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My car has been hit in the front a few times and actually has very slight positive camber on the driver's side front wheel. Anyway, after two autocross sessions and about 100 miles of street use my "new" Falken Azenis are starting to get uneven wear on the outsides... (I rotated them once between events - and I only use them on the street for going to and from the venue, not every day.)

SO... I wouldn't mind to have some (a little) negative camber up front and slightly less at the rear. I have adjustable upper strut tower braces on both ends of the car that I can lengthen or shorten. My question is, is it a "bad thing" to change the camber by jacking the car up (so the wheels are off the ground), shortening my strut braces by a few turns (maybe half an inch or 3/4), and just pulling it inwards untill I can pop it over the strut bolts?

Will this work? Or would it cause too much strain on other parts of the car? I can't afford real camber plates so this was my "on the cheap" idea.

- J

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[ 1993 Lotus Elan SE ] [ 1989 Starion ESi-R ] [ 1987 Porsche 944s ]

Yes it would work.

Since you're running a STB, I'll assume you're not in stock class. If that is the case, go to NAPA (or some comparable store) and order a set of crash bolts. (maybe called camber correction bolts)

They'll give you a degree or so of neg camber.

Hmm... The thing I'd be worried about, is instead of just pulling the shocks inwards, I'd actually be pulling the whole front end in towards the middle. My concern is this might weaken the chassis in some places.

Also I have a lot of experience shearing the heads off bolts on this car, I don't think they're very good at withstanding lateral strain.

What do crash bolts do exactly? (Edit: Nevermind, I found some good diagrams on Google.)

- J

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[ 1993 Lotus Elan SE ] [ 1989 Starion ESi-R ] [ 1987 Porsche 944s ]

They basically just replace one of the bolts that hold each one of the knuckles/struts together. The bolt is smaller then the one that it replaces which makes the camber adjustable. Ignore the torque settings that the bolts supply, because they are not nearly tight enough to keep the struts from slipping.

The bolts should be around $20usd/each.