Hey Everyone,
I'm new here to the forum and Lexus in all. I'm curious about how the lexus IS 250 suspension is set up. Is it necessary to get some sort of camber kit for the front or rear. (Example. Eibach Pro-kit drop) Also when it comes to a drop is there anything else that is required for a flawless conversion to lower the car without any suspension problems in the future. (Ex. Ball joints, control arms, etc.) Thanks in advance for your input.

Also, if additional equipment is needed for a successful drop, what do you recommend is best to buy?

Thanks again!

 

The 2IS has so little camber from the factory, any gain will be a godsend.

There are no camber kits, and adjustable hats for the shocks would be a complete waste of money. Someone needs to engineer eccentrics for the lower control arms a la JZA80 so we can adjust the camber. Until then, there is nothing you can do to change camber except on the front of the AWD IS250.

 

1 answer! Tein Flex! It has adjustable upper strut mounts.

 

So the camber wear on the tires is bad with an eibach drop? or is it normal wear? Cause I've had my share with dropping cars and it's not pretty when it comes to camber wear on tires. Does anyone know how much the camber is affected with the Eibach pro-kit drop?

 

Camber doesn't wear tires. Incorrect toe kills tires. You'd be hard pressed to get even 1 degree of negative camber out of this suspension even with a 35mm drop. It comes stock with -0.3. I run -1.5 on my Scion tC and my Supra with zero wear issues. If the toe is good there's nothing to worry about.

 

I don't think anyone has any drop long enough on their cars to really get a good feel if the camber wear is bad....

If I am incorrect, then please post some pix... this would be nice to see if bad or good.

 

Well your right in some way, but camber is the angle your tire is sitting and if to negative it'll cause wear on the inside part of the tire. So your also saying that with a drop with the Eibach prokit will barely even touch the stock numbers when it comes to camber, toe, caster, etc?

 

Maybe I need to be a little more clear. You can run up to -2.5 degrees of negative camber with no ill effects as long as the toe is correct. If you had someone tell you they wore out tires from camber, it could only be because they had more than -2.5 degrees or their toe was wrong. That's a LOT of negative camber for a street car, and pretty pointless from a street performance perspective. I've been working with car alignments for about 14 years, so I have a pretty fair idea about what kills tires. It's almost never camber. These are my numbers for the MkIV Supra and they have been widely adopted by the Supra community.

It is impossible to lower the car and NOT change toe. However, you should drive about 500 miles to get the new springs to settle in before having an alignment done. You'll just end up doing it again shorty after that because you'll get cupping from incorrect toe as the suspension takes a more permanent set. Neither caster nor camber is adjustable on any RWD 2IS, so anyone telling you they adjusted either is lying.

 

Great info, Lance... Speaking of toe, I need to go get an alignment myself!!! Have you had a chance to look at the specs for the 2IS? Are they the same as the factory specs?

Javier

 

Front toe is the same for all the different models and suspensions. 1mm toe in +/- 2mm. Toe out helps turn in, so autocrossers tend to prefer more toe out. It's also hell on your tires for wear.

Toyota also specs rear toe in at 3mm +/- 2mm. Toe in at the rear helps turn the car, but it also contributes to inner edge wear (regardless of camber). I set mine on the Supra to 1.0mm to stop the inside edge wear I experienced with the factory setting. That was the driving force behind my alignment specs. After getting the toe right in the back, I never had a problem with inside edge wear and -1.5 degrees of rear camber.

 

Any one know of a good place in So Cal to get the ISx50 TOE adjusted?

No pun inteded

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't the JIC FLTA2 coilovers come with adjustable camber plates? and an aftermarket pillow ball joints.

 

I'm not familiar with those short names, but is that the Tein Coilover set or the Tanabes. If that comes with the set that would be awsome. But besides that..... does anyone have any problens with tire wear or any other suspension problem since you've lowered your car?

 

None of the coilovers for the 2IS will have adjustable camber plates because we have shocks, not struts. Cars with shocks usually have to adjust camber with the upper A arm.

 

Toyota always does it with the lower arm if it is adjustable. The 2IS is not except the AWD, and the AWD arm will not fit the RWD platform without some extensive modifications. You'd be better off just building from scratch, which is what I'll do if I ever decide this is a critical thing.