Sears' said camber can't be adjusted during alignment??

[greeneclipse]

i took my car to get a 4 wheel alignment at sears and i asked for a before-and-after print out......it turned out that they only adjusted the toe, so i went back and asked them why my camber wasn't fixed either. They said that mitsubishi makes it so the camber cannot be adjusted during an alignment.....is this true????

here are the current camber specs. after they did the alignment:

front left: -1.4 degrees
front right: 0.7 degrees

rear right: -2.6 deg.
rear left: -0.2 deg.

these seem way off.....is there anything i can do to fix this myself????

 

[RamenPride]

the only factory adjustment is for toe. to adjust camber, you'll need a camber kit.

 

[leet]

Camber correction kits and a realignment will do the trick.

 

[greeneclipse]

do i need a special kit, because my car isn't lowered at all and i'm on the stock 16in. wheels???

where can i find a cheap one?

 

[Mike1992]

IM in thr same boat all stock suspension but only up front

 

[igopoopy]

do i need a special kit, because my car isn't lowered at all and i'm on the stock 16in. wheels???

where can i find a cheap one?

http://www.prostreetonline.com/buy/eibach_camber_alignment_kits/mitsubishi/

 

[RamenPride]

do i need a special kit, because my car isn't lowered at all and i'm on the stock 16in. wheels???

where can i find a cheap one?

get the one with the least amount of adjustment.

most places that sell suspension will have them. just do a search. you could also try ebay.

 

[jtmcinder]

here are the current camber specs. after they did the alignment:

front left: -1.4 degrees
front right: 0.7 degrees

rear right: -2.6 deg.
rear left: -0.2 deg.

While I agree that a camber kit could be used to fix the front, I'd be more concerned about the totally screwed up cross-camber values. Did you type in the values correctly? You listed them as FL, FR, RR, RL, which is a weird order. If these are correct, then your car is twisted. In contrast, if the order is really FL, FR, RL, RR, which makes more sense, then you car is merely listing to the right. In any event, please verify the values and also check the fender gaps at all four corners and post them. Cross-cambers in the 2 degree range (with a stock suspension) imply a serious problem somewhere. Better to figure this out before spending another $50 on an alignment.

- Jtoby

 

[greeneclipse]

oh man...thanks for pointing that out....i did list them wrong.

the rear specs. are:

rear right: -0.2
rear left: -2.6

and here are the specs for the cross camber:

Front: -2.1
Rear: -2.4

so does this mean somthing is really screwed up??? what could be wrong to push camber off so badly??

and what type of camber kit would you recommend to return the settigns to stock spec???

 

[jtmcinder]

Ah, now things make sense. (It's not really possible to get the first set of numbers you posted without camber kits [that are installed incorrectly].)

Your car is listing to the right, which deletes right camber and adds left camber. (In other words, your car hates NASCAR, which makes me like it already.) To be precise, your car is rolled to the right by a tad over one degree, which is why your cross-cambers are both off by two degrees. This is the first thing to fix. Assuming that you haven't replaced the amplifier under the passenger seat with a large chunk of lead, it's quite likely that one or both of your right-side springs has sagged. This is actually rather rare, since 2Gs have a tendency to list to the left, not the right, but DSMs are so variable that I'm not falling off my chair in surprise.

One trick is to swap the springs from left to right and see if the problem reverses. This would verify that it's the springs. In that case, replace them. If swapping the springs from left to right does not switch the listing, then take a close look at your sway bars and their brackets. Maybe they are bent and rolling the car. Beyond that, we need to start thinking of other (more difficult to fix) possibilities.

- Jtoby

 

[jtmcinder]

Oops. One more idea. When you are swapping the springs, check to make sure that all of your shocks can be compressed by hand. Maybe one of the left-side shocks has a bent shaft and it is holding that side of the car up too high. Although my suspension is far from stock, the one shock shaft that I've bent was on the left side and it did lift that corner.

- Jtoby

 

[greeneclipse]

thanks for the info.

i switched the springs this morning and took it for a drive....it didn't feel any different. I also took it back to sears and had a tech. check the aligment for me again. the only thing that changed was the front right camber ( from -1.4 to -1.3) and the rear left ( from -0.2 to -0.3).

the cross camber was the same at:
Front: -2.1
Rear: -2.4

what else do you think could be causing this???

 

[jtmcinder]

Did you check to see if any of the shocks wouldn't compress by hand?

Is there some large heavy object in your passenger seat (and apologies in advance if you are a member of the "more to love" dating club).

Have you verified that the car is listing to the right by measuring the ride heights?

These are the sorts of things to do.

- Jtoby

 

[greeneclipse]

forget to mention that i guess, but i checked the shocks too and they both compress and decompress fine...no rattling or squeaks either.

and i dont have any heavy objects in the car no subs or amps, and i dont even have a spare in there.

should i measure the ride height from the center of the wheel to the underside of the fender or from a different spot???

 

[jtmcinder]

I prefer the ride height be measured from the center of the wheel straight up to the fender lip, so that the size of the tire/wheel has no effect. But since we're only interested in the relative heights, you can do it any way that you wish.

- Jtoby

 

[greeneclipse]

ok....i measured the heights and it is pretty much even at all sides at around ~15in....the front left is just a bit under 15in...maybe a 1/4in less.

any other ideas???