Hi guys,

I've read a lot of posts here on excessive tire wear on g35 coupes. I've got an 04 coupe not lowered and I am tired of tire wear on the rears (it seems to me the fronts are just too expensive and unsafe to fix, correct me if wrong).

First alignment place -NETWORK ALIGNMENT - reduced rear camber to L-1.8 and R-1.8 total toe .15. I installed camber arms from ebay (they look like stillen camber arms but claim not), and took the car to the dealer. Dealer alignment -PINNACLE INFINITY- (don't know if they were jacking me around) gave me a printout at rear camber L-1.5 and R-1.2 total toe .21

I bought spc bolts and toe arms (ebay) and had a local shop install them for about $230 Saturday. They put the spc bolt on the camber arm hole, I don't know why. The rears are now L-1.2 and R-.9 but toe is greater at .35 total (not good?).

I thought I could get rear camber down to -.5... the guys at the local shop told me they couldn't make it happen.

I know there was a thread I read, someone claimed to get -.5 camber and no toe. If someone could provide me with a link to that thread or the person who made that claim, it would be appreciated.

Here's my concern: The camber arm I installed had very little adjustment for positive camber. In other words, it would barely adjust any shorter than the original stock camber arm. Now, since the last alignment, I look under the car and that arm is adjusted longer than stock. Remember though, I had them install toe arms too. How is my shop trying to adjust for more positive camber when they have the camber arms extended about an inch causing negative camber?

In other words, AM I SCREWING WITH THE CAR ALIGNMENT TOO MUCH? IS SOMETHING WRONG WITH THIS SITUATION? HOW DO I GET MORE POSITIVE CAMBER? ARE WE SCREWING AROUND TOO MUCH WITH CASTER??? SHEESH!!

thanks guys for any advice. If you need pictures to help me let me know.

attached is the final alignment from the local shop.

also check out the SAI on the front. I hit a curb with the right front wheel, what do you guys think is busted?

 

sorry no help for you here but I have the same problem with rear tire wear. I'm on my 3rd set of rear tires, only driven the car 15k miles

 

Ok, they save me a lot of money. I was about to buy a camber kit, but looks like we need something else. Maybe a toe kit? Camber doesn't hurt tire wear that much. Toe and caster do.

 

your post is somewhat difficult to follow, but let me try and get it straight what exactly you have installed. camber arms, toe arms, and spc eccentric bolts installed on the end of the camber arm instead of the spring bucket(toe adjuster). Did the shop elongate the hole where the eccentric bolt was installed or did they just swap them out? If no elongating was done, then the eccentric bolt is doing nothing. Toe arms are a horrible way of adjusting toe. Have them uninstalled and have the stock toe arms put back in. Then have them remove the eccentric bolts and install them in the right location(on the end of the spring bucket) and elongate the subframe hole using the template provided from spc. Get a new alignment with those parts reinstalled. Everything should align properly. You do not need that low of camber either to get no wear. Aim for somewhere around -0.8 to -1.2 and set the toe at 0.04-0.05 toe in on both sides. You do not want zero toe, you need to compensate for the bushing flex while the vehicle is moving

 

Red-

Installed:

Correct. Camber Arms, Toe arms, spc cams in with the camber arms (which doesn't make any sense to me).

I went back to the shop today, and brought the instructions for the cam bolt going into the spring bucket and dremelled. It was like pulling teeth trying to convince these guys to do it. They told me it didn't matter.

The way it is now, they have the toe arm on the left shortened all the way, and therefore they can't adjust the camber anymore on the left apparently. I argued we should uninstall the toe arms and install the spc cams into the spring bucket. Looking at the geometry of the car, the spring bucket is further from the center of rotation than the toe arm linkage, and thus installing the spc spring bucket should give us more adjustable toe than the toe arm. And now I see why the spring bucket adjustment is better than the toe arms. They didn't like this idea.

currently the alignment is:

Rear
camber L-1.2 R-0.9
toe L .19 R.16

Should I push this and tell them to do it? It would probably cost me another $250. Should I take it to another shop that does mods, as this place just does general work????

thank you for the help.

 

Hasn't Infiniti recalled our suspension yet? I know Nissan has finally accepted that the 350z suspension is whacked out.

 

The major problem with "toe" arms is that they adjust 2 planes of suspension geometry at the same time. That is why they are technically called radius arms. They change both toe and rear "caster" by changing the arm length. What this does is while changing toe, they move the position of the suspension forward and back in relation to the wheel well. If done enough the wheel will no longer be centered in the wheel well arch. This can have adverse effects on handling and is just a poor way to adjust toe when there is the factory location which works perfectly well with the spc bolts. Take it to a new shop. The rear toe in is pretty high still and i suspect you will still have some tire wear issues in the rear if they can't get that down to a more reasonable value.

 

all you need to know to know that shop sucks is that they put the eccentric bolt in the camber arms. They are hacks. no getting around it.

Don't ever go back there. Elongating the mount where they really are on the toe arms is dirty work but can fully be done yourself. I just followd the instructions that came with them. i had it especially hard because I have ras and had to elongate hardened steel. Without ras it will be much easier.

 

Remember static [sitting still] alignment is just a misalignment designed to correct the alignment traveling straight down a good road at 55 mph.

Engineers measure the rolling alignment and come up with numbers to try to correct.

Anytime you change anything about suspension you must perform tests to come up with brand new static numbers.

 

thank you fellas

 

damn your "TOE" numbers is crazy! bring it to another shop!
even a firestone shop can do a better job than that!

 

OK Guys - sorry to revive an old thread but I'm new here and have the same issues. I bought a 05 G35 for my son and he's only put 10-15K miles on it and I've gone through a set of tires so I decided to get new tires and have it aligned. The tech. told me as they come from the factory there's virtually no adjustment on the front and very little on the back so I either have to install after market kits or eat tires. I read earlier in this thread where it may not be safe to have the kits installed on the front - is this true? Any info. is appreciated. He's already had one blow-out and now 2 of the other tires are worn on the inside of the tires down to the cord so I'm putting new tires on it and I don't want to burn through these.

 

If these guys do not want to do the right job then find a shop that cares about you being happy with their work. I had loads of customer in every business because I ran that way. I did the camber arms from Eibach and when the camber was nice the toe in was wacked, I do not have any lowered springs. I'm trying to find a shop that will do it right, lots of shops that will just bang it out.

 

^This thread was started over a year ago, the OP has probably taken care of the issue by now.
The SPC camber kits work well. I don't know why it wouldn't be safe to install on the front, mine have been installed for about 9 months and have been through some brutal driving. Some brands have been known to snap, but I don't think that is the case with SPC. Be sure to research the different brands, some won't adjust for positive camber.

 

Eibach! Best made and best for least problems, just follow the directions. Have a shop that knows what they are doing,many Dealers send their cars out to a shop, they should know what they are doing, get the repair CD for your car off Ebay, it is very good so you can learn about the car.