camber bolts

93SOHC · Post by **93SOHC** » May 2nd, 2005, 12:59 pm

Just wondering how many of you had to use them for dropping the car less than 2 inches. Got my g/c coilovers and tokico blues from Gro today and I want to make sure I have all parts needed before dropping them off at the shop for install and alignment. I plan on only adjusting them for about a 1.5 to 1.8 drop, so i just need to know if I need the camber kit or not. Thanks in advance as usual

Teal_93 · Post by **Teal_93** » May 2nd, 2005, 1:15 pm

I had to use them when I lowered my car Jay.

93SOHC · Post by **93SOHC** » May 2nd, 2005, 1:21 pm

I figured as much. The weird thing is that the bolt holes in the struts aren't slotted. I am to assume the spindle are?

Teal_93 · Post by **Teal_93** » May 2nd, 2005, 1:22 pm

They are not slotted either

93SOHC · Post by **93SOHC** » May 2nd, 2005, 1:26 pm

so then...camber is not adjustable from the factory? I'm confused. I havent done an alignment since 2000...

nope-mx3 · Post by **nope-mx3** » May 2nd, 2005, 5:24 pm

I got 4 OBX camber bolts of Ebay... none of them fit... this sucks..
With shipping and taxes I paid about $55 Usd.

nope-mx3

mazdubber · Post by **mazdubber** » May 2nd, 2005, 6:07 pm

nope-mx3 wrote:I got 4 OBX camber bolts of Ebay... none of them fit... this sucks..
With shipping and taxes I paid about $55 Usd.

nope-mx3

I bought Eibach ones a while back for $50 CAN. It pays to have friends in the parts business!

jaydog5678 · Post by **jaydog5678** » May 2nd, 2005, 6:46 pm

93SOHC wrote:so then...camber is not adjustable from the factory? I'm confused. I havent done an alignment since 2000...

Camber and caster ARE adjustable from the factory. You have to loosen the 4 strut mount bolts on the strut tower with the front end raised. The rubber nipple from the factory should be facing inward torward the engine bay. Drop the strut through the holes and rotate the strut mount to change camber/ caster or just camber. If you rotate the nipple so that it is facing out away from the car, you've just added + camber to the wheel and no change in caster.

jschrauwen · Post by **jschrauwen** » May 2nd, 2005, 9:18 pm

Jay, I had camber adjusting bolts installed for the alignment. The specs called for single bolts for each strut to correct the negative camber created by lowering the car up to approx 1.5". Lowering any further may require a second camber adjusting bolt per strut. As it turned out, I only needed 1 per strut. Sometimes, a good alignment shop will already have these bolts on hand. MX uses 12mm camber adjusting bolts. Go through some of my older posts for more specifics on this subject - about 2 months ago or so.

Teal_93 · Post by **Teal_93** » May 2nd, 2005, 9:35 pm

my alignment shop used a f*ckin grade 5 bolt for my camber bolt.

93SOHC · Post by **93SOHC** » May 3rd, 2005, 4:29 am

haahaha, Yeah cory, I remember that story!LOL! Thanks everyone. When I call the shop I worked at, who's doing the work, i'll see if they've got a set. In addition to that, i've never heard of adjusting camber on the strut mount, but caster I could understand. Anyway, i'll have em' look up the car on the Hunter and see what it says

jaydog5678 · Post by **jaydog5678** » May 3rd, 2005, 7:40 pm

jschrauwen wrote:Jay, I had camber adjusting bolts installed for the alignment. The specs called for single bolts for each strut to correct the negative camber created by lowering the car up to approx 1.5". Lowering any further may require a second camber adjusting bolt per strut. As it turned out, I only needed 1 per strut. Sometimes, a good alignment shop will already have these bolts on hand. MX uses 12mm camber adjusting bolts. Go through some of my older posts for more specifics on this subject - about 2 months ago or so.

He wanted to know if it was adjustable....and it is. It will however not have the range of adjustability in camber like the bolts will. So what was your camber like after the drop without the bolts installed? That is how you find out if you really do need them or not. I'd like to know. You do know that the front negative camber has a range of up to - 1.6 degrees, don't you? What were you talking about in previous posts?

jschrauwen · Post by **jschrauwen** » May 3rd, 2005, 9:19 pm

I don't have the print-outs handy right now but I do know that I saw a couple of 2+ degree negative camber readings on the lazer alignment machine and print-out. Mazda shop also eluded to the idea that although that's advertised adjustment available for our car without additional help they strongly suggested that they've never been able to get that much from the existing config. I already bought the camber bolts ahead of time before getting the alignment just to be on the safeside which proved to be the prudent thing to do. Of course I no longer have that incredible turn-in and cornering grip like I did with the excessive negative camber but I'm also not going to cook my tires before the summers out either. Of course it's very possible to get away without needing camber adjusting bolts or some other camber adjusting device but I think those are the exception to the norm or the the amount of lowering was not excessive to warrant.

jaydog5678 · Post by **jaydog5678** » May 4th, 2005, 1:47 am

I find it odd that some guys here have serious camber issues. I recently checked my own alignment back in Feb to center the steering wheel back straight. With the car lowered approximatley 1.5 (it's probably lower than this) at all 4 corners, my front camber was at -1.0 and -1.2. My rear camber was only -.5 and -.6 respectively. The camber barely changed from its stock form. What's strange is the rear camber can go further to -1.7 and still be within factory specs. I would want bolts or plates to make it more negative than it is now!

I believe on some occasions, alot of shops will go out of there way and just say since the car is lowered, you automatically need some form of aftermarket adjustment, which I think is B.S. Our Mx-3's don't wear tires like the Honda guys do when lowered. The geometry dose'nt allow a serious camber change when cornering, hence the wide range. Also, our cars are still light enough so that this should not be an issue.

93SOHC · Post by **93SOHC** » May 4th, 2005, 2:52 am

Very interesting! The shop that will be doing the alignment does a lot of alignments(I used to be the alignment tech there) so they should have the bolts on hand, if need be. If its still in spec when they shoot it after the suspension is installed, i'll prolly just leave it alone. I gotta get new rubber after this season anyway(205 40 16's are a bit too tiny, but they came with the rims so i'll deal with em till next year) When i get the printout from the Hunter, i'll scan it and post it up so you all can analyze it for further discussion