Do I need a camber kit?

[Sb13104]

I have a 1996 TSI AWD and I lovered it 2" all of the way around with Sprint Springs. I have heard from some that if you lower over 1.5" then you need camber kits. Others say it has to be over 2.0" to need camber kits. I just bought brand new tires and I don't want to replace them in a few months. Can you help me out here. Do I need camber kits? If so, which?

Thanks
Sam

 

[Mcgee16]

I lowered my 95 gst 1.7in with h&R's and i need camber kits. I forgot how many degress it was off but if you look at the car you can notice it.

Scott

 

[Sb13104]

Do I need both front and rear kits?

 

['96_Talon_TSi]

take a look at the tires, and if they look off camber, then yes you will need one. With a 2" drop all the way around... you will probably need one front and back.

 

[CowPimp]

My car was lowered 1.3" when I purchased it. I didn't notice the camber being off until recently. Luckily, it wasn't off too bad, and the treadwear variation is pretty minimal. I did my alignment, and the fronts are perfect, but the rears didn't quite get back to normal. So, I only need a camber kit for the rear.

For a 2" drop, you might need a front camber kit though. The point is, you definitely will want at least a rear camber kit.

 

[girlieracr4g63]

Just and idea..You may want to check w/ your local alignment shop,but I ran into this problem a few years ago and a diff. car but he told me to get my money back on the ingals kit I bought and he would slot my struts.. This turned out to be alot cheaper and I never had a problem.

 

[assa 98gsx]

I have the Eibach Pro Kit 1.3" drop and I need a camber kit for the rear now. The camber was a little negative but overtime it really kills my tires.

 

[98TsiAWD]

Thread Moved to the Suspension Forum.

 

[jtmcinder]

Slot the struts? Not too useful on a 2G.

If your car is down 2", then you need to reduce the rear camber (which is done for about $5 in parts from Home Depot). You may or may not need to take out some front camber.

What's the purpose of the car? Drag-racing, autoXing, street driving? If either of the latter two (which is what I know about), then leave the front alone. Even down 2", you probably have only about 1.5 degrees of negative camber. Just make sure that it's aligned to zero toe and your tires will be fine. It's toe that kills tires, not camber. Shim the rears down to about 1.5-2 degrees and have this aligned to zero, as well.

Normally, I would now add that the one exception to the above is if you sometimes load the trunk up with lots of stuff. Then you need to have some toe in in the rear or you'll kill your tires when the car is loaded. (Unless you have mondo rear springs, in which case you can get away with zero toe.) Why? Because 2Gs have a lot of bump-toe, so loading the car changes the toe, and, in our case, it toes out. But since your car is down 2", you're actually in the "dead zone" with regards to bump-toe in the rear, so you can have it aligned to zero toe and load it up all you want.

- Jtoby