I have an '04 6MT with factory sport suspension.
I swapped in Hotchkis linear rate 350z/G35 lowering springs.

They lowerthe rear by 7/8" and the front by 9/16". I did the job myself, rears took 40 mins for both, fronts took 50 minutes each. The springs cost $189 and a spring compressor $37. I got an alignment and set it up pretty good but there are limitations... In the rear, the toe adjusted ok, but the camber could not be adjsuted to less than -2.0 degrees. Spec is -0.2 to -1.2 so

I've got 0.8 degress too much camber relative to spec. Up front I've got -1.5 degrees, spec is -0.7 and there is NO camber adjustment! Now I could go out and spent a few hundred dollars on camber adjustable front upper arms and adjustable rear camber and toe links but is it necessary??!

Does anyone have any idea as to what kind of accelerated/uneven tire wear to expect from 0.8 degrees of extra camber? I'm running on Kumho Ecsta ASX 235/50/17s (on stock 'factory sport suspension' five spoke 7x17" wheels) so they aren't super wide tires. I'm thinking the extra neg camber may not affect them too much. If that much neg camber is going to ruin tires in short order
though, it'll be worth the money spent to resolve the potential problem.

I wouldn't want the car any lower, it has bottomed in the rear on hard dips but it handles MUCH better, I love this car a lot more now!

Next mod I'm planning: Drill extra link bar hole in sway bars shortening lever length by about 3/4". I haven't done the math but it'll stiffen them... Anybody have a comment? Done this?

 

Your idea on the sways would help but is not as good as going with an aftermarket set.

The only other option you have on the camber is to swap your tires from side to side every ~5k miles. That's what I do on my fronts. I got a camber kit for the rear because they are not much and my 275/30/20's in the rear are not cheap and I need all the traction I can get which camber kits also help.

 

I also figured aftermarket anti-sway bars would be a significant improvement, but before I wrote my check, I looked at the front bar that came stock and found it's about 1 3/8" thick , similar to the diameter of aftermarket units so I got to thinking that the stock sport suspension came with a pretty good sway bar stock.

Swapping tires side to side won't help excessive inside wear without remounting as inside stays inside and outside outside. Are you remounting tires and switching direction when you rotate side to side?

Traction won't be improved by correcting (reducing) the negative camber. Many race setups go with about -3 degrees but for street it tears up tires too quickly. From what I understand, handling and corning grip continues to improve with additional negative camber through fairly excessive levels.

The two items I really hope to get some specific advice on are:

Will -2 degrees of camber rear and -1.5 degrees front eat tires?
and
Does drilling and remounting the sway bar links closer to the twist axis cause any problems, most importantly metal fatigue or failure, or any other issues?

I realize these are difficult questions that can only really be answered through very specific experience dealing with these very specific issues, but I figured with many lowered G35's out there, the camber issue would have been experienced by others who also thought twice about making additional camber correction mods, and also that the sway bar mod might also have been thought of and tried by others.

Thanks and keep the ideas coming!

 

Well, I broke down and bought Hotchkis Sways and much more including SPC camber kits.

 

let us know how the front SPC work and if you get knocking...

 

I have been running that exact camber setup for past 2 years. I do a lot of canyon ripping and drag racing at the strip and on average my tires last me about 1.5 year. As Tim said, switching the tires from one side to the other will extend the tire life to about 2 years in my case.
If ur running 235/50/17 all around, then X-ing the rims would extend the tire life even more if u do it every 5-10k miles. The bottom line is that if ur toe is withing specs than u shouldn't worry about camber being at 2.0.

 

I've had the SPC arms on for about a month now and there is no knocking. When I spoke to SPC about the knocking problems I'd read about they said it never happened in sedans. They said they revised the design so that new ones don't cause problems in either but the original ones could cause a knocking problem in coupes. I've had a little squeaking develop.

 

Almost all street tires are designed to provide optimum performance at negative 0.5 degrees camber!

Unfortunately as the body rolls the camber goes more positive, you fix the body roll, or design a correct suspension with adequate camber gain curves, or just add negative camber [statically] so that the tire is - 0.5 with 3" of body roll.

Each 1" of body lowering or body roll increases/decreases negative camber by -0.83 degrees.

3" x 0.83= ~2.5 degrees add the 0.5 =~~ 3.0 degrees why racers preset at -3.0 degrees to that camber is right on at 3" body roll ~~~= 0.9 G cornering!

 

I've driven on these for about 5 months of use now. They operate perfectly, and do not squeak or knock. My alignment went out a week after installation, because the shop did not torque them properly. After re-alignment the settings have remained true.

The bushes developed a little squeaking after a few weeks. I went and loosened the mounting bolts, set the arms to the height they would be at loaded and re-torqued them. (Someone told me this was advisable when installing them because otherwise the bushings are loaded twisted. I had originally tightened them hanging down a bit not realizing it would matter. It does matter because the bushings are bonded to the metal and if they are twisted under load, they remain twisted under load, which is not advisable.)

These arms offer good adjustability, including caster. (Not all adjustable arms offer caster adjustment. Some other adjustable arms require detachment of the balljoint for camber adjustment. These do not.) The SPC arms also offer the possibility of very quick camber changes at trackside with the right skills and equipment. (i.e. jack, socket, pivoting socket driver and a FasTrax Camber / Caster Gauge which costs $150)