Negative camber on my VL

[johng12]

Hi, I have put 15 inch wheels of a 525 BMW on my New Zealand 2 ltr VL commodore instead of the original 14 inch. The car runs a heavier 2Jz Toyota VVTI engine.
These new wheels are 6 inch wide with 205 x 60 profile Michelins on them and with the increased 3 inch bigger fill up in the wheel wells I have ended up with -2 degrees camber on both sides and have worn the new tires 50% on the inside within less than 10,000 kilos.
There is no adjustment on the lower control arms and I wonder what others have done when they fit 17s or 18s. to their VLs to avoid excessive camber? By the way the handling was great.
I am in Thailand and took the car to a place that used a hydraulic ram to push in the right place to get rid of the camber. The guy said that sometimes he breaks the wheel bearings using this method but it worked ok on my car with new wheel bearings. I now have spec. -20 mins and the left and -30 mins on the right.

How has anyone else solved this problem or don't others have the problem? When I am in Australia I don't see VLs with big wheels and negative camber so that must do something?

Cheers John

 

[Jxfwsf]

wheels don't change your camber, the camber adjustment on a VL is by rotating the strut top/top hat (3 nuts holding it to the tower), standard has 3 positions... my suggestion it to get a wheel alignment with +1mm toe in either side (2mm - 2.2mm total toe) make sure all the bushes, ball joints, rack ends and tie rod ends are in good condition or getting an alignment is a waste of time.

that being said, i am currently running -1°53' and -1°40' camber on my daily VN (close to -2°, essentially the same suspension setup but a slightly heavier car) running 205/65/15's, urethane bushes, lowered springs and apart from feathering the outer edges of the tires from fast cornering they are wearing great with 20,000 km's on the tires

 

[87RB30VL]

Yeah my tyres wear on the inside and i've had an allignment but it doesn't help cos all my bushes etc are screwed and need replacing

 

[pjdm1980]

I am in Thailand and took the car to a place that used a hydraulic ram to push in the right place to get rid of the camber. The guy said that sometimes he breaks the wheel bearings using this method but it worked ok on my car with new wheel bearings. I now have spec. -20 mins and the left and -30 mins on the right.

That doesn't sound good at all.
If you don't have enough adjustment in the strut top maybe try these-
http://bit.ly/TB91sc





PJDM1980

 

[johng12]

Thanks for insight

wheels don't change your camber, the camber adjustment on a VL is by rotating the strut top/top hat (3 nuts holding it to the tower), standard has 3 positions... my suggestion it to get a wheel alignment with +1mm toe in either side (2mm - 2.2mm total toe) make sure all the bushes, ball joints, rack ends and tie rod ends are in good condition or getting an alignment is a waste of time.

that being said, i am currently running -1°53' and -1°40' camber on my daily VN (close to -2°, essentially the same suspension setup but a slightly heavier car) running 205/65/15's, urethane bushes, lowered springs and apart from feathering the outer edges of the tires from fast cornering they are wearing great with 20,000 km's on the tires

Thanks heaps for this feedback,
I feel a nong now that I went ahead and got the thing pressed, hope it doesn't have detrimental effects but seems ok, just a waste of money though if I had known to rotate the pillow top.
The top strut adjusters that you recommend look like a really good thing but the ebay add said that they were for a VN, will they work on a VL?

My tie rod ends are a bit worn, maybe this is some of the cause for the tyre wear?

 

[Jxfwsf]

VB, VC, VH, VK, VL, VN & VP have the same front suspension and it's all interchangeable, the only difference is that vn & vp have the sway bar link pin going to the strut itself instead of the lower control arm like the earlier models (but that will have no effect on what you want to do).

where i work if any front suspension component has any play/wear that will effect the wheel alignment the vehicle doesn't get one until the problem is resolved, can't set the wheel alignment like that as it'll change the second the car rolls and simply when the part gets replaced it'll change it anyway.