and your car will handle like sh*t.

The only thing that was "jacked up" was my bent control arm, which got fixed,
Do you even know what adjustable upper control arm replaced the bent one? If it's some no name BS one off eBay, that could have something to do with the alignment shop not being able to put more negative camber in. Which if it is some no name upper arm, then again, hack job rice parts.

and the shop is going around saying they put my camber back as much as they could when in reality i'm driving on a drift set up in a front wheel drive car, its not particularly safe and it looks stupid seeing how they didn't adjust the camber in the front to close to 0, only the rear
Have you even looked under the car to verify what the shop is claiming?? You sure are b*tching a lot with very little evidence to prove it. If the shops claims they cannot put any more camber in the rear because the adjustable arm is maxed out, that would be VERY easy to tell just by looking at the arm which means the shop would be telling the truth. If you see threads on the arm that would give more negative camber, then you have all the right to complain they are lying.

Safe? You're really talking about safe when you're driving around in a car with springs that were heated to be lowered? Possibly compromising the integrity of the metal...

You aren't reading, the alignment is what f***ed the car up in the first place, the tires rub, and its a visual thing, you can see the tire top lining up with the fender and sticking out a bit, no professional should think that is acceptable especially when a customer requested only changes to toe angles.
I'm reading just fine. No, the alignment is NOT what f'd the car up in the first place. A horrible suspension is what messed up the alignment and contributed to your tires rubbing.

You have a *improperly* lowered car with aftermarket wheels that probably have too low of an offset. All of which contribute to rubbing. There are cars that are slammed to the ground that don't have crazy negative camber and don't rub. There are also cars that aren't lowered AT ALL but have aftermarket wheels and rub because they are using the wrong tire size and wheel offset. If you started out with a good suspension, known adjustable upper control arms and proper wheel/tire size, NONE of this would be an issue.

 

[EJackBauer8]

Your suspension was tampered with before the tire shop. Obviously you never by the sound if it dealt with it. If you are honestly saying your hack job suspension is so great then cut your losses and try the next shop. My guess is your s**t car was probably messed up and parts not installed correctly to begin with. Btw ever heard of rolling your fenders. You say your car looks like a ricer. By the sound of it you are the definition of a ricer. I'm done, I gave my opinion on the matter.

I'm not even going to attempt to help solve your issue other than tell you to completely fix your jacked up suspension. If you don't want your new tires to get ruined, pick up a used OEM suspension for dirt cheap, replace everything that is f'd up and get an alignment. Otherwise, spend the hundreds of dollars to get good aftermarket suspension bits, then get an alignment.

Sorry but I side with the alignment shop. You brought in a hack job of a car..

I'd listen to these two. If you think that driving on heated or cut springs is acceptable then you're rice plain and simple. If you can afford to drop "thousands" into this car then 600-1000$ coilovers should've been at the top of the list to upgrade to.

 

[CHILD]

Speedy, a winning autoX driver, and failsafe is very knowledgeable, and you choose to argue against their help.

Bwahahaha!!

 

[Failsafe88]

Speedy, a winning autoX driver, and failsafe is very knowledgeable, and you choose to argue against their help.

Bwahahaha!!

I'm going to go cry now out of happiness

 

[RichardCrainium]

Get a junkyard stock suspension or good aftermarket parts and fix you hack job the right way. Then take it to a real shop and get a good alignment. Once this is done your ride will be good.

 

[alexbartlett93]

Get a junkyard stock suspension or good aftermarket parts and fix you hack job the right way. Then take it to a real shop and get a good alignment. Once this is done your ride will be good.

lol so i'm thinking about getting skunk2 struts, and some coil overs, the thing i'm trying to keep here is my low ride height, and my NEGATIVE camber, you all seem to be missing that the negative camber being removed by the SHOP is why i say my suspension is f***ed up, so any suggestions on good struts and coilovers would be appreciated. The plan was to always get coilovers but being that i am on heated springs my struts are probably not in good shape themselves, with skunk2 struts i'd be able to stay low on coilovers yeah? and how do i get my negative camber back? that's the question i've been asking, no one has answered me. except one person, but at the time we don't know if his approach works yet but according to the tire shop apparently even with the control arms its not possible (which when i get my tools back i'll be the judge of, but until then i wanna be prepared with the knoledge) thanks again for reading in full detail everyone

Speedy, a winning autoX driver, and failsafe is very knowledgeable, and you choose to argue against their help.

Bwahahaha!!

I have a tendency to do that lolol, now i'm getting skunk2 struts and some coilovers, so now on to the first question, how do i get the negative camber back, it seems to everyone that the control arms wont be capable of getting the degree i had back, which personally i think is bulls***, because before i brought it in i had a nice stance going, now i just rub, and get rubber all over my fenders

I'm going to go cry now out of happiness

I'm going to eat a tommy burger out of hunger lol so how do i get negative camber if my control arms aren't capable of doing it, even though they are adjustable? Getting struts, getting coilovers, soon to get my tool access back, am i getting bulls*** from the tire shop on the control arms not being able to go back to negative camber for some reason or is there really something else that needs to be done, thank you, now that i've spent a little money can you answer me? i shouldn't have to pay for answers lol but oh well

I'd listen to these two. If you think that driving on heated or cut springs is acceptable then you're rice plain and simple. If you can afford to drop "thousands" into this car then 600-1000$ coilovers should've been at the top of the list to upgrade to.

I'll make sure to grab some altezza lights and halo projectors so i can actually be rice, because right now i'm just dangerous, and hitting my bump stops lol and maybe cheap, but not at this point, i'm looking at some skunk2 struts and idk what kind of coilovers yet but i wanna maintain my low ride height, i'm an engine, paint, and car audio guy still learning the roots with suspension s***, so i'm not too sure on good parts or what i'm doing here, but yeah, need my negative camber, my offset requires it or else i rub and die

Quit digging your own grave.. what's done to your suspension is a hack job at best, and you're only further proving that point by what you said..

The reason i need the negative camber back is because i have an offset that is slightly lower than the civic should have, so to avoid rub you would bring the top of the tire in and roll/pull fenders, have you heard of this before? i'm not the only one who does this kind of thing, but anyway...