snaggle

So I had just installed my BC coilovers on my car, then immediately went to Firestone for a wheel alignment. After the job was done, the guy told me that my camber was WAY off due to me lowering the car, and that he could not adjust it because.... (I quote the mechanic...) "On this lexus the camber is not adjustable due to the design from the factory, it will not allow us to re-adjust the camber"

He also said that this is VERY bad, and I MUST do something about it because if I dont, my tires will wear very quickly and I will also have BAD handling and loss of traction.

I also noticed myself that it is losing traction even on a straight line more than it would before, obviously because less of the tires are touching the ground.

Now, the funny thing is, I know that tons of people here on club lexus install coilovers and never even mention ANYTHING about camber or adjusting it, so thats what brings me here, is to ask if it is really necessary to change the camber or not? Also, to the people who also installed coils and did not adjust camber, isnt the handling worse than stock??

My current camber numbers are as follows:

Front - Right: -2.2 degrees
Front - Left : -2.1 degrees

Rear - Right: -2.5 degrees
Rear - Left : -2.7 degrees

skottydznt

iTrader: (11)

you need adjustable ball joints in the front to adjust your camber and rear camber arms in the back. Extremely common here on the forums. spc makes the parts for the front and megan makes them for the rear

snaggle

Ugh, I wish I knew this before I installed my coils, would have been much easier to do them all at once since I was using a friends garage, lift, and tools to get the coils on...


So how easy are these ball joints and camber arms to install?

How much would it cost ROUGHLY to install at a garage?

ISFPOWER

iTrader: (20)

how can you not know that? you need to research more. both parts are cheap, just buy them, install and get another alignment.

snaggle

I know right? I was thinking the same. I literally researched on coils for about 2 months before I bought them. Never saw anything mentioning you must have camber.

Also, they dont seem that cheap. $200 for the front, $200 for the rear on ebay, that totals $400.... plus labor...

Evoaz92

yeah i definitely advise you to get the camber kits, my camber was so bad i blew out my 2 rear tires and my front left all in about less than 4months. It sucks when you have to put the spares on because the little jack the lexus comes with doesn't fit underneath my sideskirts. such a hassle.

snaggle

Just a quick thought; wouldnt rotating the tires once in the life of the tire help spread the wear evenly if I decided to keep my wheels cambered as-is?

whitebeast

iTrader: (5)

Installing ball joint is not hard like you think but i do need proper tools to get your job done.
Tools you needed is 2 or 3 point jaw puller, ball joint press (available for loan at local auto parts like o'reilly or autozone) don't use ball joint separate tool, it will damage your ball joint dust protector and not work good like jaw puller

1sWt2GS

iTrader: (6)

Welcome to #loweredlifeproblems

that camber sounds about right. it shouldn't be too bad as long as you get a good alignment place to do it.

toe should be around zero. i know guys running -4 camber and they have no / minimal wear.

jsmacks

Nm........

reyoasian

iTrader: (2)

Anyone know if camber bolts are good for our car? (at least for the rear)
I just want like -2 max

Gville350

iTrader: (10)

Easy, assuming you have the right tools. For the rear camber arms, you'll not need anything more than a few wrenches. For the fronts, you'll need to press out the old ball joint to get the new one in. So it's more involved, but still not brain surgery.

Depends on the amount of time they spend on the installation. If up on a lift, with the proper air tools...I'd say twp hrs max (fronts and rears).

Yes. I did this with the BFG KDWs I have. They have a uniform tread pattern across the width of the tire and a 300 treadwear. You can request any tire shop to dismount and re-mount the tires on the other side's wheels. I got ~ 24k miles on a full set with a full rotation around 14k miles.

ImportISF

iTrader: (9)

Just curious, how much is your car lowered?

snaggle

here it is, not sure exactly how low. If I had to guess 2 inches?