I bought a s5 recently and noticed immediately about the slight positive front camber after i swapped my wheels on it. The car is lowered on springs, the rear camber is fine(in the negative zone), but the bottom of the front wheels are tilted in! What can i do to correct this?

 

Doesn't seem right, what kind of springs do you have up front? You can get camber plates to correct your problem.

www.ground-control.com

 

Unknown lowering springs on stock shock. Do those camber plates work with NON coilover springs? cuz mine aren't

 

Usually when a car is lowered it automatically gets some negative camber right? What could be causing mine to have positive camber...?

 

You did move it after you let it down off the jack/stands, right? If not then that's probably why you're seeing this. And you torqued all your lugnuts properly?

 

I've been driving around like this for a while now actually, handles like **** especially through corners. Not sure what could be causing this, I looked at the arms and nothing's bent or anything @_@

 

Snap a pic if you can, that could help us. Are the tires wearing unevenly?

 

Pictures of the front wheels, positive camber even though car is lowered on springs with stock shocks. Tires definitely not wearing evenly.

 

Stock struts have camber "adjustment" by rotating the strut mount 90*. You really can't tell just how far off your alignment is from spec without actually measuring it. I know I have been deceived by the "looks" of the camber and it just turns out to be fine.

 

Will rotating the tower make THAT big of a difference though? I mean there's some pretty serious positive camber going on there, and the car is lowered on springs.

 

To be honest, those pictures don't show much positive camber to me, looks neutral (0). FSM states it changes it by 30 arc minutes. Thats pretty significant.

 

Don't see positive camber there, but photos, and even in person, it's hard to tell, you've got to measure. On lowering springs, you can easily have -2.5-3.0* camber in the rear, which makes the fronts look positive. Stock spec on these cars actually calls for something like +.2* +-.3

The top pillow ball mount is eccentrically mounted, and you get both the most static negative camber with it rotated such that bolt the shaft is closest to is rear and to the engine, not fender side. This gives both the most static negative camber, and the most dynamic camber gain, as well as better steering feel from increased castor.

This is easy to adjust, undo the 4 strut bolts at the top with wheel raised, pull down on the spring/strut from below, rotate the strut assembly to the desired position, guide it back into the holes, put the 4 bolts back.

These cars gain very little negative camber at the front from lowering (unlike the back, where they gain too much in a hurry). Your perception of positive camber at the front might stem from this . My rears are at -2.1*, fronts at -.5, but due to the surplus of neg camber at the rear, the fronts "look" positive. However, with the high dynamic camber gain, I find my fronts wear very evenly, and grip and feel are great even in autocross, so I'm not really concerned to find more negative at the front - I need to get some out of the rear, it eats tires.

 

Also, do something to bring those fenders out. That isn't safe, and at least in the US it isn't legal. idk about Canada.

 

Thanks for the great info, makes a lot of sense. I'll flip the tower in the right direction tomorrow to get some neg camber.

Ya wheels are 17x8 -7 so they stick out a little, I was hoping there would be enough camber to tuck them...guess not haha. It isn't legal in Canada either, but it's not too big of a deal.

 

Your suspension "looks" correct, but there's no way of knowing without putting alignment heads on the car and measuring.

Your wheels however are incorrect for the car. Wrong offset which causes them to stick out. It also appears they are too wide for the tires which are fitted. A +32mm offset wheel and 245 width tire on an 8" wheel would fit much better.

 

Dont need a 245 for a 8" wide. 225 works great also.

 

Eibach makes some camber adjustment nuts that you can use on your front struts to give some more adjustability to the front camber. Be careful how you turn that top OEM plate or you'll change the caster as well. Or you can get some camber plates for the front. I believe you can source some on ebay for around $200.00.

Who changed your springs? Are you sure they have the front plates turned the right way? I did mine and had them turned the wrong way and it was awful.

 

I rotated the strut towers today and that's what they look like afterwards. Is there anything wrong with it?

 

You really won't know where your wheels are pointing without a proper alignment rack. The notches on the rubber are facing the wrong way, look at the post above yours. But again, it really doesn't matter at this point, you really don't know what effect you just made.

 

that looks correct to me. That should give you the most camber and caster...

I don't think you'll be able to dial in enough camber to get that to tuck under and still handle decently...

Here are 17x8 +30 with 245s and -2.5* of camber (front setup) They barely clear with rolled fenders.

 

^ya that's what I thought, have the indicator point towards the inside rear of the car to get the most camber. I guess my only option is to go coilovers, or get a set of camber plates.

 

I would look at the control arm to see if it's bent or anything...

you can also get some cam bolts (or "crash" bolts) They replaced the bolt(s) that attach the front strut to the hub with a cammed bolt so you can adjust the angle.

they look like this:


that's what I'm currently using on my corolla and have camber dialed in to -3.5* after replacing both bolts.

 

Dude, try moving those plates like they should be. I had mine turned like how you do, and I am telling you that my car drove awful and my front tires sat similar to how your fronts do.

 

Lunchbox is right. The way yours are mounted WILL give you more negative camber, but that also gives toe (or is it castor?) in the wrong direction. You want the fronts of the tires pointed inward, not outward.

Re-direct the square notch to the front inside bolt on the perch. It's not going to fix your tire tuck issues, but it will improve the handling on the car.

 

No, that's wrong.

That gives you POSITIVE CASTER which is a good thing (in moderation)

I would go get your alignment checked to see if it is actually off... camber is probably fine, toe I imagine is probably off because most people never get alignments...

Here is some really good reading on alignment specs and how they effect a car:
http://farnorthracing.com/autocross_secrets22.html