Alignment out again

[Natedaman_99]

I had my car aligned about 400 miles ago and i can see that my back tires are going out again. I have had this problem for awhile now and i had the dealer check for problems and they couldnt find anything so what would be my best option to start with. Any help would be great thank.

 

[ldstang50]

where are you tires wearing, inside or outside? Sides or middle?

 

[Natedaman_99]

The tires are wearing on the inside when i had my alignment like i said about 400 miles ago the camber and caster were just fine before and after but my toe was way out of spec. The toe was adjusted back into spec but know you can see the tires are wearing on the inside again. And you can see the wheel isnt straight up and down.

 

[ldstang50]

if you're lookking at your car from the rear, and the tires are not straight up and down, then its your camber. if its wearign on the INSIDE of the tires, you have negative camber. its better for handling, but in excess amounts it causes too much tire wear. For toe, you would look down on top of the tire. if the tire wasn't pointing straight ahead then your toe is off. From what it sounds like, you're camber needs to be adjusted. Your lower control arms, can you adjust those?

 

[Natedaman_99]

Ok well the problem im having is no matter how many times i get a alignment and everything is all back in spec afterwards it goes out very soon after the alignment so i am trying to figure out why this keeps happening.

 

[ldstang50]

from my experience, i slid my left rear into a wooden curb and knocked the rear end out of alignment. i had adjustable control arms, so i was able to bring it back into alignment myself. if its coming undone that easily, the bolts that are used to tighten down the adjusters might not be tight enough. i found that by basically what you described. i had to use a breaker bar to get mine to tighten down to where they wouldnt' come lose again.

 

[Natedaman_99]

Ok well i will have to try that out and if thats not it i guess i will have to just start replacing some of the suspension part then. Thanks for your help and if anyone else hase any idea please let me know.

 

[jtmcinder]

This is a guess, but it fits your symptoms.

The inner sleeve of the inboard bushings on your toe-arms are rust-welded to the bolt. Because of this, when they set your rear toe, they are twisting the rubber in the bushing to do it. (Did they have to use a long wrench to set the toe? That would ice this.) After a few bumps on the street, the twisting force on the bolt causes the car to reset its own alignment ... back to whatever it was before.

Note: early 2Gs are known for this problem. The fix is both cheap and a total PITA. You buy new toe arms and install them. The first half of that is cheap; the second half is a PITA, because you will have to cut out the old bolts.

- Jtoby

 

[ldstang50]

great post! i was unaware of mitsu using rubber in the toe arms and such. my evo doens't have rubber they are solid. glad to know i was kinda on the right track

 

[jtmcinder]

if you're lookking at your car from the rear, and the tires are not straight up and down, then its your camber. if its wearign on the INSIDE of the tires, you have negative camber.

No. You can run quite a bit of negative camber and get little extra wear on the inside edge of the tire. It's toe that eats tires, not camber. Camber just determines what part of the tire gets eaten and how fast.

Keep in mind that a spec alignment includes rear toe-in. If you have a lot of camber, ask for zero rear toe.

- Jtoby