Camber/Caster Problem
 

I put Coilovers on my 04rex myself and had it aligned at C and C fuel injection. The right front and rear wheels are fine, however, the left front wheel is going bald on the inside and making the car pull right. The right front camber plate is centered, while the left front plate is almost maxed out to adjust for camber. I have no idea why the left would be any different from the right??? How much can the stock front camber bolts be adjusted? Dave(at C and C) told me the caster is off on the front wheels (but the plates are set up for camber). Does anyone have any ideas on why the left front wheel is messed up?

Check the strut-to-spindle joint; I would guess the joints were aligned differently on each side when the bolts were torqued. If the frame is straight, no parts are bent, and the wheels are aligned symmetrically relative to the struts, then the camber plate settings should come out roughly the same.

Yeah, when I get my car aligned, I set the topmounts to 0 on both sides, then tell the shop to do the alignment w/ the camber bolts only.

There are only two bolts on the bottom, the strut and camber bolt. Are you saying to loosen the bottom bolt and try adjusting it? My alignment was fine with my springs on last time, so nothing should be bent or out of place.

What everyone else said, but also...

Are the locking bolts for teh camber plate tight? Is it possible they moved?

What are the ride heights on each corner?

Who adjusted that after coilover installation?

It is possibly that you have to much weight on that corner, and that is why it is wearing unevenly.

How long ago did they do the alignment? If it was recent, they should make it right.

I had the camber plates centered when i took it in. The front ride heights are the same, so if the right side is fine the left side should be fine to. I actually did take it in for a second time and there was nothing he could do about it. The front camber is set to 1.5, but thats with the left camber plate almost maxed out. The right camber plate is centered. He said the problem is that the caster is off, but I don't know how that could be, or maybe the caster changed when he maxed the left camber plate out. Whatever it is, its bugging the crap out of me and I really want to get it fixed.

What does your print out say? You did get a print out, right?

Caster should not cause that kind of wear. Scott and I both have camber guages, we just need a pretty flat slab to do a quick ball park read...

It tracks stright, with the wheel centered on flat not crowned roads?

No, it pulls right. I think the print out is wrong.
Left Front: Camber-.7, Caster 2.84, toe, .01. Right front, Caster is 3.07, other values are the same.
I think he has the front values for camber in for the rear values since the front wheels look like they have more camber than the rear wheels. Maybe I should take it somewhere else to just get the front aligned

sounds like the camber bolt is all out of whack, and in order to adjust the camber correctly, the plate had to be pushed in farther. I can say this because my own car was as such for a while, before I got off my lazy ass and fixed it. The camber plate on that side needs to be set back to 0, and then the camber adjusted with the camber bolt to get what the plate reads back to actual.

as far as the caster being off, unless the camber plate isn't exactly parallel with the camber adjustment angle, I can't see how it would make any difference. doesn't make sense to me.

I don't mean to shit talk other shops, but I'd like to hope that the camber issue would be something they could figure out...

Those two caster numbers are fine and definitely don't apply to straight line handling.

I'd take it back to C&C and have them make it right.

Thanks for the insight. C and C just moved to a new location and it always took them a while to work on my car. I might just go to Les swhab since I had my alignment done there before and they did a good job.

You could add some negative camber while you're at it (unless it's not necessary with the extra castor you can run). I've never seen any uneven tire wear and I'm running somewhere between -1.1 and -1.5 up front ...just a thought.

Sid's alignment and brake on 4th St. is good. He is an autocrosser, so knows his stuff. Know what you want it to end up at, and he will do his best to get it there.

And according to Debbie, he just got a new super spiffy alignment machine.

Don't forget to set your plates to centered beforehand and have him keep them as even as possible and use the camber bolts.

As I always say, if you want a deal, tell him Debbie sent you, and pay cash. If you want to pay more, say Dean sent you. :) If you call first and ask how busy he is and can leave it there 1/2 or all day, he will be happier.

Excess caster differential can cause a pull, but the caster numbers you put up would cause a pull to the left, not right. The caster is not the source of your problem.

Plus, those caster numbers are about as close as them come on a non-adjustable setup, totally within the norm.

Do you think that I should loosen the strut and camber bolts and wiggle it around to see is something is not aligned right?

Well, if you do that, something will definitely be not aligned right. :p

Yes, he has a digital alignment machine, uses lasers (I think that's what they are) to line up the starting setup. It's a 'John Bean' (if anyone knows what that is).

Anyone have a Subaru shop manual that actually shows where your adjustments can be made?

For example on the RX8, not a lot of people knew how to get max camber (but some learned that loosening the upper control arms give more adjustability - now I've got -2.5 camber on one side using that trick; whereas most alignment shops don't know to try that, and only max out at -1.0).

Also Sid is a HUGE Raiders Fan....so if you show up with some rare Raiders Items as tokens of appreciation he might be even nicer.

So i just took my car into sid's. The camber plate is now totally maxed out on the left side, but the alignment is good now. I called the company about my camber plate situation, they said to try and loosen the bottom strut bolt and move it into a different position. I don't see how that would make a big difference in camber, but I guess I could try it. Since my alignment is good now, I might just leave it and try fixing it later

I don't pretend to know anything about coilovers, but could somthing be bent?

The angle between the strut and spindle has a direct effect on your wheel camber angle. It will change the camber quite a bit.