Question

[Buddy5791]

Whats the diffrence between coil overs and springs
arent coil overs just adjustable and springs arent


and whats a camber kit

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[Chrisco]

Whats the diffrence between coil overs and springs
arent coil overs just adjustable and springs arent


and whats a camber kit

coil overs are a complete strut/spring package. Springs are just that... springs. You can't get adjustable springs, but you can get springs with a varied ride height and/or spring rate from stock. You can, however, get adjustable shocks and use your stock springs, or an aftermarket set. Or, you could get complete coilovers which replace the entire strut/spring assembly.

Camber 'kits' vary from vehicle to vehicle. Some just need plates with slotted grooves cut into them where the shock bolts to the upper mount, some are entire upper control arms. The point of adjusting your camber is to either A: prevent tire wear caused by excessive negative camber when lowering your car; or B wanting to adjust the camber of the wheel assembly outside of the factory range to achieve greater handling characteristics (usually at the loss of tread life).

Camber is the inward or outward angle of the top of the tire. Negative camber means the top of the wheel is tilted towards the car while positive camber means the top of the wheel is tilted away from the car.

Here's a quick visual of camber where "--" is the chassis and "/,I and \" are the tires, when looking directly from the front or back of the vehicle.

Zero Camber = I--I

Negative Camber = /--\

Positive Camber = \--/

Hope that helps.

 

[E]

^^^ This is a guy who knows what he's talking about

 

[Chrisco]

^^^ This is a guy who knows what he's talking about

Hah, thanks.

 

[MuffHugger]

Thanks Chrisco for the refresher!

 

[Buddy5791]

so cambers change the angle of the wheels ?

 

[10sec]

yep, as you turn hard tire kinda folds under the wheel so the camber keeps everything flat while turning. :hsughwiggle:

 

[Stink Star]

camber is the relation of the distance between the top of the wheel and the bottom of the wheel.. when you lower a car the camber tends to be negative.. that is, the tops of the wheels tend to be closer together than the bottom. the camber kit reduces this increase in negative camber and returns it to factory specs. this is to help handling and tire wear.

if you dont understand any of this, dont lower your goddamn car

 

[Stink Star]

yep, as you turn hard tire kinda folds under the wheel so the camber keeps everything flat while turning. :hsughwiggle:

you are more reffering to steering axis inclination (SAI) but camber does play a role in that too

 

[IDAFC21]

 

[esteinmaier]

Most cars, you also have to worry about toe as well. The tie rod attachment points are not perpendicular to the control arm travel, so changing ride height will also change toe as well. In both my cars, negative camber promotes toe-in.

So once you get your camber where you want it, adjust toe as well, or you'll be scrubbing off tire at an alarming rate, and it will get twitchy on the highway.

Depending on suspension geometry, for commuter use, you will want very slight negative camber both front and back ( < .5 degrees) and 0 toe on both axles. For a more aggressive, but less tire friendly setup, go 1 to 1.5 degrees negative camber in the front, .5 degrees in the back, .5 degrees toe in on the front, and 0 toe in the rear.

Then go beat the crap out of it on an autocross track, and use a surface thermometer to measure temps on the insides, center and outsides of the tire. If it's uniform, then you're set up well. If not, a colder inside implies that you need more negative camber, and vice versa. If the center is not uniform with the outsides, then it's tire pressure that should be changes. Cold center tread means you should add pressure, and hot center means you need to reduce pressures.