Also.....

With BMR springs, the Steeda camber plates didn't quite allow enough adjustment, so the camber bolts were required on my car.

 

The Last few posts raise a few good points. If you really are off by that much (I don't see how you could be...) I doubt either will give you enough adjustment. The plates usually only have about 2 degrees of adjustment, so you might have to get the plates AND bolts. Are you sure they said 5 degrees and not .5?

 

I think you're confusing caster and camber. Caster is supposed to be in the 6.6-7.6 deg. range for the S197 GT. Camber is supposed to be between -1.3 and -.3 deg. With your Pro-Kit springs, your camber will very likely be in the 1.2-1.7 deg. range without any correction. As suggested earlier, there are many ways to correct the camber and at least one to correct caster.

For normal street driving, I wouldn't worry about caster but I would suggest trying to get your camber back under -1.0 deg. You could have the alignment shop slot the strut, as previously suggested, however that will likely cost just as much as buying the $30 Eibach "camber bolts", which don't require slotting the strut.

 

Lowering basically changed your camber and toe in, not your caster.
The lower mounting bolt holes for the strut can be safely slotted
to the line as shown in the Workshop Manual for camber adjustment
or you can get camber adjusting bolts that work better than slotting
the mounting holes on the strut. The adjustment bolts makes it easier
to adjust the camber than the slotting technique and holds the camber
adjustment better than slotting of the mounting holes. Slots alone can
and will slip.

 

Yes, you can slot the strut holes. But when you do this, you really ought to do something to make sure that the setting cannot slip, which can happen if you are relying only on friction. Slotted strut bolt holes is the method I used last on another strut-suspended car, and I also fabbed up a means of positively locating the bolt relative to the strut.


Norm

 

What did they say your alignment numbers were? Maybe we can start from there, just saying they are all out of whack doesn't really provide any information. In reality they would say my alignment settings are all out of whack. I have -2.0 camber with the toe zero'd out. This is an autocross alignment but I do not have any tire wear issues at all. Factory caster is supposed to be 7 degrees.