FINALLY: got the lowered stance I wanted AND my alignment back!

[paris1]

Been running H&R Sport springs for over two years without suspension mods on original tires to see how the tires would wear with marginal negative camber and frequent tire rotations. Not satisfied with results (inner shoulder wear), so before installing new rubber I decided to take the plunge and install adjustable rear upper control arms (Megan Racing) and front strut camber bolts (SPC). $220 for the parts and a lot of grunting at the rear of the car working without a hoist, but the alignment results are now absolutely spot-on! In hindsight, I highly recommend going the whole route if you plan on lowering your CX-5 with springs.

 

[tibimakai]

I told you so, that it will be perfect. Good job.
Mine is almost perfect, except the front is just barely in green. I will have to replace the bolts myself.
I drive hard and my custom arms are still holding up well, after over a year of driving.
With this setup, I'm unique. Maybe the only one in the world(!).

 

[yrwei52]

... With this setup, I'm unique. Maybe the only one in the world(!).

Are you sure about that?

 

[paris1]

I told you so, that it will be perfect. Good job.
Mine is almost perfect, except the front is just barely in green. I will have to replace the bolts myself.
I drive hard and my custom arms are still holding up well, after over a year of driving.
With this setup, I'm unique. Maybe the only one in the world(!).

The bolts are a no-brainer and take all of about 30 minutes to install.

 

[tibimakai]

I don't think he has modified lateral links. Didn't he modified the Mazda 6 ones from CS or JBR?

 

[tibimakai]

It's a no brainer, but when I was doing mine, everybody said that at the front, it should be in spec with the factory setup.
I will do the same as you did, when I need new tires I will replace them.

 

[Chris_Top_Her]

No. I have hardrace purpose built rear camber arms. -4 rear. I also run tires (toyo proxes st) that are good for cambered wheels. Unique for having the modified oem part, yea for sure.

 

[tibimakai]

You did not have anything, prior the Hardrace camber arms? I remember, that you have purchased some Mazda 6 ones and you were ready to modify them.

 

[Chris_Top_Her]

I resold those. It wasn't cost effective to have them modified with possibly sketchy results

 

[dougal]

Any pics?

 

[paris1]

Any pics?

Of what?

 

[Ride92]

So whats the reasoning of going with the upper control arms rather then adjustable camber arms? I want to eventually lower the car but I want to make sure I do it right the first time and not burn thru tires.

 

[paris1]

Adjustable camber arms replace stock upper control arms. in effect, they are adjustable upper control arms.

 

[PatrickGSR94]

I guess the obvious question is... did you have the car aligned after installing the H&R springs? In my experience with lowered cars, toe-out after lowering causes much faster tire wear than a little (or even a medium amount of) negative camber. My Integra is quite low and runs a noticeable amount of negative camber, but with no camber adjustment. I keep the toe set to zero, and tire rotated, and tire wear is minimally uneven... not enough to warrant the cost and headache associated with dialing in adjustable parts, plus the risk of adjustable parts slipping out of adjustment, or even breaking.

 

[paris1]

I guess the obvious question is... did you have the car aligned after installing the H&R springs? In my experience with lowered cars, toe-out after lowering causes much faster tire wear than a little (or even a medium amount of) negative camber. My Integra is quite low and runs a noticeable amount of negative camber, but with no camber adjustment. I keep the toe set to zero, and tire rotated, and tire wear is minimally uneven... not enough to warrant the cost and headache associated with dialing in adjustable parts, plus the risk of adjustable parts slipping out of adjustment, or even breaking.

I'm going to assume you're addressing this to me and yes, I had the car aligned a week after I installed the springs and then re-checked a month later. Toe was in spec at all four corners, camber was on the ragged edge in the rear and a little better in the front. Just like everyone else who did this mod before me here. Two years later, after installing the adjustable arms using the old arms as a template for length and simply replacing the upper front strut bolts with the SPC bolts, the initial alignment reading showed both rears out of camber spec and the right front out as well. Left front was still in spec, but barely. All four tires are visually more upright now that they're not resting on inner shoulder. There's no way you're gonna convince me that negative camber was not the cause of the inner shoulder wear. BTW, I rotated religiously every 5k miles. That's the only reason the wear was even and no worse than it turned out to be. Maybe you're OK with this kind of tire wear, but I'd like to get more than 31k miles out of my next set of tires thank you.

 

[Ride92]

Adjustable camber arms replace stock upper control arms. in effect, they are adjustable upper control arms.

They're two different parts, one is straight with a wish bone on one end and the other is curved to a 90 degree angle. They can't replace one another!?!

 

[paris1]

They're two different parts, one is straight with a wish bone on one end and the other is curved to a 90 degree angle. They can't replace one another!?!

http://www.mazdapartswebstore.com/p/Mazda__/Suspension-Control-Arm-Upper-cntrl-arm-UPPER-CONTROL-ARM/48737679/KD3528C10.html

 

[Chris_Top_Her]

They're two different parts, one is straight with a wish bone on one end and the other is curved to a 90 degree angle. They can't replace one another!?!

The part is question is the (OEM named) "REAR UPPER ARM". Hardrace/Megans Racing markets the rear camber arm as the adjustable replacement for that part. They also offer a rear toe arm, which could be used to adjust camber as well, and it replaces the (OEM named) "REAR LATERAL LINK"
Some carts have "lateral links" all around so those are the primary camber adjusters. Our car has an upper arm, which is thicker and has more authority on the hub for camber adjustment... Which is probably why they market it as the camber adjuster vs the lateral link (strength and effectiveness).
9 and 7

 

[jaged]

There seems to be mixed feeling whether camber adjustment is necessary on a minimal drop found with H&R springs. Is there anybody out there with H&R springs and OEM parts (meaning no camber arms) and decent tire wear?

 

[paris1]

There seems to be mixed feeling whether camber adjustment is necessary on a minimal drop found with H&R springs. Is there anybody out there with H&R springs and OEM parts (meaning no camber arms) and decent tire wear?

You mean anybody "else"...