Originally Posted by DoubleWhoosh

Ok, one last time......

Does anyone know FOR A FACT that it is their camber causing the problem? I have said it SO SO SO many times and it's like nobody is listening, so this truly is the final inquisition on this.

Do you KNOW FOR A FACT that you need additional camber adjustment? If yes, then what are your current alignment specs?

This is the starting point.

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Also:

Are you aware that most (if not all) additional camber adjustment will REDUCE tire to fender clearance? Meaning that your tires WILL rub if they are close to rubbing now.

If your camber is around 1.25 (or even 1.5) degrees or less, it is probably your TOE setting that is causing the problem. This is caused either by bad toe settings, or worn bushings or something similar.

It is amazing how people have irregular tire wear, then immediately point to and blame the camber. "I need a camber kit! My tires are wearing out!" When in fact, these people have NO idea what their alignment specs are, what it would need to be to cause this problem, what the consequences of additional camber adjustment are, what actually causes certain types of tire wear, etc.

Oftentimes it's their not-so-knowing mechanic that tells them this, so unfortunately it just gets the misinformation domino effect started.

One more time, THESE CARS HAVE CHRONIC PROBLEMS WITH THE STRUT ROD/CASTER ARM BUSHINGS which is usually the cause of tire wear problems. Put a new arm, different bushings, whatever. That will more often than not fix it.

After I say this, people say, "my mechanic looked at it, the arms/bushings are ok." NOT! They might look ok, but they are not ok. This is just the nature of the beast with these cars. If someone doesn't know the intricacies of these cars, they will be fooled. Bottom line.

Also, the rear virtually ALWAYS has more camber issue than the front, but the requests for "I need a camber kit" are almost always for the front of the car. I always then ask, how are your rear tires? Then they get mad and say, "I didnt' say that! I don't need one in the rear, my rear tires are fine! I need one for the front I told you!" By virtue of logic, what does this tell you??

In any case, I can do something custom on the rear, but I have yet to find someone who can furnish some TRULY accurate current rear settings as a starting point, which would be the first step. From there, I actually have something I can do, but nobody has stepped up to the plate yet. Figure around $400 for this, but I'm not going to bother to get an exact figure until someone actually commits to it. $400 is probably pretty close though. Even if it's more I'll probably just stick to that price on the first one out of courtesy.

Funny how you put something real on the table and everyone scatters. Let's see what happens from here. Hopefully someone does this as I'm very interested to see how it works out in actual use.

Originally Posted by I.B.dAt.Fo

is it possible to do your own alignment?? i dont think there are any reputable alignment shops in the 916 area (well none i can find)

Originally Posted by GSteg

I did my own alignment. The actual work isn't hard. What's hard is finding out how much toe/camber you need. I did my alignment by trial and error () and now I have no uneven tire wear at all.

But it is not recommended because you have no way of telling what your readings are unless you have a mechanical gauge to measure your toe and camber. I was fortunate that all I needed was minor adjustments.

You're going to have to drive a bit further. Bring it to a shop because you can easily mess up your alignment and your tires will be eating away quicker than it is right now.

Originally Posted by GSteg

I did my own alignment. The actual work isn't hard. What's hard is finding out how much toe/camber you need. I did my alignment by trial and error () and now I have no uneven tire wear at all.

But it is not recommended because you have no way of telling what your readings are unless you have a mechanical gauge to measure your toe and camber. I was fortunate that all I needed was minor adjustments.

You're going to have to drive a bit further. Bring it to a shop because you can easily mess up your alignment and your tires will be eating away quicker than it is right now.

Originally Posted by Ex996

OK, here is my sheet. The handwritten numbers are my current camber settings. What do you think? I am having serious tire wear issues and am going nuts.

Originally Posted by Aristo300

I got a sheet back with mine as well. I'm on Tein CS and 20" staggered. The shop was able to get the front near perfect, but the rear is -1.5 and -2.4 [rear-left & rear-right]---why does this not make sense? It seems like if they could get the front in spec.. the rear could be done as well. I called them back because the camber actually got worst in the rear while they had the car... and they tried to explain to me that adjusting the toe in spec on the rear made the camber go farther out of spec. Can anyone make sense on this? Or tell me if the shop is bs'ing. I'm at about 500 miles on my MRR GT1's/Falken Fk452's........ trying not to eat these bad boys up!

Originally Posted by RMMGS4

Rear toe is adjusted only through the A-arms, while front toe is adjusted through the steering linkage, which is an independent toe adjustment from the A-arms, so you can adjust camber independently from the toe in the front, but in the rear adjusting toe can affect camber adjustments and vice versa.

Originally Posted by Aristo300

Thanks for the info. So the shop adjusted the toe within spec which threw my camber out of spec.... should I leave it as is, or have them adjust the toe slightly to bring my camber back into spec? I'll try and scan my variables print out.....

Originally Posted by uclaed

There is no need for a camber kit for a LExus GS. I recommend Bear Alignment in Monterey Park, CA on Garvey. These use the old school method-gauges. If your car is lowered, they can align it. Give them a call. That is where I am headed in about 2 weeks once I put my shocks/lowering springs.

Originally Posted by ILOVEGIRLS

so if someone was to cut and reweld the lower control arm to accomodate the camber..what happens if you raise the car back up? will you then have to cut and add a piece back?