Ive spoken to stanton today about Camber shims which i am going to order in the morning... ive noticed theres a lot of people asking about these when i searched so i thought id knock up some information that i found along the way and hopefully people can add to it?
The item in Question...
Fitment GuideRegal StoreThe shims swivell within each other. as in, each shim is made up of 2 parts. rotate them to the maximum camber setting and then cut out the areas for the bolts to go through. these are not even/semetrical so dont worry, just follow the template for 4stud VW's. then all you have to do is bolt them up.
Oi fella a bit of advice for max camber on ur shims if u aint cut em already. It tells u to have the numbers '20' at the top for max camber, but this is for a standard height car where the trailing arm sits almost level with the ground, with the stub axle upright. I see ur car is pretty darn low, so the beam mounts probably sit lower than the stubs, the trailing arm and stub are at an angle u get me? If you fit the shims with the 20 at the top, when you lower the car to the ground the stub and shim will rotate slightly turning the camber into toe! = Not maximum camber!
For more camber;
Put the shim over the diagram, numbers facing you, with the '20 20' at the top. Then rotate the WHOLE shim anti clockwise (drivers side), or clockwise (passenger side) by one or two 'tabs', THEN cut the tabs in the usual positions as on the diagram. Just make sure when you fit em, both sides should have the numbers facing towards you.
It looks like it should give you toe out, but when you lower the car so the wheels are on the ground, with full weight on the wheels, the 20 will be at the top, rather than rotated into toe. =BARE MORE CAMBER!!
Proper hard to get ur head around at first, but it makes sense! I did it on mine, n got loads more camber!
A bit of extra camber over standard on the front of a car can make it handle better as the weight transfer onto the front outside wheel makes the wheel "straigten up" giving grip at the right time, but extra camber on the rear does not improve handling. If anything it lowers the grip level on the rear and in the wrong way. It tends to make a car "tram" into corners too, i.e try to go straight on, even more so on 4WD cars.
It can look sweet if done right and is safe in the sense of your wheels won't fall off, if done right. But for "driving" a car its balls!
Camber is usually used for cornering to a degree. A higher inclination of negative camber will give a somewhat improved corning ability, but will be more unstable at straight line top speeds. Positive camber on a car is used heavier cars as it requires a lesser steering effort when maneuvering.
Obviously even small amounts of camber will drastically alter tyre wear patterns, and wear the inside/outside edges more of a tyre depending on the camber angle. Also if your car has offset camber angles, the car will pull towards the side with the greater camber angle.
I suppose it does look cool on the occasional car, but waste of money when it comes to tyres really as you will literally eat them.
Shims WONT push out the whole wheel they will in fact push the top of the wheel in and depending on which degree you go for they come in 0.5 dergree .75 or 1.0 degree they will give you more clearance. What you must be carefull of is that you can have the cleance you desire between the inner edge of your rim and your suspension leg.you can get 1.5degree shims no problem. double them up if you want mega noticeable camber
You can use any washer's but Stainless would be best between 1 and 1,5mm going by my machining calculations
If using the washer method, i would strongly suggest you threadlock the bolts when replacing them as you are putting higher than normal stresses on the bolts which i wouldn't be very happy about to be honest and would even consider using stainless bolts
Issues Resolvedhaving problems getting my brake carriers off to fit my camber shims, just can't undo the 2 8mm hex head boltsSoak em in wd40 or use stud extractor on them
Small set of stilsons are what you need
Have you tried heating them up?
You need some nippex pliers they will never fail on these bolts
I cut the head off one of mine with a hack saw and replaced with 17mm bolt
if you cant get it out last resort os to knock on a 15mm socket this will get it off had to do it to mine
Irwin bolt grippers..
Im worried about using the shims as they are plasticthey are made from nylon.
there is no issue with them 'not being metal'.... its purely a phycological thing! laugh.gif
£20 posted from regal autosport for the pair for an aditional 1.5 degrees.
I'm fitting my camber shims but cant get the shims on becasue of the abs sensor, does it have to be removed? if so how?[/img]
Have a look on the diagram, bottom right if i remember correctly. You cut the bit of the shim away where the sensor is, so in affect you have a C shape, then fit as normal.Cut the top bit out of the shim, it does make it a bit fidly to fit but once it's on it's fine.
A Few Images
fitted them the way phataz said as it made more sense, as had 22 at the top wiht the settings at 20/20 so going to set it with 18 at the top!!
Thats roughly about 4.75 degress, at a stab in the dark i'd say if you run about 2ish that'd give it a nice angle.
has 1 shim, think its about 1.5 - 2 deg. [mk2 though... obviously]
<--This mk3 is running about 4 degrees of camber, and he did it with some cheap washers from the local hardware store
<--- 5 Degrees of camber.. ohoh
Before V After..
