Chrysler Crossfire
Wheel Camber, Caster and Toe-in angles

This is one information page of my collection of what I have repaired on my Crossfire.

Note:
You should not do any repair on your car if you don't have enough experience and knowledge! You use this information at your own risk! Don't blame me if something goes wrong.

Content:

• Main Content Chrysler Crossfire DIY
  1. Wheel Camber angles
  2. Wheel Toe-in angles
  3. DIY Toe-in angle meter
  4. First Toe-in measurement
  5. To be continued

Crossfire share most of it's chassis parts with Mercedes SLK R170 with the 320 engine.

Wheel camber, caster and toe in/out angles

This three angles control your wheels, they have to be adjusted properly to give the car a good handling and low tire wear.

You can get more information from the Wikipedia page here:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ Wheel alignment

1, Wheel Camber angles:

Wheel alignment according to Chrysler Crossfire Service Repair manual, page 28 to 37.

How to do an easy check of camber angle:

Here is an easy way to get a rough estimation of your car camber angles (there are many other ways too). You just have to use a spirit level and a calculator. Find a parking lot that's in level where you can do this. Before do this, check the tire air pressure and only brake the car soft when parking, otherwise the angles can change.

Hold the spirit level against the wheel rim. Measure the L distance in the picture above. If your spirit level is too short or long you can cut a piece of wood of the proper length to line up to the wheel rim and then put the spirit level against this piece of wood. Then your L is the length of the piece of wood.

If you have a negative camber which is the normal there will be a space on the upper side of the spirit level. Move the spirit level out until the bulb come in place. Measure how big this is, the D distance above. Do it on both sides, the values should be almost identical.

In my case the L = 400 mm and D = 14 mm. With a simple formula you can calculate the angle from this for small angels.

• Angle = arcSin ( D/L )

You find the function arcSin or arc Sinus on most calculators. The result can be presented in arc units, it depends on the calculator, then you must recalculate it to degrees.

• degrees = arc unit *360 / (PI*2) = arc unit * 57.3

My own figures give an angle of 2 degrees, or -2 degrees because the wheel is tilted inwards. -2 degrees are a normal value for the front wheels. In back I have about -1 degree. If you have another car, check your car's repair manual what camber angels it should be.

On my car the camber and caster angels are normally not adjustable, you have to rebuilt the car to allowed that. But normally you never adjust these two angles, only the Toe-in angles. If the camber angle is out of limit then maybe the car has been smashed in earlier times.

Note:
Even if you can adjust this angles of your car you should not, this is just to get an idea if there is something wrong with it.

Why did I do this? I was just a bit curious, if the car had been smashed seriously in earlier times I could have seen that from this values.

Update:
I did this measurement once more, this time I included the rear camber too. I complemented the measurement with a simple spirit level:

I got the limits from here: JLtechno.com .
Maybe the spirit level gave higher precision, but I need one with higher resolution. There are small handy digital spirit levels to buy today.

Angle measurement with angle instrument, I attached it to the disc brake:

Camber front left = -2,60o	Camber front right = -2,40o
Camber rear left = -1,10o	Camber rear right = -0,85o

The floor in the garage is a bit tilted down to the right which these figures are not corrected for.

Update:
One more measurement, this time I compensated for the tilted garage floor. This time I also have the new bigger rear wheels installed:

I feel that I don't have the precision I need to do any adjustment and let it be where it's now. The rear are between the limits, in front I don't have any unusual wear. At last I did a measurement of the height at the rear end of the car. There is a difference of 8 mm where the right side is the lower. That's a very little difference, it can be calibrated out with a 5 mm thick rubber pad between the spring and the lower arm, they can be ordered in steps of 5 mm thickness. That is at least what I have read how they do it.

Update:
After I replaced the rear lower rubber bushings it's interesting to see if the camber angles changed:

The I set a jack under the front rear wheel to get it in level at rear and did a new measurement:

Now it's perfect, maybe it's the front right spring that is defective. Have to check it later, but I will replace the lower front bushings and then I replace the springs as well.