I had a problem with adjusting my Caster too.. couldnt get it near the suggested OEM specs.

 

I hit a pot hole which led me to an allignment shop. After attempt 2 (at getting the car to feel right), my car was given more caster to make the car more "responsive". I don't like it one bit. It's like the turning of the wheels exponentially increases by me turning the steering wheel.

 

I'm guessing the increased negative camber just takes out all the adjustment in caster, what I don't understand is why it only happens on the drivers side and not the passenger.

If you drop your camber to -.7 etc less than -1 degree you can get it into factory spec.

 

I have heard from 2 different alignment techs that caster and camber are trade offs.

If I run 6.4 caster I can only get .8 camber.

If I run less than 6 caster I can get over 1 degree camber. Mine is on the rack right now and we just tried this.

 

[QUOTE=Wildncrazy,Feb 10 2006, 11:31 AM] I have heard from 2 different alignment techs that caster and camber are trade offs.

If I run 6.4 caster I can only get .8 camber.

If I run less than 6 caster I can get over 1 degree camber.

 

Just do the camber the way you want it and run max equal caster. That's how i do it. I usually end up with 5.6 to 5.8 caster, depending on the moon and stars that day....

Bassem

 

Do you find your car drifts to the right with equal max caster? We were just going to run 5.5 on each side since that was the max of the drivers side but the mechanic reccomended a .3 split to account for the road crowning right.

 

A lot of techs use a split. I personally never noticed any ill effects of equal caster or a constant need to correct the car. But YMMV: I run 235 front tires, and have a set of coilovers, so I feel every little dip in the road, bump, roadkill bones etc.. via the steering. As such I am constantly making corrections on all but the newest roads.

The one thing I did notice though by having equal caster is that the car loads up and unloads the electric power assist more equally (between L &R). One way for me that my car is out of alignment, even a little, is by how the car feels on entry and exit from a medium-sharp turn. Side to side differences in the caster are noticable to me at least.

Bassem

 

My camber is set to OEM specification. I think my car handles beautifully on the street. I drive primarily out in the country on twisty, isolated roads at night.

Unless you guys are doing some serious autoxing, Why the need to dial in the camber?

 

Because we do some serious autocrossing

Also I'm only running -1.3 which is only marginally more than the factory reccomended -1. A lot of people run .5-.7 more than factory. The rear definetely needs more and we're using -2 as reccomended by the honda UK preferred settings. The car loves to swap ends by nature so a little extra grip in the rear never hurts.