Hi all,

I've had a set of Cusco a-arms in my garage for while now waiting until my tire wear was so bad that I needed to replace the tires.... that time has come.

I have an '05 lowered on Tein Basics. I've heard conflicting reports about whether or not replacing a-arms is necessary to correct the alignment for proper tire wear.

Is there a general rule or is it best to take it to an alignment shop and see if they can work with the stock suspension first?

Here is what the car looks like now.

 

For the fronts, there is no camber adjustment from the factory. Might as well install the arms and then take it in for an alignment.

 

Some members go for a certain “look” and be damned with alignment. Depends what you are trying to accomplish.

 

I'm looking to get the alignment corrected to correct the odd wear on my tires. They are wearing on the inside edge (left side more than the right so I know the alignment is off anyway). And I had read somewhere that there is not enough (and equinox seems to confirm this) adjustment with the OEM components, so changing to aftermarket allows more adjustment to achieve proper tire wear.

I've also read that Cusco arms are more geared for negative camber (?) v.s. positive- for racing applications, but they have enough positive to bring things back within spec.

 

Just dropped my car off at the alignment shop. They confirmed what Equinox said about no camber adjustment.

Someone in another thread said they were able to get their car back within spec with stock a-arms. How can this be if there is no adjustment for camber? I'm assuming mine was was way out because of the extreme wear on the inside edge of the front tires.

I'll post numbers when I pick it up tonight.

 

thats weird im running eibach sportlines and when i did my alignment it was still in spec besides toe which i adjusted on the machine

 

You have things pretty much figured out. The further you drop the car, the more negative camber it will add. Generally speaking, anything more than .8" drop will put you outside of stock specs.

The Cusco arms can add about .5 degrees of positive camber. Just put the plate in the full positive position and bolt them on. The alignment shop won't make any adjustment to them (there is no fine tuning, only .5 degree increments) but align everything else. If you are slammed in the front, even the Cusco arms won't get you back in spec but it will be an improvement.

 

The Cusco arms are not done in degrees, but rather in mm - how that translates into degrees depends completely on the specific car, the wheel and tire setup, etc.

That being said, my car is literally about as low as anyone's out there, and just 2 weeks ago, in prep for the long drive to Z Dayz, I dialed camber down to -1.5 per side

 

I didn't get a spec sheet with the alignment, but the guy said basically that I'm at as much positive camber and toe as possible and am *just* within spec. He said it's basically perfect. Any more, though and the Cusco's wouldn't have had enough adjustment. He said to come back in a week or so and see if there is any settling that affects the alignment.

I was going to be fine with "close enough" since where I was was WAY off so "basically perfect" is good for me.

 

Oh, and he said the rears were maxed but "close". Based on my tire wear, it's fine. The tires are worn very evenly.