TECHNICAL TIPS
Camber Changes When Altering Vehicle Height

Application: Lowered cars

So you have a customer drive up in a Honda that he just bought and wants to purchase some eye catching 16"or 17" wheels with the low profile, pavement grabbing hi-pro tires and set of lowering springs from a popular aftermarket supplier. This will give him a good start on the look that he wants to achieve.

Performance spring companies abound with choices of height changes for the Honda motorcars that have been produced for at least the past ten years. There are choices from a minor 1" lowering spring set for a modest look all the way to a radical 3" drop that slams a car scant inches above the road surface. One thing to consider when installing these new products on your customer's car is what effect it will have on the vehicle after these new components are installed.

Front Camber Changes   If you lower your vehicle one inch front camber can change by approximately -.75 degree. By lowering a vehicle two inches your front camber change will be approximately -1.50 degrees. When you lower a vehicle three inches you will change front camber approximately -2.50 degrees.

The biggest impact of lowering a vehicle is the Camber change that occurs when a set of springs is installed. If your customer has just invested at least a month's paycheck on a new set of 17" wheels and the low profile tires to match the last thing you want to see is him walking through the door a month later screaming about the inside of his high dollar tires being worn to the belts! Sound familiar? I can't tell you how many times I have been asked (by an irate lowered car owner) "Why are my tires worn out already? I just bought them!" The problem is the average guy on the street that is striving to achieve that performance look isn't educated on the changes he induces into the suspension when lowering his car.

The most popular Honda that is being lowered today is the 1988-1999 Civic. The sleek looks combined with the modest cost of the Honda Civic make it an ideal choice for the younger performance-seeking fan these days. It also is engineered from Honda with an excellent suspension design and a drive train with almost unlimited upgrading options through the aftermarket. The suspension on these models, and most other models in Honda's model line-up, is referred to as the "Chapman Strut Suspension". Basically this consists of a lower and upper control arm design that is dampened by a strut. One of that design traits of this suspension type is that when the car goes into a hard corner the weight and speed forces the car down and camber goes more negative which gives the car the ability to "cut" through the corner more effectively. As the car comes out of the corner the suspension rebounds to its normal height.

Rear Camber Changes If you lower your vehicle one inch rear camber can change by approximately -.50 degree. By lowering a vehicle two inches your rear camber change will be approximately -1.00 degrees. When you lower a vehicle three inches you will change rear camber approximately -2.00 degrees.

The high performance lowering springs that you are installing on your customer's car effectively only differ in the height at which they allow the car to ride after being installed. When the springs are installed both the lower and upper control arms are moved "up" in their travel arc to a new position that is now higher in the normal travel than that which was design by Honda. This places the suspension in the same condition as while cornering, it lowers the geometry of the suspension and also lowers the camber. The only difference is that now this is the normal ride height, the camber has changed and unless this is corrected there is going to be massive inside tire wear in a short period of time. When a Honda is lowered 1 inch you can expect approximately a negative .80 degree camber change. At a two inch drop the Camber lowers about 1.50 degrees and three inches induces a whopping 2.60 degree negative camber change! Unless this is corrected your customer will be returning to your shop in a very unsavory mood in the very near future.

The answer to these problems is again found in the aftermarket. Honda did not provide any means of camber adjustment from the factory so installing camber kits is the only option. Specialty Products Company of Longmont Colorado has recently introduced a line of adjustable upper control arms that provide more than enough adjustment to cure the side affects encountered when lowering a Honda. Specifically for the 1989-1999 Honda Civics the EZ Arm XR (P/N 67030) adjustable upper rear control arm provides from negative 2 degrees to a positive 5 degrees of camber change. The trickest part is for the front of the 1996-1999 Civics. It is the EZ Arm XR (P/N 62030) adjustable upper control arm that provides changes up to 4 degrees of positive camber change and can be purchased in powder coated black, blue, red or yellow colors to appeal to those who want to match other colored performance up-grades. Specialty also has virtually a complete line of adjustable arms or other styles of camber kits for almost all models of Hondas produced from 1988. All of these kits can be purchased at a fairly low cost when compared to the money that your customer has just laid down on his other suspension components and will more than pay for itself with the cost of saving one set of tires.

Now you can complete the job for your customer that will allow his car to handle and look the way he wants while maintaining the best possible tire wear. You can contact Specialty Products Company at 1-800-525-6505 for a complete line of performance products or talk to one of their ASE certified technicians for information about specific applications that will help you give your customer the total performance package.