Hi All,

Need advice on best rear camber angle for maxing out tire life, grip and corning performance. My IS350 2008 is current lowered on Coilovers (1 finger gap to fender front and back) on 19" wheel front tires 235/35/19 & rear tires 275/30/19. My left rear camber is at -2.24 and right rear -1.54 (wheel alignment report- see below). I am upgrading to Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires soon and want to get the best out of new tires. What is the best rear camber angle for my set-up? and Is there any benefit for me to get SPC rear camber kits to correct camber angle?

Your comments and suggestions will be greatly appreciated

 

Best wheel life = 0 degree camber.


You need a kit to correct your camber to zero since you are lowered and lowering your car creates a natural camber.

Anything over 3 degree camber will wear out the tires noticeably.


If you understand what camber is, zero degree camber, in theory, should be the best for the wheel and performance. Because zero degrees means full contact with the tires and the ground, assuming your tire psi is correct.

 

Did you mean tire life? Because it’s not really true and depends entirely on suspension design. Toe matters more than camber for wear. Stock cars typically run more camber in the rear to limit traction and promote understeer. Adding front camber makes the car turn dramatically better. I’ve run -3* on the street with zero toe and had even tire wear.

OP, the only issue I see is your left rear camber is a -.75 from your right. While not a huge concern, having both sides closer would make for more predictable handling. -1.5 to -2 would be ideal for the street. Front is good. Toe looks okay too.

 

Thanks for your constructive reply.

I have been told by wheel alignment specialist that negative camber will cause tires to run in the inner rim and it can cause inner rim to run hotter. As result of this it will wear inner rim faster than if you have more evenly distributed pressure along the width of the tire (better heat distribution). This is more noticable if your tracking your car or spirited driving.

I am getting SPC rear camber arms to correct this issue. What front camber angle would you recommend? I.e. -1.4 front and -1.6 rear?

 

While it is true the inner part of the tire will be hotter due to the increased friction, that really only affects the compound. My tires typically don't last but 25-30,000 miles, and I run high grip compounds. If you're looking to get 50,000 miles out of a tire, then even a mildly aggressive camber setup won't help with longevity. However tread depth won't wear faster with more camber as long as toe is near zero. For a pure street car, -1.5 to -2.2 front or rear should be fine. If you notice, most cars run a lot of negative camber on the rear, especially the German cars, but those aren't designed to last 50k miles. If you want a little more fun on street, you could approach -2 up front, and similar in the rear. If you want 50k miles, then yes less camber/toe will make the tires last.

 

I don't think I've ever gotten 50,000 out of a set of tires, and that's with stock height.

 

If you use the car and push it into the corners the body rolls, the inner tire is unloaded and the outer front and rear with say 2 to 3° negative camber achieve 100% contact. So to say that you need zero camber for best tire life is not true for everyone but it is for most.
So your setup can be:
Bling - 6° neg all around and tire wear is high on the inside.
DD - 1.5° negative and decent tire life. Corner grip is OK.
DD and a carver - 2.25° negative and if used in the corners say 30% of the miles, weight transfer will keep tire wear somewhat in check. In this scene you likely add in heavy braking and more acceleration that reduces wear. But its fun!

How do you really use the car and what percent is highway vs carving?

PS rockauto has adjustable links for a fraction the price of the big name brands. You might look there first.

 

Thanks for your constructive reply.

I will be daily driving my vehicle 70% city/Highway road 30% country windy road. Will plan to track my car 3 to 4x per year with new michelin PS4S tires. I am thinking about front camber -1.4 and rear -1.6. what do you think?

 

what 2013FSport said, if you like cornering hard and accelerating out of corners then -1.5 to -2 should be good. My current spec is -1.8 left and -2.1 right in the rear and the grip/acceleration out of corners is somewhat noticeably better. Helps that my car is AWD with a bunch of handling mods too.

 

I have SPC ball joints installed for my fronts which let me zero out my front camber and I'm lowered on F sport springs - I like the look and it still corners well

I can't remember what my rears were at but they are slightly negative I believe - I would say no more then 1 degree

I agree with what someone mentioned above - You need the rears to be even so having the kit will allow you to do that

Is your car newly lowered and thus your getting an alignment? Or did you notice bad tire wear on your tires which lead you to getting an alignment?

 

​​​​​ Thanks for your constructive reply.

I had my car lowered on coilovers for over half a year. I noticed inner tire trends in the rear are thinner than outer trends. If i correct the camber angle in the rear with rear SPC kit to lets say -1.6 on both side. Will that upset my front camber angles? Should i get front camber kits as well?

 

Changing the rear camber shouldn't have any effect on the camber angle of the front - it might affect the handling of the car slightly though.

If your concerned about tire wear on the front then yeah get a camber kit.. you can still keep your front wheels a half degree negative and get decent tire life.. my younger brother has a 93' NIssan 240 thats slammed (drift car) and he runs like 4 degrees of camber up front

 

Ride height and side to side imbalance from loading and/or improper SAG setting on coil over or weak springs impact camber angle....

As someone mentioned before, cars are set w more camber in the rear intentionally so you feel the nose plow/push into the corner. This feedback is their way of telling you to back off the throttle, i.e. make you uncomfortable....

In your printout the fronts are fine and as found vs as left differenece is just measurement error.
Make the rear match at 2° 24", zero the toe and run it.

Keep an eye on pressure and wear and if wear is detected toe the rear in a 32 to 1/16"...