Any members here have negative camber problem? I purchased my 2006 HCH back in March 06, my mpg never able to pass 40mpg even on longer trip from LA to SFO. Back in July 06, I took the car back to the dealer to check for aligment and the dealer told me everything is fine (dealer only test drive it). Now, six months later with 17K miles tires are showing uneven wears. So I took it to a alignment shop and find out 3 of 4 wheels have negative camber (1.5 - 3 deg off). But there are no adjustment on the cambers so now I have to go back to the dealer to resovle this problem.

 

Camber should be negative, the specification says front -0.3 deg, rear -1.39 deg. So if you're saying a wheel is 3 degrees off, it has an actual camber of -3.3 or -4.8 degrees? That would be clearly visible to the eye. On the plus side, the car would corner well.

 

I was told 0.5-1 deg negative is OK but any more than that is bad! My rear wheels are 2.5-3.0 deg negative and my inside tires are wearing out first. Now my car is in the dealer...waiting to see what they can do.

 

I got my car back from the dealer. They did a four wheels alignment and found out my rear cambers are -1.8 deg and -2.4 deg. They said this are still within Mfg specifications!

 

that doesn't sound right. i had a problem with my car pulling to the right and they did an allignment and fixed the problem. they said the camber and such were off the chart. they suspected they didn't do an alignment during the pdi.

i would make them do an alignment or just take it to another dealer and see if they could be of help.

 

I first checked my alignment at 30,000 miles, the front toe was a little out, rear toe was dead on, rear camber was in the -1.8 range which is out of spec according to hunter. The tolerances from the factory are much looser than I would prefer. Since the rear toe was dead on, I mean within .01 degree of center, I assume the factory just ships them out regardless of camber since rear camber doesn't cause pull. My dealer told me the alignment warranty is 1 yr/12000 mi. My only option is the adjustable length upper control arms for the rear, which really aren't expensive. I'll pick up a set later this year along with some camber bolts for the front.

 

How was the wears on your tires? Any problems of inside wears?

I know Eibach made a camber kit for the 2006 HCH and it cost about $250 + installation. It can adjust +/- 3 deg. But I think my car came from the factory with -1.8 and -2.5 deg on the cambers. And I would like honda to fixs that because I can tell my rear tires are wearing faster in the inside. I don't want to changes my tires every 25K miles. And the dealer told me because of the battery pack weight almost 300lbs located at the back seat may also cause the problems with the cambers and tires wears.
Next week I have to call Bridgestone for warranty on the tires because honda told me my cambers are still within spec. and if that the case Bridgestone may have to warranty the uneven wears on the tires or tell me is honda's problem.

 

Well, the battery pack weighs less than or around 100 lbs, if I'm not mistaken.

But nevertheless, this is really interesting stuff. It seems Honda are generous with their manufacturing spec limits, surprisingly. -2.4 deg camber is in the region of a race car setup.

At least you know now how to solve the problem, realigning the wheels shouldn't cost much, even if the dealer won't help you. I am still confused about the lack of adjustability, the cars I worked with have had some room for adjustment, if not by means of a camber bolt, but there was some gap which allowed you to adjust camber slightly.

Keep us updated.

 

***** Update *****
Almost one year later....with about 31K miles, my set of tires are wearing out on the inside but outside still have about 40%. So I contacted America Honda again, this time they admitted there is a problem with the rear alignment and they are going to issue a fix for that plus pay for part of the cost for new set of tires. Now I am waiting for my local dealer to order a new set of tires and parts to fix the rear camber!

 

I've noticed my 2006 HCH II has lots of negative camber on the rear, is this fix by Honda for all cars? if so perhaps I'll take mine in and get it fixed.