Camber adjustment on macpherson struts

hi. 
so i have an awd tt.

front has mac struts on it.
car comes with camber adjustment at the bottom of the strut, and you can buy camber adjusting top strut mounts too.

Anyone whos thinking of answering this probably understands the bad camber gain with mac struts.

So i'm wondering. Which point helps better to fix this. adding camber at the top, or at the bottom?
I am planning on getting some ball joint extenders that help. but for now i'm just curious thanks.

You can get more adjustment at the bottom usually.

 The old ,loosen,push pull, tighten will add a surprising amount

  Adding caster cuts the need for camber

Limit roll by adding stiffness.

It may come down to clearance. Pushing out the bottom is the better choice if you are limited on clearance on the inside. Pulling in the top is better if you have fender clearance problems. 

If the bottom adjustment only moves the knuckle relative to the strut, then adding plates up top and tilting the whole strut inwards should slightly improve the camber curve.  Not by a whole lot though. 

rslifkin said:

If the bottom adjustment only moves the knuckle relative to the strut, then adding plates up top and tilting the whole strut inwards should slightly improve the camber curve.  Not by a whole lot though.

that's what I was wondering. It's the curve i'm working on, not the ease of adjustment or clearance.

Sounds like according to you moving the top does that best.
But to describe my situation, the bottom looks like this. And it basically slides the bottom of the strut out.
VS the top that slides the top of the strut out. Both doing similar things just at different pivots:

This is what I mean:

In reply to Tadope :

If adjusting at the bottom is also changing the angle of the strut, then there should be no difference in camber curve between adjusting at the top vs bottom. 

Most adjustments at the bottom change the angle of the spindle/knuckle and not the strut.   Provisions to change at the strut mount are/can be made .

My going to more caster was a big improvement along with a much bigger rear bar.  It allowed for less static camber.

Stiffer suspension and slightly lower are a big help, of course.

I used tire temps as a guide.

I see I kind of repeated my self.  Sorry,  goes with old age.

iceracer said:

Most adjustments at the bottom change the angle of the spindle/knuckle and not the strut.   

It's macpherson though. The strut is bolted onto the spindle, and they're one piece.

In reply to Tadope :

There's a lot of strut cars where the knuckle bolts to the shock and there is camber adjustment there which is what iceracer is referring to. In your case it looks like where the control arm bolts to the knuckle is where the adjustment is.

The way I see it, adjusting at the bottom widens the track and adjusting at the top will bring the top of the tires in which can help if you are tight for space and running a wide wheel. For the camber curve and front roll center you want your control arms dropping down from the car to the knuckle, that way as it compresses in the corner you gain a little bit of camber rather than loosing it if the control arms are starting level. Having the front roll center higher will also help with front roll stiffness which will help the car stay more level and with the camber issue overall. If someone makes spacers that go in between the knuckle and the control arm to correct this they are probably worth looking at. That is presuming that you have lowered the car a decent amount, if you are at stock ride height than it should already be fine.

thanks sums that up

The camber curve on the TT should actually be relatively OK as long as you dont lower it too much. If I am remembering correctly, you should be able to get an easy -3 degrees of camber out of that lower ball joint adjustment. 

Well it is definitely a lot better than any other mk4 vw.

the spindle has a far lower ball joint attachment.

there is room to lower it more with a spacer however.

and my car is definitely low. I cant stand a car with large wheelwell gap. 
no need to tuck tires or anything crazy. But if you're tuning your car then why not.