can i adjust camber?
 

just wondering if there is any way to adjust the camber on my 99 pro 1.6? i have taken it to the track and noticed it rides the sidewalls alot in corners. im afraid to increase tire pressure because it reaches 40 psi when the tires get hot.

yes you can adjust camber, take to an alignment shop and have them install camber bolts they will increase the camber alot

Jim

Re: can i adjust camber?
 

You can adjust camber by jacking up the front end, removing the 4 nuts at the tops of the strut towers, and rotating the tops of the struts. You will notice that the top of the strut mount is off center in the hole in the strut tower. Rotating the strut so that the top of the mount is towards the rear of the car increases positive caster; rotating it so that the top is towards the middle of the car increases negative camber. However, there are only 4 positions and you can only adjust the camber and caster by +/-0.5 degree each way. Mine are adjusted max negative, and I only have -0.8 degrees on one side and -1.0 degrees on the other, which is not much for a strut car, and I have not heard of other G3 Pro owners getting much more camber than this using 100% stock parts.

You can get a little more negative camber by replacing the strut-to-knuckle bolts with smaller camber bolts, available for ~$3 each from Mazda Motorsports. Keep in mind that you will need an alignment if you adjust the camber because increasing negative camber on a 99+ Pro will also increase toe in, which will make your car plow on corner entry.

However, before you run out and adjust stuff, I would recommend looking at your tires. First, you should increase the pressure. Most all-season tires need *at least* 40 psi COLD to prevent rollover. Use 40 psi as a starting point and increase to 45, then 50 if they still roll over.

Second, keep in mind that your Protege LX comes with tires that are built for ride comfort, which means soft, mushy sidewalls. If you crank the pressure up enough to prevent rollover, you will probably sacrifice traction, and in my experience, most all-seasons won't stand up to track/autox abuse anyway- the heat buildup will cause the treads to start chunking :eek: I would STRONGLY recommend getting better tires. There are a few good tires available for your stock 14" wheels, but you might consider getting 15's or 16's for a more significant improvement.

thanx for your replies:) however, it is actually my moms car and i dont plan on upgrading anything. i am waiting to save enough money for my own car right now, perhaps a 92 323? surprisingly the tires aren't too bad. the traction suxx but in return they dont wear out as quick as they should. i went for the whole day and burned off only the outside tread block halfway. i will definately try rotating my struts if it is not too difficult, but i dont know if increasing pressure is a good idea. like you said, it may result in less traction. anyways, thanx for all your help and remember, size does matter, thats why mustangs suck:) peace:D

If you go to tirerack.com you can look at plus-sizing your rims. The bigger the rims, and the lower profile the tires, the better cornering you get. They showed an experiment done by a grassroots racing club did with plus-sizing rims. The average times of the same 5 drivers doing the circuit decreased dramatically the more plus-size they went on their rims.

So you're racing your mom's car at the track?? What does she think about that? I would definitely just invest in some bigger wheels with low profile tires to change to at the track so you don't kill your mom in the rain when you kill the tread on her radials....

im saving for my own car so i done really wanna buy anything. my mom duzn't know, my dad duz. im teaching him how to do it too.

CARGUYCW: Got a question for you. I tried to do what you said about changing the position of the strut, but there is only like 1/8" I can move it. It just doesn't seem that effective. The reason I tried it was because I lowered my car, and even with camber bolts my camber is -1.5 degrees. I wanted to move the struts towards the outside of the car to increase it a little bit, but there was only enough room to barely move it.

Now since I screwed with my struts by unbolting the top of it from the car and jacking it up, do I need to get an alignment eventhough I don't think anything was changed. Alignments for me are free so it doesn't matter if I need on or not. Thanks in advance...

Mark
'01 ES

Your are *turning* the top of the strut, right? I'm not talking about just loosening the nuts and wiggling it around in the bolt holes. You have to completely remove the nuts, then shove the top of the strut down into the strut tower, reach into the big hole and rotate the strut mount by 90 degrees either way or 180 degrees (all the way around), then pull it back up and reinstall the nuts.

If you did not change the *rotation* of the strut, or you put it back where you started, you should not need an alignment.

Actually, if I were you, I would just leave the camber where it is. 1.5 degrees negative is not too far out of the factory spec (which is 0.3 to 1.2 degrees negative, if I remember right). Remember that negative camber improves handling :) 1.5 degrees should not be enough to cause a major tire wear problem.

If you do rotate the tops of the struts to change your front alignment, make sure you do the same thing on both sides. There should be a white mark on the top of the strut mount to use as a reference. Make sure that mark is pointing to the same corner on both sides.