Upset and confused...PLEASE HELP!!

[james_ls]

I've always had my car lowered; alot.

http://community.webshots.com/photo/...81303415ZVYwVH

(That picture was a few weeks after lowering...it sat a slight bit lower than that.)

Anyways: I had hit a piece of sheet metal in the road...leads to new tires...took old ones off...realized I had exceptional wear on inner pieces due to the top of my front tires being bent inwards (can't remember the term for that one; wether it's camber//caster//toe//whatever)...so on goes camber kit and a trip to allignment.

I go to pick my car up from allignment...and it's almost back to stock height!!

They were saying that with the camber kit on there...the control arms aren't clearing the inner metal section of my wheel//fender wells, so they had to raise it in order to allow the control arms travel room. Does this sound right?

So my questions are:

1) If I can get the control arms to clear...can I put it back to how it is in the picture...and get it re-alligned so it doesn't eat my new tires?

2) Is the camber kit really necessary; or is there some way to bend in the BOTTOM of the wheel instead of the TOP??

3) Anyone know a place that does "custom" allignments on drastically lowered vechicles? I don't care about lifetime warranty's or any of that crap...I just want it back to how it looks in the picture...clean and low...not high and crappy.

PLEASE HELP ME TST!! I WANNA BLOW THE THING UP!!

~James

[BlackBulletTSi]

ur pic doesn't work

[james_ls]

Link updated.

[Broken5hift]

how wide are the rims? do you need the camber kit? what happens when you just lower the car and align it without the camber kit or have you always had the camber kit on it?

i had my gsr slammed on 17x7.5 konig glides and had an alignment done in newtown and never had a problem with it once. i also didnt have a camber kit

[TROLL]

i had my car pretty low for a short while and the axles were actually ever so slightly rubbing the underside of the fender lining on full compression, so its possible that you are having clearance issues as well... normally your control arm/axle will be like this -- but the more you lower your car the more it goes like this / which does throw things off. it may look good but lowering your car excessively will make it handle worse. its one factor of many that plays into suspension though.
by the way if the tops of yoru tires were angled in your had negative camber, but despite popular believe it doesnt really eat up tires as much as most thing. having toe will eat the insides of your tires though and is more likely what you had. getting a good alignment and checking it yearly is a good way to avoid tire wear like that in the future.
as far as ride height... i dunno you'll have to get someone who knows what they're looking at to get under your car and see what kind of clearance you have. i'm shocked that the alignment shop took the time to raise your car up though, and that they did it without calling you first.

[KrautFed20V]

I would take it to A&H Motorsport... they aligned my Teg' when i was on skunk2 coilovers, and i never had any problems after that... they would know what to do about the camber kit problem too.

[james_ls]

^^ That's who I went to.

I love Evan and the staff over there...but my major question I guess is this...

Since its dropped 4 1/2" is the camber kit SUPER necessary?? All I want is the wheels straight so I don't rip these tires to pieces.

[TROLL]

when you lower a car the camber will become more negative. usually you need to offset this by being able to adjust the camber more positive. with that much lowering chances are you do need a camber kit to offset it.
i'm still surprised they modified your ride height without even giving you a call though... thats strange.

[james_ls]

They told me they were going to raise it a little...not back to damn near stock.

I wonder if I get a new camber kit (like Skunk2 where its the whole control arm instead of the snail-like bushings) if that will alow the control arms to clear the Integra wheel//fender wells...

[peteyturbo]

I'm sure you don't care, but you are much better off with having a little bit of travel left on your suspesion if you are actually doing this for a purpose other then to look "slammed"..If you want the car to handle well, you are probably better off the way it is now..

[james_ls]

Petey...I pretty much just want the bitch slammed....

[99SL2_Modder]

Man, I'm reading all these posts, and I wouldn't have ANY of these issues even if I laid the body to the ground on my car. The only issue I'd have is tire rub on the fenders. =/

I have no idea how to fix your car without seeing it...if it were anything like mine, I could tell you, but it's not. I love having everything factory adjustable to extensive degrees without kits.

[james_ls]

LoL cause that helped.

HONDA HEADS!! HELP ME!!

[TROLL]

you've already gotten your answer, a few times. you need to get under your car and see where the contact points are, or if you dont know what you're looking at you need to have someone who does take a look.
time to stop posting about it and start pulling out the jack and stands.

[james_ls]

Thanks Brian...(not trying to sound sarcastic with that)...I was already under there and know where the contact spots are...I'm gonna take some pictures of it whenever the monsoon stops...

[TROLL]

you can probably guage by the severity of the contact spots how much you have to back off your lowering. you could readjust, mark the contact spots with paint or sharpie, or whatever, and then go put the car through its paces. if when you check again, the marks havent rubbed off, then you're good to go

[james_ls]

I know its severe...it practically locks the steering into whatever direction it was last turned...it feels like I'm driving on ice.

Bad news bears.

I think if I can get those arms to clear though...I should be all gravy...right??

[TROLL]

so your steering rack is whats hitting then? yeah you dont want that to hit... do you know other people on forums who have the exact same car as yours with the same suspension components and whatnot? have they or have they not had success?

[james_ls]

Steering rack...control arms...whatver...like I said I'll grab some pictures of it when it stops flash thunder storming...and see if I can show you EXACTLY what I mean.

I believe the Skunk2 control arms w/built in camber kit will do the trick...that seems to be everyones weapon of lowering-choice.