Camber problem?

I've just installed rebuilt Bilstein coilovers on my Legacy, which I added GTWorx camber plates. I also got 17x8 Enkei RPF1 wheels, but when I went for alignment at a race shop, they told me they could only get -1.25 degrees on the front. This was with the (stock) camber bolts at full positive and the plates at full negative. They showed me that the wheels and tires (245/40/17) are too close for comfort to the springs.

 

They were saying that maybe there's a better camber plate out there, and were shying away from wheel spacers, but there looked like a ton of room in the front fenders.

 

I don't think I have weird offset wheels. They rubbed on the rears until I rolled the fenders.

 

How should I fix this? I want more like -2.0

this sounds a bit odd if the wheels are +48 offset. I ran the exact same wheel and tire sizing and was able to get -3 up front. if they adjust the bolts back in, do the tires make contact with the strut assembly/spring?

They didn't say.

 

Also, I might have screwed up and gotten 45mm offset. Does it make that big a difference?

No, that would be even better. Put your bolt to full negative and check clearance.

OK, I'll try this weekend.

OK, here's what I guess the problem is:

 

The shop was saying something about other camber plates maybe being better, which I didn't understand much until I took the wheel off and looked around this morning.

 

The coilovers seem designed for rubber strut mounts which they were on when I bought them. The camber plates seem to raise the vehicle compared to the rubber mounts. The shop, when they installed it, put the lower spring perch as low as it could go, which makes it interfere with the wheel/tire at max negative camber (still quite a bit of wheel gap, nowhere near "stanced").

 

What are my options to get the spring up out of the way?

 

wheel spacers? spec b rubber mounts with camber bolts? that whiteline com c thing? a shorter spring (the springs are 8 inches long)?

 

I found Racecomp Engineering used to make some cup shaped camber plates that lowered instead of raised, but they don't seem available anymore.

and I didn't try turning the camber bolt since i couldn't even get a finger between the tire and spring

you can get shorter coilover springs so you can lower the car more and maintain clearance. Call RCE or go to vorshlag.com and buy springs in the right rate and length you need.