Are caster/camber plates necessary after lowering my 2004 996 or would a simple alignment prove as beneficial. I currently have H&R springs and do notice accelerated tireware and coilovers are the next upgrade.

 

Camber adjustability is preferable however it really depends on how low the car is dropped. ROW sport option ride height setting works well but at least in the rear, with out adjustable toe links, you can only go so low before even at max positive camber and toe out, the toe will be just barely within spec (typically on the negative end of allowable) and camber will still be at maximum somewhere around -1.4 to -1.5 degrees, no more. Tends to be a rougher ride with the camber plates but you will get a good amount of positive camber up front, typically at or near spec in the front. Toe out in the front is never an issue.

Coil overs are very important for matched damping and rebound to spring rate as well as optimal ride height for handling and allignment - your drop in springs may have the car sitting at a greater drop than can be compensated for with allignment. Just did a 997 w/ drop in springs (very low H&R's) and BARELY got the toe in in the rear to spec fwiw.

If you set the car to ROW sport option ride height, with a solid allignment we have had reasonable tire wear and good handling charateristics. You will still see slightly more than normal tire wear but acceptable. Otherwise, do all the upgrades for camber and toe links, a set of GT3 sway bars and the car will be perfect.

 

What do you do with the car? Just street? Or track time (and if so how much)?

Most people do not need to change your upper mounts for additional negative camber, instead using GT3 lower control arms. You will get some additional negative camber as you lower the car anyway.

Also, a more neutral alignment will help tire wear, but not track performance.

-td

 

Street car. I thought I could use the adjustable upper camber/caster on the new coilovers to bring my car back into spec and help with tire wear. Not a good idea?

 

Not gonna need it. 996's have nearly 0 camber to begin with at stock spec. Even if you're extremely low on coilovers the front's barely going to be over about -1.2 at the outward ajustment in the strut towers. Certainly not enough to excessively wear tires.

a little front camber makes the car come alive and much more fun to drive anyhow. If you can get -1.5 in the front do it and you'll love it.

Andy

 

Then what is causing the accelerated wear in my front tires then? I have had a continuing problem with a steering wheel shake that I can not resolve. Could this be a factor to my tires?

 

Probably Toe setting.

Did you align after you installed the springs? Toe will eat tires if it's off and even slight changes to the suspension can cause a pretty good swing in toe in these cars. They're very sensative.

Post your alignment specs.

p.s. I run more than 2.0 in all of my cars with 0 total toe and have only slighly accellerated wear on the insides of my tire.

 

+1 on toe setting.

Also, wheel shake usually means something out of balance rather than mis-aligned. Tires/wheels not balanced, non-hubcentric spacers, weight fell off, etc.

On my 996 I ran between 0.00 - 0.05 degrees of toe out, with camber set at -2.5F / -2.0R. On my GT3 I run -3.0 F camber on 245s, -2.0 R camber on 315s; front toe 2'; rear 11'). I get very even wear on R6s.

-td

 

Has anyone tried the Torque Solution Adjustable Thrust Arm Bushing Kit? Im looking to adjust the castor to comp for the curvature of the road.

 

Remove some of the Toe Out.

 

Toe out. thanks