Front sits lower than rear... and a camber question
 

I searched a lot in the s1 section and checked all 4 pages here and it looks like the front should be sitting higher than the rear on the stock suspension. I measured mine center cap to fender lip, fronts were 14 3/4" and the rears were 15". Could this just be from shocks wearing out? I am at 51k miles now and I do plan on getting some new shocks at some point but right now it just is not possible. It seems weird that they would all be the exact same height all around like that if there was a problem.

About camber, when I went to get an alignment done they said the max they could get on the front right was -1.7 but the front left was maxed out at -1.2, what would cause this? They mentioned something about the subframe possibly being misaligned from the factory but that was just a guess and they were not sure. I did hit one of those water meter covers(picture below, 8 to 10 inches across) in the street that someone was nice enough to flip upside down one night. This was over a year ago and I have been to a lot of shops to have it inspected and everyone says there is nothing damaged and that everything looks fine. All It did was pop my tire when I hit it but the rim was somehow fine. It was on the left tire too and it was my first suspicion for what the problem is but everyone says things look perfectly fine under there. Could something like that cause that side to get 0.5 less camber than the other side even with no visible damage to anything?

Probably a stupid question since I did hit something but the no damage part verified by a lot of shops who were in a position to make money from finding the problem is what throws me.


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Camber is dependant on caster settings with the way this suspension is set kup..doesn't take too much of a caster difference to make the camber change .5 degrees
also the camber adjuster assembly has a habit of corrosion and seizing...so you loose adjustment

Not much corrosion going on in Vegas since we never see salt or snow, the odd bit of rain a few times a year though. It barely rains out here but when it does it usually rains for a few days.

They set the caster to 7 or 7.5 I think going off what people suggested here. What they did was go for max caster and then max camber just to see what was possible and that was all they could get out of the fronts. I was hoping to try around 1.5 front 1.0 rear again on suggestions from this forum but ended up at less than that.

It is unlikely that the subframe is misaligned...it sits on pins that make it basically impossible to put in crooked. You might have bent something in your pothole incident...but i is also very unlikely

A stock height I guess that's what you are going to get :) It isn't like it matters for a street car in any way....more important to make sure the toe settings are good. With that much caster the small difference in camber won't be noticed. If you want more camber they can dial down the caster and get a bit more....you could go to 6.5 caster and likely get the camber even on both sides at -1.5

Also with you in the drivers seat it will camber that side a bit more anyway :)

I am going to go get my alignment adjusted tomorrow and hopefully they will let me sit in it while they do it. I will try 6 or 6.5 caster and see what they can get up front.

Right now it is these settings, originally I was going to shoot for 1.5 front 1.0 rear but they couldn't do it.

Front
Camber 1.0
Caster 7.5 L /7.0 R
Toe 0 / 0

Rear
Camber 0.9
Toe 1/16 L - 1/32 R


What about my ride height being kind of messed up? I figured if the shocks were wearing it wouldn't be so even all the way around. I have never messed with them at all so this may be how it always was.

I think the 09's went to different rear shocks...so it is likely that they changed the rear ride height

It is likely that things are fine...check for leakage in the shock bodies...they should be fine at that mileage

For street driving the -1.0 -1.5 range is more than enough in the front

I went to the shop today and dropped the caster from 7.5 to 6.8 and it only got me from 1.0 neg to 1.1 neg on the front. They said the rear wouldn't go past 0.9 neg, it would go more negative but they couldn't get it any more positive from there. They said one side (right) was the problem as it was maxed out but the left could get more positive. I was trying to get 0.6 neg in the rear but I guess it's not possible.

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Edit: Actually the numbers above were what they told me it was. Here is a picture of the final print out which was different for whatever reason. So ven at 6 caster they could only so a max of 1.1 negative on the front left which was pretty much the same as at 8.1 which it was at before(the last sheet I had said it was 7.5...) I asked for 0 toe up front and just noticed they gave me some in the form of toe in and toe out.. is that a problem when it is that low of a number?

New alignment->https://i.imgur.com/szybJYd.png

Previous, you can see how it was a little messed up before lol. https://i.imgur.com/x1YkllX.png