What is camber and toe
- Thread starter thexav
- Start date
HDi fun
TC ModFather
camber is the angle of the wheel relative to a vertical line.
Toe is the the angle relative to a line drawn fore-aft through the wheel.
A basic alignment will only adjust total toe in and for front wheels only. It's a waste of time.
A full 4 wheel alignment can take 2-3 hours to complete. More if some adjustments require the fitting or removal of spacers or shims.
Have a poke around howstuffworks.com for a full explanation.
Toe is the the angle relative to a line drawn fore-aft through the wheel.
A basic alignment will only adjust total toe in and for front wheels only. It's a waste of time.
A full 4 wheel alignment can take 2-3 hours to complete. More if some adjustments require the fitting or removal of spacers or shims.
Have a poke around howstuffworks.com for a full explanation.
Country Bumpkin
Track Warrior
If your wheels are like this from a front or rear view / \ with the tops pointing innermost, they have been set up with negative camber and obviously with the opposite \ / they have positive camber.
A very small amount of negative camber can asist in road handling, a lot less than my keyboard assisted diagrams.
People who lower their cars too much and either don't have the ability or available parts to correct excessive camber will often end up with the car running excess negative camber. This causes poor handling as the tyre contact with road surface is not true and of course the suspension is not working effectively too.
Toe is using the same diagram but looking from above the car, if your wheels are pointing innermost in this pattern / \ with the tops of each line being the front of the tyre, they are toeing inwards, too much in this plane will cause excess tyre wear on the outer edges of the tyre as your car is travelling forwards but predominantly on the leading edges instead of the full face of the tyre.
If they are pointing \ / they are toeing out and will in effect wear the inner edges of the tyres excessively. In either scenario the vehicle will suffer from vibration too, as well as poor cornering and general road holding.
In any of the above scenarios, all or any of the camber or toe settings can be incorrectly set or misaligned.
Something as simple as kerbing a car can cause damage to one side of a steering geometry, things do bend or break.
I hope my long winded explanation is simple enough to understand and if it's not, i apologise but to me it's rather simple. It's obviously far easier to explain with the use of either decent diagrams, video or with a car in front of you.
A very small amount of negative camber can asist in road handling, a lot less than my keyboard assisted diagrams.
People who lower their cars too much and either don't have the ability or available parts to correct excessive camber will often end up with the car running excess negative camber. This causes poor handling as the tyre contact with road surface is not true and of course the suspension is not working effectively too.
Toe is using the same diagram but looking from above the car, if your wheels are pointing innermost in this pattern / \ with the tops of each line being the front of the tyre, they are toeing inwards, too much in this plane will cause excess tyre wear on the outer edges of the tyre as your car is travelling forwards but predominantly on the leading edges instead of the full face of the tyre.
If they are pointing \ / they are toeing out and will in effect wear the inner edges of the tyres excessively. In either scenario the vehicle will suffer from vibration too, as well as poor cornering and general road holding.
In any of the above scenarios, all or any of the camber or toe settings can be incorrectly set or misaligned.
Something as simple as kerbing a car can cause damage to one side of a steering geometry, things do bend or break.
I hope my long winded explanation is simple enough to understand and if it's not, i apologise but to me it's rather simple. It's obviously far easier to explain with the use of either decent diagrams, video or with a car in front of you.
dpsubaru
The Torque Meister
you might find that one of the bolts that hold the hubs on (usually two bolts but only one of them adjusts) will allow for camber adjustment. I have this on the Impreza (the top of the two bolts) and same thing on my sisters 1.0l Seat Arosa. (so it doesnt necessarily have to be a powerfulish car).
MasterAuron
Very Senior Member
And if not you can get camber adjustment bolts from the likes of Eibach for lots of cars. Re-adjusting the camber is a necessity if lowered really for the reasons Country Bumpkin states.
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