devnull

On my '96 SE, the tech that did the alignment said that the front camber was barely inside the specification and that I should rotate my tires every 3000 miles because of that. Since the front camber isn't adjustable (according to him) should I use camber bolts or plates or something else?

This is what I know.
Camber bolts: replaces upper bolt in lower strut mount, inexpensive, easy to install

Camber plates: replaces upper strut mount, ~$300-400, difficult to install.

I'm probably going to be replacing my struts with stock replacements soon, so as I understand it, camber plates wouldn't be too much trouble to do while I'm replacing the struts. I'm thinking that later I'll be putting on a Tein coilover set later, but probably not for at least another 6 months.

Also the tech said that the rear camber was in spec but the setting was maxed out. For a daily driver car, should I be concerned about this?

Thanks in advance

S14Dude

for the fronts get camber plates, shouldn't be that hard to install. There is a set for sale on ebay. For the rear, just get C-tune camber arms, or something like that.

l2aine

Are you on lowering springs? Chances are yes, so I'll give you some IMO through experience:

1) Right now I'd say go with front camber bolts for now. 6 months can do a lot of wear, but a simple camber bolt setup for the front are only like $10 a pair. They only give you about a +1.5-1.5 deg. adjustment, but that should be enough to keep the tire wear on check until you get full coilovers.

2) Camber plates will give you a whole lot of fun adjustment, but if you use them with a regular "spring/shock" setup, you have to realize that the camber plates will actually raise the car up slightly. This is because the camber plates have to go above the factory spring mount, and camber plate + stock spring mount = thicker than stock spring mount. T

Front pillowball mounts (camber plates) replace part of the upper mount up front, but retain the stock upper spring seat,. and have camber adustability (referencing Tein upper plates).
Also, just as an FYI, rear pillowball mounts actually replace the entire rear upper mount, and have NO camber adjustability.

3) If you're going with a full coilover setup, then those come with camber plates (i.e. Flex, HE, etc.) BUT you still have to worry about the rear end. If your cars factory allowable rear adjustments are maxed as you said, then any more lowering will require (at the minimum) adjustable rear upper arms. You can go with the high $$ name brand Cusco or Kazama, but I've got the C-Tune ones off Ebay on my car and have had no problems for the last 6 months or so. They run about $140 shipped.

4) Camber isn't as bad as it may seem. For daily driving, excess camber doesn't eat up tires as bad as excess toe. Whenever you lower a car, your camber and toe angles increase - but it is the toe angle that is more damaging to tire tread. If you can keep the toe angles in check, then don't worry too much about having a little camber (unless you've got like super dori dori demon camber LOL). All cars from the factory have some negative camber and some toe-in because it all aids in stability.

devnull

I'm pretty sure that the springs are the original stock springs. They may need to be replaced as well.

How can I tell if my springs are worn out?

S14Dude

Hey raine, how would you go about adjusting toe angle? With the c-tune rear arms you can only adjust camber, is this correct?

l2aine

Toe up front = tie rods

Toe out back = toe rod has an offset bolt as standard equipment (look at the inner part of the rod where it connects to the subframe - you'll see a gold bolt with an offset ring around it).

Note that the stock rear upper arms also have this offset bolt where they connect to the subframe, but you might not be able to see it unless you jack up the car