astolt12

Hey all,

Just took my 11 5.0 in for a new set of tires and was told to adjust the camber they will need to shim it for about 400$! It was lowered by the previous owner and did have a slight inward toe issue on the front left tire which did wear down the inside of that tire till it was bald.

I'm not sold on the need for these shims as the reading on the machine said the toe was out pretty bad (which I planned on) and the camber reading was borderline...

My thought was that if they correct the toe and front end alignment and re measure the camber it could improve before throwing these shims on.

Thoughts?

acquah20

How low of a drop is it? And where do they plan on installing these shims? If toe is out that much i would do the initial alignment and if camber is still out of spec and out by a lot and not just a few degrees i would just buy camber bolts for the struts. Thats cheaper then 400 for some shims.

jRaskell

I fail to see how shimming anything in the suspension could have any measurable impact on the camber.

Toe is readily adjustable and a complete non-issue, that should have been adjusted as part of the alignment for no additional cost.

There are only three ways I know of to adjust camber though. Camber bolts, camber plates, slotting the upper strut mount holes.

Sounds like either the shop is clueless about the Mustang suspension and options for adjusting it's alignment, or they're just trying to suck as much money out of you as possible. Either way, probably not a good idea to return to that shop for anything.

americaniron

I used camber bolts for my car. Cheap and easy. I believe the bolts were twenty something dollars and around fifty for a complete alignment I know it was less than $100 in all.

astolt12

JRaskell - I think you are right on this. I wound up telling them no after doing some quick research on "shims" for alignment on an 11.

I had asked them to complete the alignment, correct the toe and THEN remeasure the camber. What do you know, camber caster and toe all came within spec with room to spare per the allowable Ford tolerances.

This decision was made even easier for me when I was told I did not have any cats on my car...they completely missed the hi-flow cats behind the long tube. Im thinking my mechanic was fairly incompetent and the service tech relaying the information was equally disengaged.

Americaniron - If my tire starts to show wear from camber, I will be looking into that and going to a local non-dealer shop.

Thanks all - now i guess i can spend 400 on other parts

Norm Peterson

As long as your toe is good, you can even have cambers out beyond -1.5° and still get nice, even tire wear.

If your cambers are out there past about -1.25°, it will help if you tend to take corners with some "enthusiasm". Doing so will work the front tires' outer shoulders and help make up for the inner shoulders doing most of the work otherwise.

FWIW, if you ever do need to correct your car's camber, please choose camber plates rather than camber bolts other than Ford's own.


Norm

astolt12

Norm, thank you for the tip...camber was -1.4 on the left -1.2 on the right. Toe was right on once the alignment occurred.

I will keep that piece of knowledge...I hope to not have to worry about it but if i ever want to lower or change the stance on her I will keep that in mind!

Sucks that some dealerships still want to nickel and dime you...really disappointing ford. Thanks all.