Front camber kit probably won't be a necessity but some still need it. The rear camber/toe kit is usually required though since the rear toe just has a small adjusting range w/ the OEM slot. Camber & toe are related so if you try to get toe in spec without the kit, the camber will be quite a bit out, and you surely don't want to reduce camber to the point where toe will be out of spec.

 

so what exactly does a camber kit do? im still confused on that. It just makes it so that the tire isn't on its side? or it just straightens it out a little? or neither?

 

The camber arms combined w/ the aftermarket toe bolt kit allows you to run pretty much any reasonable camber you want while keeping your toe in spec. running camber in the -1.5 to -1.0 range w/ toe in spec will result in almost uniform tread wear across the entire tread block. If you run more camber than that your inner shoulders will wear faster and once you get to the inside wear bar it's already time to change out your tire, even though you still have good tread in most of the tire width.

 

Installing SPC rear camber kit, toe bolts, and proper rear coilover dampers tomorrow - finally!

 

^Good stuff
Just installed my front camber arms today, took the car from -2.3 in front all the way back down to spec at -.3/-.4 both sides, and toe is in spec as well. The rears are running -2 camber but the toe is in spec so not worried at all if I had to be honest. The fronts were definitely starting to show wear after 5k miles at -2.3

 

Since your fronts are now handled I'd get the rears too while you're at it, the rears will wear faster, and at higher camber you'll shorten the tire life quite a bit. Would be nice to have your whole car in spec IMO, and the rears are easy

 

I have the rear bolt kit, the one thats like 50$ just need to buy the right dremel bit. But if I had to be honest the rears really haven't shown wear at all, the fronts were getting smoothed out for sure. For reference I'm on all season good year tires, I'm sure if I had summer tires -2 all around would've caused havoc by now?

 

How many miles have you put on the A/S tires at that alignment setting? True that you wouldn't notice the wear like you would w/ summer tires but I'd keep a close eye on them. Also depends how hard you push your car as well.

 

My A/S tires already had 21k miles on them before lowering. The first 5k miles after lowering the rears were at -2.3 with in spec toe no wear to really be seen. Now the alignment guy got them to -2 flat with in spec toe so we'll see how they go. And yes I honestly check my tires a lot, rotating tires properly I believe is also a big help, I was so paranoid not having a front kit. As far as driving style goes, I drive to college... I come back home

 

Sounds like you're on it! It's one of those things that you can take for granted, then 10 months later you do a rotation and then you're eyes pop out seeing what you thought were good tires. Camber at -2 with good toe spec should result in reasonable wear, especially w/ higher mileage All Seasons.
Keep up the good diligence

 

Thanks! and yes really good discussion going on here, so hopefully people will read this and learn a few things.

 

Update on my situation.

I had the camber kit installed and the car aligned. My fronts were both -1.2 with the rears being -1.0.

I have also had the suspension checked and all checks out well.

My tires are just getting worse and worse as far as the choppy treadwear goes. It is effecting all four tires with the drivers side front being the worst.

I guess my question now is....

Is the previous wear pattern just perpetuating itself?

I do run 20mm spacers, should I be looking to them as a potential issue?

Is there anyway to correct the treadwear issue if it is not a suspension related issue?

Really tire of it sounding like I am driving a lifted truck with 60's.

 

Well -1 degree camber shouldn't really cause much of a fuss on tire wear as you're describing, so the problem must be elsewhere. I still have my front in spec with SPC arms and my rears at -2 camber, with no issues at all, past weekend the Nissan dealer said that all tires are wearing even with no issues. Once again its probably the toe or something that is not proper. Mind you, I'm on all season tires so they wont wear as fast as summer tires with added camber etc. Any chance we can get an alignment printout to help you more?

 

Well the issue is that I was running -2.5 with an alignment issue prior to the camber kit install on these very same tires. So the tires were already damaged because I opted to NOT install the camber kit when I got lowered.

When I did get the kit. I flipped the tires on the rims to put the outside to the inside. However that side is now choppy as well. I am hoping that it is just because the treadwear pattern is baked in and can't be corrected.

Best case scenario now is that I just have shot tires. I have had every other component checked and they all checked out ok.

So if I get new tires and they start to wear weird I will have no idea what the issue actually is at that point.

 

What mileage on the tires and what brand/model are you running, also do you know the date codes when they were manufactured?

Sounds like tires were pretty shot prior to the switch, so hopefully a new set starting off w/ proper alignment specs will yield normal wear.