hi guys its been a while since ive posted due to my attention being taken by a purchase i made a month or so ago. Ive wanted a prelude for about a year but i said i wouldn't buy one for another year or so. There are very few preludes for sale in Northern ireland so when i seen this one on my way to work i jumped at the chance. The car is lowered around 30mm on eibach with standard dampers and 17" rims with 215/45 tyres. My problem is with tramlining. The original tyre size is 205/55r15. The wheels are cambered quite a bit because of the lowering, will buying a camber correction kit stop the tramlining? The car wanders on bumpy roads and i darn't floor it in 2nd cause the steering wheel wants to jump out of my hands. Other than this i really like this car. I'd prefer keeping the 17" wheels but if they are likly to be causing the problem i may have to change. I only ask because i know that you are likely to know more about suspension setups due to adjustability available on the sevens etc.

thanks guys for any replys.

Could be something simple lioke faulty shockers, especially if standard ones were used when the lowered springs were fitted.

in america, that would just be a tale that someone did something wrong when lowering the car. best suggestion is whenever you get to the weekend, pull your rims off after putting the car on stands and check the lowering components, along with the entire suspension over. check your springs to make sure they're in the boots, along with the wheel bearings. during the week, see if you can find a how to on lowering the prelude. make sure they didn't skip any steps whenever the car was lowered.

The car is lowered on eibach springs and went through its mot last wednesday. It is important to remember that in Northern ireland mot's are done through a government test centre and the mechanics are not allowed to do any work on the car. They do not have any reason to pass a car which has faulty bearings etc due to the fact that it does not effect thier buisness. a compulsory part of the test is a check of the suspension system on a rolling road which vibrates at differnet rates to test the effectiveness of the dampers and springs. The results are shown on a computer screen as the test is being carried out and showed that my car was well damped etc. They also test brake balance on both the front and the rears. After this there is a visual check underneath the car to see if anything is loose. The springs are always looked at closely to ensure correct seating etc. It is very thorough and a car must be in top condition to pass. I had an astra which was lowered with 17" wheels that done the same thing although not to the same extent as the power wasn't there. I did look at the suspension before mot to check for broken springs etc and everything seems fine the springs are seated properly. Thanks for the replys guys. one last thing the car doesn't pull in one direction all the time it could be left or right, it depends on the camber of the road. The guys on the prelude forums all talk about putting in camber correction to stop uneven tyre wear but do not mention tramling.

What year Prelude do you have? I used to have a '98 Type SH. I think the wheel wondering has to do with too much negative camber and the wrong wheel offset.

--Chris

Excessive negative camber, low profile tyres and incorrect wheel offset all contribute to tram lining.

The fist thing I would do is get the tracking checked, if it's not been adjusted since it was lowered it's almost certainly out. If you get a full geometery check you can see just how far out your camber is. Note that geomtery will also need to be reset if you fit a camber correction kit.

Check the wheels for the offset, you may have to remove a wheel but it's usualy stamped somewhere e.g. back of a spoke or on the inside of the rim.