now that it's lowered...

Rick Jacobs

Member
Contributor
Alright, I put on the Ground Control CoilOvers about a month ago. I put it at about 1 1/4" below the stock MP3 setting (approx. 2" lower than a reg. protege). My back tires are fine, they look like they only have 14,000 miles on them. The front tires are quite a bit worse. The whole tire is more worn than the back ones , and the inside of the tire tread is wearing much quicker; it's almost smooth. I imagined it would only take a camber kit to fix this, but I've been told by a couple of friends/backyard mechanics that I may need new control arms. Or maybe both are needed. Has anyone encountered this problem and know the fix. I don't want to just get one or the other and then replace the tires and have the same thing happen. Any assistance will be a big help.

Rick
 
I don't know about the camber kit, but why don't you try raising it about 0.5". That will lessen your camber.
Are you using stock MP3 shocks?
 
camber kit

get a camber kit and then bring it to get it aligned by somone that does lowerd cars all the time with and old sting system. The speed shop i go to tells me i should get my alignment done by a string system not by a laser.
 
Did they tell you whay you should get it done that way?
Is it because it's more accurate or because it's what they have?

Did you find a camber kit anywhere that fits our cars?
 
Rick, I have some advise. First rotate your tires. FWD cars eat front tires twice as fast as the rear with street use, the way I drive they do anyway. To get the best milage out of your tires, do it about every 7 to 10 thousand miles. If your fronts have a good number of miles on them since you lowered and they have worn even, you probably don't have a camber problem.

If you really need to bring camber back out though, you should be able to see it with your eyes by just eye-balling the front wheel to the back. Have the steering turned straight ahead a look front to back at hub level, right along the sides of the tires.

For a more acurate check - rotate and set tire pressure, get some plain old chaulk board chaulk and go to a large open parking lot. You need to have just rotated the tires for this too, because you don't want the front tires current wear pattern to bugger up the results. Mark several chaulk lines across the tire treads each about 120 degrees apart. Drive a short distance (100 yards) in a straight line and observe the chaulk lines. If the inside shows much more wear than the outside, and its a judgement call, camber probably needs adjusted.

Another thing, I've found that lowering usually requires more caster for best handling, even though it doesn't effect tire wear. Also, my Pro5 has had a a problem maintaining toe adjustment. I've been adding about an 1/8 turn in on each end every time I rotate tires. Me thinks the tie rod ends are for s***.

With a fair understanding of steering and suspession, a ball of string, a carpenter's level, and some chaulk; a person can maintain alignment very well. Its worked for me anyway.

I hope this helps.
 
didnt get into it

they dont have a system, they send all of there cars to a shop about 15 min away to a guy who does lowerd cars. they just said to me the a laser system is a grat system but to a lowerd car it is better to get it done on a old time string system
 
Massey,
There is a place down here called miami chassis. They specialize in lowered vehicles. What they actually do is bend your frame or arms to negate the camber effect. THIS is BAAD! Yes it does wonders for tire wear, but it throws your handling and ride out the window. Make sure they dont do this to your car. If thats not the case you should be fine.:)
 
I am almost positive that Ground Control sells a camber adjusment kit for the Protege. Here is at least what it says ont their site

90- Mazda 323 / Protege $299 pair

I'm not sure what that means because I doubt that we share the same strut housing as the first and second generation proteges. I just installed my front set of Ground Control Coiovers today and I see that there is a place for the camber adjuster to screw in. Give them a try.
 
Cool, thanks people. Does anyone know about replacing control arms? I've read this may need to be done to help uneven tire wear. Any idea if this true and how to tell if you do need new ones?
 
What you need is an alignment kit.........Also it doesn't matter if you still have the stock shocks because they are aftermarket ones.........I wouldn't replace the tokico shocks they are very good quality........The shocks isn't causing the problem......
 
I have ground control coilovers I put on last september on my 2000 LX and once I had it aligned it was fine. and I have have the coilovers all the way down.
 
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