Recently I had my car alignment checked and adjusted. The tech found that the rear camber was out of spec. Honda specs this at -1.0º and the tech found that both rear wheels had a camber of -2.0º. It is not adjustable on our car so I'm posting here to get information as to what to do.

The shop found an aftermarket upper control arm for the rear that is adjustable. They aren't cheap, around $130 each. I'd need two and they would take a while to put in. I could well be looking at a $400 to $500 repair to get the rear camber in spec. That's a lot of money considering I can't see a problem. The rear wheels are wearing fine, evenly on both sides. The car drives fine. I can't see or feel any reason to fix the rear camber.

The shop has done good, reasonably priced work for me in the past. I don't think an end of the summer boat payment is due for the shop manager. They are perfectly willing to let the car be this way. They just thought I should know.

So how important is getting the rear camber right? How can I tell if it is off, outside of the alignment tools? Would you spend up to $500 to get it within spec? More to the point, should I?

If both sides are -2.0º then i wouldn't worry about it at all. If your tires are wearing evenly that is the only thing you need to worry about. Have you hauled many heavy loads in the Element? I am talking 1,000+ for long periods of time. Overloading the Element could have sagged the springs which could account for a -1.0º change in your ride.

You can always head to the dealer and ask them. Odds of a suspension component being bent the same on both sides are near impossible... Only thing the added camber will do is wear the inner part of the tires a little faster than normal.

Did the tech put weight in the front driver's seat to approx you weight? Was gas tank approx half full? I dont remember what Honda's tolerances are for Camber. Problem with the negative camber being out of spec is you dont know why?
And if you care it can make tire rotation problematic if the fronts aren't at -2.0 degrees too. Running that much negative camber does give the tires a specific wear problem that over time can get noisy. The fronts should also be at about -2.0 degrees negative too for handling.

You might try for grins switching the wheels from front to rear to see if they are the problem.

For both sides to be the same it could also mean somebody at the factory installed the wrong part or installed the part upside down. Who knows?
I am thinking the top strut bushing is off. Was the car ever in an accident? If the tires were wearing okay why did you pay for an alignment?

You might want to try another alignment shop! Find a shop that does Honda's but also handles BMW's and Porsches for the drivers' schools and the track. Find a shop with a newer model alignment machine. They expensive and run over $30k which is part of the reason an alignment is expensive.

If the car is handling fine I wouldnt spend $500 to fix it.

Didn't you just have all your struts replaced? Do you have the alignment numbers from before the replacement? The right rear is out on mine and it was not like that originally. Tires wear fine and no noise so I do not worry about that.

^ I had the front struts replaced and the problem is with the rear camber. And, no, I didn't have the alignment numbers from before the replacement. That the camber was off was discovered in the alignment after the replacement.

Larry, you make the most sense here, that and VAherder's remark about not spending $500 to get it fixed. Maybe it happened when my car was new and I took 3 other people and a sh!tload of camping gear across country to Phish's final concerts. We were weighed down big time, baby! That was a 2,500 mile trip. I have repeated it again for shorter trips to other festivals, maybe another 1,000 miles more. Those loads would have squashed most anything.

In my industry I regularly run across things that don't spec out the greatest but sound wonderful. This may be the car equivalent. I one time met an engineer for a company that had a state of the art speaker designed facility. They also had trained, paid listeners to evaluate their speakers. I asked the engineer, what if the measured performance and the sound don't agree. What do you go with? He replied that rarely happened but when it did, you always went for what sounded the best. I think I'm going for a good driving car, which I have, and to hell with the camber measurement.