Negative camber problem

[Scin]

My car had about 2.8 degrees of negative camber dialed in the rear for the track. I had a reputable shop in Las Vegas do this. Now I am not sure what the camber was before, so I am not sure how much they had to change.

Fast forward four months later I need to drive the car half way across the country. I bring the car to a different alignment shop (also has a great rep, one of two that are highly praised in Las Vegas) to dial out the camber. They told me they were unable to reduce the negative camber in the rear any further then it already was. They said it was a common issue with the rear alignment of the NSX and it would require aftermarket parts to reduce further.

Does this sound right? The shop did a great job on the front alignment and didn't charge me for the rear, they also gave me a discount on the front.

Anyhow, I drove the car across the country thinking I had enough tread on the tires and I had a pretty bad blow out shortly before getting to Austin (dumb move on my part). I managed to find some tires in town (ergh, $350 e/a, did the other too because it was severely worn on the inner edge).

Lastly I will finish with a few words of advice. Even though the donut is supposedly good for about 50mph, if you run it at 50 for 120 miles you may have large chunks of tread come flying off (the tire was clearly overheated). Yea it was scary, I drove the rest of the way at 25... thankfully I only had to go 10 more miles.

 

[coolnsx]

Conrad: As you listening :biggrin:

 

[Hugh]

Does you car have a stock suspension or is it lowered? By the way, the rear toe setting has a huge effect on wear on the inside of the tire. My car is lowered a bout 1" and the neg rear camber is 2.2, I'm pretty sure my rear toe is at 3mm. I've been getting about 12,000 miles out of the SO3s in the back.

See here: http://www.nsxprime.com/FAQ/TireWheel/alignment.htm

 

[Scin]

The car is lowered about an inch in the rear. I am running Bilstein shocks on the stock perch with tein s-tech springs.

The tires had about 9,000 miles on them, and they were Eagle F1 DS3's.

 

[Tanto2]

Years ago when I had this issue, I had to buy two new camber adjusting bolts(the one with the cam on it), cut the cams off, fabricate new cams with a larger offset, weld them on, plate them, elongate the lower a-arm holes, and re-align. I can't believe somebody doesn't make these by now, but I have not seen them. Anything more than 2 degrees seem to wear the tires too fast, at least in my area where corners are few. BTW, lowered NSX's are real hard to align even after the above fix. Good luck

 

[nsxtasy]

Even though the donut is supposedly good for about 50mph, if you run it at 50 for 120 miles you may have large chunks of tread come flying off (the tire was clearly overheated).

Or, you may not. I recently drove with my spare on the rear, driving at 53 mph for 133 miles, and there were absolutely no problems with the spare. It looks as good as new.

Additional information: My car is NOT lowered (thank goodness, I keep hearing about more and more problems with lowered cars), the toe is set to the recommended settings (about a third of the way from the revised recommendations to the original recommendations), and the camber is set at around 1.5 degrees front and 2.0 rear, rather than maxing them out.

 

[Scin]

Or, you may not. I recently drove with my spare on the rear, driving at 53 mph for 133 miles, and there were absolutely no problems with the spare. It looks as good as new.

Additional information: My car is NOT lowered (thank goodness, I keep hearing about more and more problems with lowered cars), the toe is set to the recommended settings (about a third of the way from the revised recommendations to the original recommendations), and the camber is set at around 1.5 degrees front and 2.0 rear, rather than maxing them out.

Was it 100 degrees out? Maybe my spare was just a bum :/ I gotta find a new one somewhere though.

 

[Larry Bastanza]

In regard to your spare, I have been seeing MANY bad spares in earlier cars I have serviced this year. They are just getting way too old.

I would recommend everyone checking the condition of your spare. They like to crack along the edge of the tread. Worse is they may look fine until you inflate a 15 year old spare for the first time.

HTH,
LarryB

 

[Kitaka]

An NSXPrime member "Thom" is currently Beta testing a kit that takes care of the camber adjustment problem in the rear (especially for lowered cars). I think it follows the mods "Tanto2" made.

Thom, you out there? What's the status of your work???

 

[Thom]

An NSXPrime member "Thom" is currently Beta testing a kit that takes care of the camber adjustment problem in the rear (especially for lowered cars). I think it follows the mods "Tanto2" made.

Thom, you out there? What's the status of your work???

Yeah, the kit is coming along. Production for the first run Beta version is very close. Maybe end of July or August. I've been running them in my car over six months now, and they perform beautifully. About 12K miles and no wear on the rears. The toe is also near zero (-0.01°) on each side.

Here is the link http://www.nsxprime.com/forums/showthread.php?t=68657

 

[john@johnhudakracing]

Yeah, the kit is coming along. Production for the first run Beta version is very close. Maybe end of July or August. I've been running them in my car over six months now, and they perform beautifully. About 12K miles and no wear on the rears. The toe is also near zero (-0.01°) on each side.

Here is the link http://www.nsxprime.com/forums/showthread.php?t=68657

Essentially what you were saying on your thread in the vendor forums is that given the modification, it would allow you to drop from the -1.9--2.2 negative camber range right down to zero. I was curious what your toe-in was set to. Essentially zero. Refered to on a few other forums as the 'girlfriend alignment' as it it optimal for when your significant other borrows your ride for any extended time. J/K :biggrin:

In that case, I would second your results, as that sounds about right so far as wear for that target alignment. About consistent with the S2K on a mild stock alignment, whereas a rear set of T1S will easily last 20,000+ highway miles on a daily commuter, plus maybe a track event, and the fronts can last seemingly forever... given care and mostly non-agressive use. Sure.

Edging towards this end and given that type of use, often times I've noticed (at 100+ mostly highway miles a day on a daily comutter) that most of the newer max perf street tires will lose their original thermal characteristics, plyability and grip to an extent, and become noticably heat cycled long before the wear indicators are ever reached.