Acura RSX Camber Kit Installation (Ingalls Adjustable Rear Arms and Front Cam Bolts)
Introduction
This guide covers fitting an Ingalls camber-correction kit to the Acura RSX (DC5, 2002-2006) to restore usable alignment geometry after the car has been lowered. Dropping the ride height pulls the tops of the wheels inward, producing excess negative camber that quickly wears the inner edges of the tires. The factory RSX suspension offers no camber adjustment, so a kit of some kind is required to dial it back. This kit replaces the fixed rear upper control arms with adjustable-length units and substitutes eccentric cam bolts for the front upper strut bolts, giving roughly two degrees of correction in either direction. The rear work is simple; the front cam bolt is the fiddly part because clearances around the strut are tight and the eccentric bolt tends to spin out of position while you torque the nut. Because the kit cannot be set accurately by eye, budget for a professional alignment immediately after the install. Adapted from a community writeup by victor.s on Club RSX (https://www.clubrsx.com/threads/ingalls-camber-kit-install.193417/), including corrections from the follow-up discussion.
Reference
Tools Required
- Floor jack and jack stands
- Metric socket and wrench set including a 10mm
- SAE (inch) sockets and wrenches for the kit's odd-sized hardware
- Torque wrench covering roughly 40-80 ft-lbs
- Two wrenches or sockets to hold both ends of the front cam bolt at once
- Suspension/bushing grease
- Rubber mallet (optional)
Parts Required
-
Ingalls adjustable rear upper control arms (pair)
-
Ingalls front camber cam bolts with tabbed washers and locking nuts
-
Polyurethane bushing grease (if the kit ships with poly bushings)
Safety Warnings
- ⚠ Support the car on jack stands before removing any wheel; never work under a car held only by a jack.
- ⚠ Excess camber chews through the inner tire edges quickly, so get the alignment done as soon as the kit is on rather than driving on it for weeks.
- ⚠ Avoid DIY string-and-jackstand alignment methods; a wrong setting can ruin a set of tires very fast.
Step-by-Step Instructions
1 Assemble and grease the adjustable rear arms
Prepare each rear arm on the bench first. Wind the jam nuts fully out to the ends of the threaded rod, then thread both end fittings into the central barrel until they bottom out. Starting from the shortest length preserves the widest adjustment range for the alignment shop later. If your kit came with polyurethane bushings, pack them with suspension grease before installing; Ingalls does not supply any, so pick up a tube separately.
2 Raise the car and remove the rear wheel
Crack the rear lug nuts loose, jack up that corner of the car, and lower it onto a jack stand before going any further. Take the wheel off to expose the rear upper control arm and its three mounting bolts.
3 Free the ABS sensor lead
Find the ABS sensor wire where it is clipped to the original upper arm. Remove its retaining bolt, which uses a 10mm head, but leave the wire itself seated in its clip so you avoid re-routing it. Note that on the Ingalls arm the clip bracket cannot be locked down until after the alignment, so it stays loose for now.
4 Remove the stock upper control arm
Undo the single bolt at the forward end of the arm, then the two bolts at the inboard chassis end. With all three out, lift the original arm away from the car.
5 Fit the adjustable Ingalls arm
Offer the new arm into position and start the two inboard chassis bolts first. Lift and push the hub up and rearward until the forward hole lines up, then slide that bolt through. Fit the supplied washer and locking nut. Torque the two chassis-side mounts and the single knuckle bolt to 43 ft-lbs each.
6 Lock the length, reattach the ABS clip, and refit the wheel
Snug the jam nuts back against the barrel to fix the arm's length. As you tighten the nut on the wheel side, capture the ABS wire clip bracket in place, then snap the sensor lead back into its clip. Remount the wheel and torque the lug nuts to spec. Repeat the whole rear sequence on the opposite side.
7 Prepare the front cam bolt and remove the stock bolt
Move to the front of the car. Slide the tabbed washer onto the new cam bolt so it sits right against the bolt head. Then extract the existing upper strut-to-knuckle bolt, which is the one the cam bolt replaces.
8 Install the front cam bolt with the correct orientation
Feed the cam bolt into the strut with the washer tab facing outward toward the hub and the bolt-head arrow directed toward the engine; that setting drives the top of the wheel outward to cancel the negative camber from lowering. Keep the washer tab pointed at the hub and rotate the bolt until the whole assembly slips flush with the strut. Because the cam bolt is slimmer than the stock bolt, it lets the two holes shift relative to each other, and the cam profile plus the washer tab then hold that offset. Each bolt is good for up to about two degrees of change.
9 Torque the front bolt (the tricky part)
Hold the cam end so it cannot rotate while you tighten the lock nut, otherwise the cam head and washer slip out of place. Space is limited on both sides of the bolt, so work in small increments. Torque the front bolt to 77 ft-lbs; for reference the factory spec for this bolt is 74 ft-lbs. If a single bolt cannot give enough correction, add a second cam bolt in the lower hole facing the opposite way, and slacken the lower bolt while you turn the upper cam so it moves more freely.
10 Reassemble, lower the car, and get an alignment
Refit the front wheel, lower the car, and repeat the front procedure on the other side. Since the kit cannot be set precisely without measuring equipment, drive straight to an alignment shop rather than leaving it. Pick a shop experienced with lowered and modified cars, and ask for factory toe with camber held toward the negative end of the factory tolerance for even tire wear.
Pro Tips
- 💡 The kit's bolt and nut sizes do not match the rest of the RSX suspension hardware, so keep both metric and SAE sockets and wrenches within reach.
- 💡 A whitish paste in the front strut bolt threads is factory thread locker, not damage; clean the threads and reuse the holes.
- 💡 If the two front holes line up perfectly the bolt will not pass through. Nudge the hub to create a slight offset, and have a helper hold the hub up to make it far easier.
- 💡 A light tap with a rubber mallet helps seat a tight rotor or bolt when clearances are tight.
- 💡 Whether you even need the front kit depends on the drop: at about an inch or less most people skip it, while a rear kit matters more at the common 1.4-1.75 inch spring drops.
- 💡 The front cam adjusts only through the eccentric itself; loosening the lower bolt frees up the upper cam so it turns more easily.
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