Rear Camber Adjustment?

[Arudge]

I have searched, and found that the rear camber is somewhat adjustable, but where at? Is it the lower control are to hub bolt or elsewhere?

Thanks

[Chocalx]

I wouldn't mess with the camber front or rear. Take it to the alignment shop and let them know what you want/need them to do, like add a little camber so the inside of your tires don't ware out so fast. They will tell you what the pros and cons of that would be.
Just my 2 cents.

[fatboyoz]

Originally Posted by Arudge

I have searched, and found that the rear camber is somewhat adjustable, but where at? Is it the lower control are to hub bolt or elsewhere?

Thanks

Looking underneath from the rear you will see the lower suspension arms. The camber adjustment is located at the inboard ends closest to the differential. To reduce camber, two spanners are required. Loosen forward nut and adjust camber by rotating rear bolthead until fat part of cam is toward the tyre. This is minimum amount of camber achievable (reduces wear on inner edge of tyre). Make sure the bolts are tightened adequately when finished. Some people worry about loss of cornering performance with reduced rear camber, I have not noticed any difference. I had an alignment done on my X5 after I adjusted the rear camber to its minimum, the resultant camber was still within worshop manual specifications.
Good Luck
Colin.

[TurnAround]

Originally Posted by fatboyoz

To reduce camber, two spanners are required. Loosen forward nut and adjust camber by rotating rear bolthead until fat part of cam is toward the tyre. This is minimum amount of camber achievable (reduces wear on inner edge of tyre). .

Wow. This is amazing. I had no idea the rear camber could be adjusted. When you say, "To reduce camber", do you mean, reduce negative camber, correct? Negative camber is where the top of the wheel/tire tilts in towards the car. You are offering a procedure to lessen that tilt in, right?

I'd like to reduce is just slightly. You want some otherwise your X won't handle like a BMW. Most folks don't utilize all of the negative camber, as you'd have to be taking 50mph corners at 105 mph for it to mean the difference between staying glued to the road and oversteering. But these cars have so much understeer dialed into them, you'll never hit that point anyways. Cutting the negative camber in back to half of what it is would still leave you with a very glued to the road X.

[fatboyoz]

Originally Posted by TurnAround

Wow. This is amazing. I had no idea the rear camber could be adjusted. When you say, "To reduce camber", do you mean, reduce negative camber, correct? Negative camber is where the top of the wheel/tire tilts in towards the car. You are offering a procedure to lessen that tilt in, right?

I'd like to reduce is just slightly. You want some otherwise your X won't handle like a BMW. Most folks don't utilize all of the negative camber, as you'd have to be taking 50mph corners at 105 mph for it to mean the difference between staying glued to the road and oversteering. But these cars have so much understeer dialed into them, you'll never hit that point anyways. Cutting the negative camber in back to half of what it is would still leave you with a very glued to the road X.

Book figures for rear camber (all models are the same) are -1 degrees 50 minutes, +/- 20 minutes, with max' difference side to side of 30 minutes.
So, if your rear camber was -2 degrees 10 minutes (and wearing out your tyres), you can actually take it all of the way back to -1 degree 30 minutes, no problems. Biggest problem is, that you will not really know where the camber will end up if you do it yourself. The most precise way to change the camber is to have a wheel alignment done, and ask them to adjust the camber so that the rear wheels are more upright. You should be able to ask for an alignment printout and compare before and after adjustments.
Colin.

[Arudge]

Originally Posted by fatboyoz

Looking underneath from the rear you will see the lower suspension arms. The camber adjustment is located at the inboard ends closest to the differential. To reduce camber, two spanners are required. Loosen forward nut and adjust camber by rotating rear bolthead until fat part of cam is toward the tyre. This is minimum amount of camber achievable (reduces wear on inner edge of tyre). Make sure the bolts are tightened adequately when finished. Some people worry about loss of cornering performance with reduced rear camber, I have not noticed any difference. I had an alignment done on my X5 after I adjusted the rear camber to its minimum, the resultant camber was still within worshop manual specifications.
Good Luck
Colin.

Great expanation! Thanks! I may take some pics to post up after I'm done.

[Tomaz]

I had my mechanic reduce the camber to the minimum for increased tire life. It took about 5 minutes. The factory camber settings are for maximun cornering performance at the cost ot tire wear.

[TurnAround]

Originally Posted by Tomaz

I had my mechanic reduce the camber to the minimum for increased tire life. It took about 5 minutes. The factory camber settings are for maximun cornering performance at the cost ot tire wear.

Do you recall what you wound up with for the minimum setting? -1, -1.5, etc..?

[Tomaz]

Originally Posted by TurnAround

Do you recall what you wound up with for the minimum setting? -1, -1.5, etc..?

We did not measure as the mechanic did it by crawling under the car. I am getting about 25K life on my 19" Pirrelli's with relatively even wear at 32 psi all around

[2002Silver4.6is]

I have also neutralized the rear camber and my X handles fine! As a caveat I do have rear spacers so my rear track is 6 cm wider than stock. I think even if I did not have the spacers the X would still corner very well with the neutralized camber.