Camber Settings

[loco_corolla]

Hey guys, what would be a good camber setup for a FWD car for both front and rear, i am going to be borrowing a mate's set of camber pins for the track day so i'll need to set them up and i'm unsure what degree i'll need them set at.

I have been told -1.5 front and no more than -1 on the rear so far.

Can anyone comment???

[krogoth]

IMO

i think thats fair

no more neg camber is necessary

also depends how much uve lowered ur car

[string]

Go out to the track and adjust it after a few laps. Simple. The best answer you'll get will just be a good starting point. Tune it to your liking, not someone elses.

[IEVAQ8]

the more - camber on the front will give you better steering and handling, not sure about the back though. try it out a few laps and see how you like it

[string]

Tyre grip will only increase with camber up to a point.

You won't get a better answer than "experiment on the track". Same deal with tyre pressures. You won't get a good answer, you have to experiment on your own.

[fatboyz39]

Go out to the track and adjust it after a few laps. Simple. The best answer you'll get will just be a good starting point. Tune it to your liking, not someone elses.

??? take it to the wheel alignment place and get them to set maximum negative camber for fronts. They'll adjust toe, tell them to set it to 0 or as close as possible to 0.

For the rears, we'll if you have adjustablility abit of camber won't hurt but you want grip at the back. ill research about it.

[aaronng]

I prefer front negative camber -1.5, rear -1.0. Then set rear toe to toe in 1.0mm each side (total toe in 2.0mm) and then the fronts, I put toe out 0.3mm each side (total toe out 0.6mm) which will give better steering response.

Also, you have to check what is the camber and toe change is as the suspension is compressed.

[string]

Your rear camber setting will heavily depend on your relative front:rear roll stiffness.

[loco_corolla]

Great info guys, thanks alot, with all this setup, say for example arronng's suggested setup, would it chew the tyres out quick on cruising there are back??? I heard from a guy that adjusting toe and camber would cause my tyres stress alot on highway cruising. I was thinking maybe i should just set the toe to 0 and put -1.5 on front and -1 on the back as most have suggested. Going to check my caster tomorrow and if it's out i'm gonna have to replace my front bushes and get some caster alignment bushes. Also while i got ur attention what brake pads do you guys use. I'll need a new set.

[aaronng]

Great info guys, thanks alot, with all this setup, say for example arronng's suggested setup, would it chew the tyres out quick on cruising there are back??? I heard from a guy that adjusting toe and camber would cause my tyres stress alot on highway cruising. I was thinking maybe i should just set the toe to 0 and put -1.5 on front and -1 on the back as most have suggested. Going to check my caster tomorrow and if it's out i'm gonna have to replace my front bushes and get some caster alignment bushes. Also while i got ur attention what brake pads do you guys use. I'll need a new set.

I'm using only 0.6mm total toe out on the front, which is very little compared to the stock settings of other cars. The rears which I have at 2.0mm total toe in is actually stock specification!

The downside of 0.6mm total toe out at the front is the car will follow camber as well as tramline a little more when you go across a groove that points straight ahead and to the right with your right tyre. It makes freeway travelling more tiring too because you have to keep the wheel straight with 2 hands. I've tried with 1 hand and my arm gets sore within 10 minutes. The upside is that if you jiggle the steering wheel by only 5mm each way, the car will move side to side as well. I like it, but it is not a setting for cars that will see mostly highway km.

[Topendwarrior]

negative camber at front will give understeer, i reckon is better if the front stays at zero for max traction & sharper reponse. rear is usually negative figures, it should be adjusted according to the amount of lean/bodyroll existing at the average speed of all corners for the specific track. however, cars that comes/equipped with LSD can gain more advantage through negative camber at the front.

[string]

Negative front camber gives understeer? Tell that to EVERY racer on the planet who runs front static camber. Less camber will give you more understeer.

The rear won't need much camber as it will be geting a fair bit of dynamic camber during roll.

Either way, no point running race ready alignment on the street if you're worried about tyre wear as you're only sacrificing track performance.

[revNhevN]

i run ~1.5 neg camber and ~3.5 neg caster up front. Zero at the rear. Zero toe all round. Ideally run as much caster and as little as little camber for your application. More neg caster gives you more dynamic neg camber - which is what you want for less tyre wear due static camber.

[string]

Well one could argue that you'll do just as well with increase static camber, but that's certainly far beyond this topic. Either way, no one likes running huge camber on the street hence why caster is popular.

Also, I hope you made an error typing and mean 3.5degrees positive caster as more positive camber gives more dynamic negative camber not what you said.

Camber wear is almost neglibible compared to wear from toe - i'm yet to notice any non uniform wear from camber over the course of 10,000km at around -2.0degrees.

[aaronng]

Camber wear is almost neglibible compared to wear from toe - i'm yet to notice any non uniform wear from camber over the course of 10,000km at around -2.0degrees.

-2 won't wear quick. I was having -3.2 at the rear and wore the insides within 2000km.

[string]

-2 won't wear quick. I was having -3.2 at the rear and wore the insides within 2000km.
What was your rear toe at that moment? Within 2000km sounds like you've got bigger problems than -3.2 degrees camber. I've taken longer than that to wear soft tyres with half an inch of [negative] front toe! (don't ask)

A friend of mine has at least 3.5degrees negative on the front on his 1600 and gets as much wear as his rears at around -1.5, both wearing minorly on the inside.

Plenty of circumstancial(sp?) evidence but no solid facts except that toe is a real tyre killer.

[supersamEK]

-2 won't wear quick. I was having -3.2 at the rear and wore the insides within 2000km.
same for me.

[ONE600]

Once again theres no right or wrong, How much camber depends on track, tyres you run, spring rate and weight of car. We run about 3.5 deg front castor, 3 deg at front and just under 2 rear. Also we have about 0.5 more camber on the left side of the car as most of the tracks are clock wise.

Generally speaking you dont want too much camber at the rear as thers very little weight on the back of hondas.

[loco_corolla]

Haha, i got a corolla dude, but same thing anyways. Yeah i got LSD as well and i've read up on castor but unfortunantly i can only increase it by + .75 deg, which isn't much. Sounds like it's going to be a tough one. Well i know that last track event my car was understeering pretty badly. You can see in justins2000's video clip where i go wide and he cuts in, and i was trying to turn :(. One case of understeer saw me off the track. -2 front camber is looking nice now, although i'm still a bit skeptical on toe. Maybe i'll just play with the camber this time round and if i'm not happy then i can play with the toe next time.

[string]

Camber is going to do next to nothing if you are having chronic understeering problems. Sounds like you need to look at your spring rates. If you aren't running a rear biased setup then understeer is to be expected. Play with tyre pressures more there's a lot in them.