I am trying to fix all the little problems with my teg (gotta love em) and next is rear camber problem. My rear camber is very bad and im at stock ride height. I used the washer trick but had to use longer bolts and 6 washer on the left and 7 on the right. Im about to lower the car so i want to fix this. What could be the reason of this at stock height? I cant see anything unusual under there. What should i look for or measure?
I would look at the rear trailarm bushings they are probley bad
Sounds like your springs are worn, and odds are good your bushings are fatigued. Check all your bushings for “dry rotting” and replace them. If you get lowering springs/coilovers it might help. If the new springs and bushings don’t solve your problem it would probably be wise to get a camber kit. The washer trick works great, but I get worried when you get past 4 washers haha. Good luck!
if youre about to lower the car, go ahead and get new rear trailing arm bushings anyway, if you leave the stock ones in and lower the car enough, it could possibly work the tired old RTA bushing into an agonizing death.
also, if you get new RTA bushings now, youll be able to clock them properly to your new ride height, lengthening their life.
before i do any suspension work to a car with more than 100k miles, i replace almost all the bushings, bearings and friction pieces, you would be surprised how much better some cars get with just some rubber replacement.
the energy and prothane kits are great, but dont last as long as OEM does, so if youre looking for 20 more years out of your suspension, go OEM. if youre planning on driving the piss out of your car and have no intentions of 20 year reliablility get the stiffer, more performace oriented bushings.
Thanks ill check the bushings when i get a chance. The trailing arm bushing? Is that the spherical bushings i hear everyone getting hell trying to replace? Have to burn them out or something like that?
Trailing arm bushings have no effect on static camber.
As the others said, I’d check all the other bushings, also check anything for being bent, there’s no logical reason why your camber would be that far off. And actually… how far off was it? Did you get an actual alignment or are you doing this by eye?
no alignment yet. I just wanted to make it better than it was. I checked the camber arm (UCA?) where you do the washer trick and it looks straight. What else could be bent?
/-----\ looked like that at stock height
You’ve positive it’s stock height? All stock suspension pieces?
Even if your bushings are worn they would need to be very worn and I’d suspect you’d have more issues than just camber - such as unstable handling and/or some strange noises.
dumb question, but did you check the UCA bushings?
and are you sure it’s camber wear and not toe?
Well I know my trail arm bushings were so bad on my 4 door it looked like that on both side. An it was all stock 230,000 miles stock everthing. An I replaced them an it all went away an then I lowered it so that my .002
i know this sounds pretty dumb …but by any chance do you think the rear upper control arms are not the right ones? although they might look alike some are different in length. did you buy the car from someone recently? maybe they had it lowered with a camber kit…then took it all off and just threw in some ef or other honda UCA’s just to make it “stock”? hope it helps
Colin: It does handle really really unstable. Its almost scary in a corner above 50mph. There is lots of noises too. My hubs are bad in the rear so i just ordered those. they will go on soon but it seems like more than just that.
Killer: I was thinking they might not be the right UCA’s too but i have no fast or cheap way to check.
I need to get it in the air and check the bushings out. Should the trailing arm be perfectly straight? Oh… it does have bad toe wear also.
have a look at the bearings. if they’re extensively worn, that could cause these symptoms
Yeah, from what you just mentioned the bearings could definitely be causing all the problems you’re having. Like the OP mentioned I was also thinking the ucas could be the wrong ones. Even if they look stock it could be possible they were for another chassis. But there’s no reason to think that’s the case.
What do you mean by perfectly straight? I don’t doubt your bushings are bad, they always are at this age. But like I said the bushing doesn’t locate the arm with regard to static camber. The bushing just provides a point for the assembly to rotate on. If it’s worn there is just w lot more play in the wrong direction.
ill see if i can dig up my stock uca’s and compare them to some ef ones i have also…just to make sure so we can completely eliminate them from being the trouble