How low can I go on my 05 RSX before a camber kit is necessary? Tein S tech 1.7 / 1.4 inch drop, but I'm also considering Eibach sportline because thay offer 1.5 / 1.8 inch drop which will eliminate the small amount of rake and level the car out. Help a n00b out

 

get a camber kit no matter what, with a nice new ride do it right the first time, if not you will go through tires every few months and only cause problems down the road. for the amount a camber kit cost it is worth it especially since you have a sweet new car man, also get an alignment done after to make sure all is well. some will say if you can keep it between stock specs don't buy it, but from personal experience get the kit

 

I would say anything lower than 1" needs a camber kit. That is on the conservative side but it is better safe than sorry.

 

Dont mean to intrude on your post, but im getting one this week and am wondering the same thing. The car stock looks like it has an off-road package and needs help in the drop department. Whats a good spring? Is comptech any good? Something that wont kill the stock shocks. Thanks

 

the eibach prokit coils are like 1.0 front 1.4 rear drop i think. I don't know what name to look for specifically but from friends I've heard tein, koni, tanabe, and eibach... I think i've changed my mind again and gonna go for the eibach prokit. I traded in a 2002 S10 ext cab for this car and i had a 3/4 inch drop on an xtreme zq8 which is allready 2 inches lowered factory. Plus I had a xenon kit on it which made it sit lower and it was just beginning to be a pain for daily driving. Talk about rough ride!! Anyways I'm not gonna go crazy with lowering this ride, but a little wouldn't hurt ; )

 

basically I believe ANY lowering more than 0.5 needs a camber kit.

 

What for? Toe will kill your tires, not camber.

 

Anytime you lower a McPherson Front-Front car, you introduce suspension problems at an alarming rate and not necessarily in logical proportion to the suspension changes you've made.

If somebody's lowering an EP3 or DC5, I'll usually go out of the way to caution them to buy at the upper end of the suspension market, from people we know will have well researched all the issues related to Honda McPherson suspension geometry.

The McPherson system is not nearly as resillient as the usual Honda double wishbone suspensions, and it's important, especially if the car's used in any kind of high performance application, that the suspension designer know what he's doing.

Assuming the person buying the suspension is mostly interested in better handling, I'd suggest that a no-brainer like the Mugen SS is a logical choice for both the DC5 and EP3. The Mugen SS is designed to not need a camber kit or any adjustment other than a regular toe-in and thrust angle alignment after installation.

 

But I thought toe in was something you couldn't do.

Or maybe I'm thinking of caster.

 

Toe in is the easiest to do for a backyard mechanic.

On most cars, caster is not adjustable unless you want to do something like switch the control arms. Changing caster can give you a handling advantage, but it can also stress axles beyond their design parameters. On the Honda Challenge Prelude, Corey broke two high strength axles before he realised that the increased caster was just over stressing them.

When you make changes to an EP3 or DC5 by lowering the car, it's the toe in and thrust angle that are the most important to fix. It's possible that your regular garage will not be able to fix the thrust angle if it's wrong, which could necessitate paying for a "competition alignment" the first time after lowering a McPherson car.

Camber adjustments can be an important part of making a car handle better; however, camber is usually not what's wearing out your tyres. It's usually a bad toe in alignment or total thrust angle that is causing your car to handle strange and the tyres to wear.

Camber up to about 3 degrees negative is not really going to wear tyres. It's dumb to have 3 degrees camber on a street car, though, because you're reducing the tyre's effectiveness in a straight line.