Our 2003 Camry has 125k on it and we have never liked the way it felt on curves. It also feathered the inside edge of both front tires. Caster and camber are not adjustable on these cars 02-05 and maybe more. Only toe in/out. To compensate for this camber they usually toe it in a little so it will wear more evenly on the front tires. I've been reading around on the net and some people complain about this. We've had 2 older Camry's and never felt this way about the steering. Along comes a product called EZ-Cam. A simple job of replacing two bolts with two bolts that look quite similar and right away there is a VERY noticible improvement. Now the camber is adjustable and there is no toe in. Takes corners faster and feels good doing it. Highly recommended.
2003 Camry tire wear
- Thread starter CoosBayDave
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Was your's out of alignment? You usually don't have to do it unless you do it for "handling" with minor negative camber or you have a worn suspension part somewhere (or lower your car).
CoosBayDave-
Since you already covered 125K with your camry, it is not surprising to see that front coil springs begin to "sag" a bit.
I would get a factory spec and check against your spring/unloaded car height to determine if spring sagging caused the camber out of adjustment.
Since you already covered 125K with your camry, it is not surprising to see that front coil springs begin to "sag" a bit.
I would get a factory spec and check against your spring/unloaded car height to determine if spring sagging caused the camber out of adjustment.
No, the car was technically not out of alignment. The only adjustments are toe in toe out on both the front and rear wheels. They come stock with the front wheel camber a little wider at the bottom.... what's that negative or positive...??? (I'm not in the business.) And to make it wear a little "better" the specs are for a little toe in. The dealer says the front springs are not sagging. I would like to get some performance struts, but can only find one company making them so far. KYB,s seem to be the only choise, I'd like Bilstein's but they don't make them for this generation Camry at this point. I've been told that numerous cars have no other adjustment than toe in/out. No camber adjustment was avialiable on the stock car. Now camber Is adjustable. This also allows me to take out the slight OEM toe in that was there. The improvement in the handling is very much improved. The guy down at Les Schwab said he had never put EZ-Cams on a Camry before, but had put them on Honda's that have been lowered. Those Honda's come from the factory with no camber adjustment possible... which would really screw tires. They've been using EZ-Cams or something else for years. I would have rather had the SE model, with it's shorter springs and stiffer shocks, but she insisted on this XLE model. So... maybe in another year Bilstein will be making struts for Gen 5 Camry's I hope....
Coosbaydave-
modern strut based cars, cambers and casters (mainly)are factory set during the unitized bocy constructon and with very limited adjustments after the car rolls out of the factory.
The only thing that is permitted would be your toe (in/out) and that's it.
In some ways you may say that this is a deficiency by design but to me this is a sign of technological progress meaning that our machining precision and manufacturing repeatability has reached the point where we can do away w/o the need of camber/caster adjustments straight off the assembly line.
That being said, however, does not necessary entails that throughout the life of the car while it's in operation, you don't ever need an alignment.
Fender bender, frontal/side/rear crash, continuously hitting port holes, hitting the curbs, spring sagging, etc. all contributes to your vehicle going out of alignment. Also: as your steering/suspension components (elastomeric suspension parts such as bushings, etc.)gradually wears out, your alignment goes along as well.
Yes, I'm aware of all the alignment "tricks" such as EZ-cams for struts, shortened HKS lower control arm for Hondas, etc.
modern strut based cars, cambers and casters (mainly)are factory set during the unitized bocy constructon and with very limited adjustments after the car rolls out of the factory.
The only thing that is permitted would be your toe (in/out) and that's it.
In some ways you may say that this is a deficiency by design but to me this is a sign of technological progress meaning that our machining precision and manufacturing repeatability has reached the point where we can do away w/o the need of camber/caster adjustments straight off the assembly line.
That being said, however, does not necessary entails that throughout the life of the car while it's in operation, you don't ever need an alignment.
Fender bender, frontal/side/rear crash, continuously hitting port holes, hitting the curbs, spring sagging, etc. all contributes to your vehicle going out of alignment. Also: as your steering/suspension components (elastomeric suspension parts such as bushings, etc.)gradually wears out, your alignment goes along as well.
Yes, I'm aware of all the alignment "tricks" such as EZ-cams for struts, shortened HKS lower control arm for Hondas, etc.
Thanks Quest
What you say here is true. All I knew was that the wife complained that taking curves in her 03 Camry never felt as good as her 16 year old Camry with worn out struts. It screwed the inside edges of the front tires pretty quickly, so when I got new tires I had the alignment checked, and was told it was within specs. 30,000 miles later it needed 2 more front tires, and I had the alignment checked again. This time they made some adjustment on the rear wheels and sold me some higher performance tires. She does a lot of driving on curving mountain roads and still complained that she didn't like the way it felt on curves. The dealer told me there was nothing wrong and there was nothing that could be done. Like a lot of people that was not an answer I was going to believe. These "tricks" were not easy for me to find, but thanks to the net I got edjumicated. This car has not had an accident, and she is careful about hitting curbs. She never liked the steering on this car from day one. These EZ-cams made a world of difference. Curves that didn't feel good to her at 55mph now feel good at 65. There are hundreds of thousands of these cars out there, and I posted this thinking someone else be having some of the same problems I did.
What you say here is true. All I knew was that the wife complained that taking curves in her 03 Camry never felt as good as her 16 year old Camry with worn out struts. It screwed the inside edges of the front tires pretty quickly, so when I got new tires I had the alignment checked, and was told it was within specs. 30,000 miles later it needed 2 more front tires, and I had the alignment checked again. This time they made some adjustment on the rear wheels and sold me some higher performance tires. She does a lot of driving on curving mountain roads and still complained that she didn't like the way it felt on curves. The dealer told me there was nothing wrong and there was nothing that could be done. Like a lot of people that was not an answer I was going to believe. These "tricks" were not easy for me to find, but thanks to the net I got edjumicated. This car has not had an accident, and she is careful about hitting curbs. She never liked the steering on this car from day one. These EZ-cams made a world of difference. Curves that didn't feel good to her at 55mph now feel good at 65. There are hundreds of thousands of these cars out there, and I posted this thinking someone else be having some of the same problems I did.
That's right CoosBayDave-
I too, have a set of EZ-cams ready for my wifey's 15 years old Camry Vee6 ready to be installed this summer (with a new set of front struts sitting in my garage). As the car ages, Camry fronts typically suffers from camber out of adjustment and my wifey's Camry is of no exception (inside of the tires wears out faster than the outside).
Take care and enjoy the Camry. IMHO it's a great highway cruiser car and handles some hilly terrain nicely (still a tad soft to my taste)
I too, have a set of EZ-cams ready for my wifey's 15 years old Camry Vee6 ready to be installed this summer (with a new set of front struts sitting in my garage). As the car ages, Camry fronts typically suffers from camber out of adjustment and my wifey's Camry is of no exception (inside of the tires wears out faster than the outside).
Take care and enjoy the Camry. IMHO it's a great highway cruiser car and handles some hilly terrain nicely (still a tad soft to my taste)
My opinion too.... a little soft. So in a year or two I'll replace the struts. Like her 2 previous Camry's I expect this one to go over the 400K mark with no problems. Hard to say anything bad about a car that gives so many trouble free miles.....
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