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Did you know that if you do a
correct and accurate wheel
alignment of your Subaru Impreza
up to the MY07 model with the
MacPherson- Chapman-style rear
strut, that to correctly adjust
camber in the back of the car,
that you actually can’t adjust
it at all? That’s right, it’s a
little bit hard to believe, but
from the Subaru factory, you can
actually adjust negative camber
on the front of the car, but you
can’t at the back.
Other adjustments for the Subaru
Impreza suspension that you can
do without any modification are
obviously toe, front and back,
as well as camber on the front,
but that’s the limitation of
what you can do.
Let me explain briefly what
camber, toe, and caster are a
little bit:
• If
you’re standing up and
you’re looking down at your
feet, and you put your big
toe against your other big
toe with your heels apart,
that’s toe-in, meaning the
wheels are pointing toward
themselves.
• If you do the opposite
with your heels together at
the back and your toes
pointed apart, that’s toe
out.
Typically on the cars that we
set up, both front and rear for
sporty style suspension settings
or good, reliable handling
environment, we typically go for
zero toe front and back.
Possibly for a road car and not
a track car we’ll go for one-millimeter
toe in, front and back.
Camber is if you put your legs
apart and put your knees
together so therefore your legs
are at an angle making a V
looking from the front, that’s
negative camber. So when you’re
looking at the front of the car,
the bottom of the wheels are
further out and the top of the
wheels are further in, at an
angle. Camber on the front of
the Subaru is adjustable up to
about 1 to 1.25 degrees
negative, and on the rear you
can’t adjust it at all.
The irony is 90% of the Subaru
Impreza models that we see
coming from the factory always
have up to half a degree
negative camber different from
one side to the other on the
rear suspension, but you can’t
adjust it unless you change some
components. The simplest way to
change that is the addition of
an offset camber bolt similar to
the front suspension on your
Subaru Impreza, on the rear.
All you do is remove the upper
bolt that connects the lower
part of the strut to the hub
assembly. Replace it with this
offset bolt. And as you rotate
the bolt it effectively moves
the strut in and out at the base
allowing your wheel aligner to
change the camber settings and
get the right settings that you
need for your car.
So there you have it. A little
secret to make your car handle a
little bit better, and of course
improve your wheel alignment
settings and reduce your tire
wear, particularly on the rear.
Find out lots more great
information just like this in
the Subaru Performance Handbook. |
