Hit a curb in the rain. Drivers control arm front hit. Camber is now decided negative. Drive feels less stable. I see camber bolts, eccentric strut bolts, for sale. Would a new control arm be the better choice or would it be that bar-like attachment to the control arm which looks more likely to deform? Could the strut have bent? Front struts are new ~6 weeks ago and the rear 2 weeks ago.\
Bill
Hit a curb in the rain. Drivers control arm front hit. Camber is now decidedly negative. Drive feels less stable. I see camber bolts, eccentric strut bolts, for sale. Would a new control arm be the better choice or would it be that bar-like attachment to the control arm which looks more likely to deform? Could the strut have bent? Front struts are new ~6 weeks ago and the rear 2 weeks ago.\
Bill
Hi Bill, curious you are having this problem right when I am fixing mine. I have a couple of questions: What is the camber for that wheel now? Did you damage the wheel? Did you have the alignment done? Are the bushings in the control arm in good condition?
If the bushings are good, go for the control arm. When you hit the curb, and I am assuming you were braking, the main damaging force is backwards and not sideways. This causes the control arm to bend in such a way that the camber goes negative and not positive as one might imagine.
I went to the junker and for 18 bucks got a control arm in perfect conditions, beating the $141+s&h online price by far. At the junker, i looked at the bushings in the control arm, making sure that the inner part of the bushing was centered with respect to the rubber and that there were no evident signs of damage on that side of the junked vehicle.
Aligning the bent and the replacement control arms, i could measure a
9/32" difference from one to the other. Having the replacement arm, and nothing to lose, I tried straightening the bent arm using my 12 ton hydraulic press... dream on... the thing would not budge.Even though the camber in my case was within specs., it was at -.93 deg, which put it pretty close to the limit. After replacing the control arm, the camber went to -.63. Does not sound like much, but you can actually see the difference just by looking at the wheel. I am planning on replacing the "anchor" on which the front end of the control arm goes.
The story gets better. I hit the curb (driver's side) on sep 11/1995 when a truck cut in front of me on the highway. I replaced both front tires (flattened by the braking) and the wheel on the 12th. I know this cause i have the receipt for the $362 wheel. After that, i have 7 alignment printouts (from NTB and Sears, different branches) and none of them show that wheel's camber to be off, except for one that shows the wheel to have positive camber. Never thought I had a serious problem, until recently, when I used directional tires for the first time, and those did show the uneven wear. The passanger side tires wore out perfectly evenly.
Using two aluminum cones, 3/8" diameter and about 1.5" tall, stuck to the wheel using two sided tape (alloy wheels), a bubble level and a feeler gauge, I am able to measure the camber in what seems to be a more precise way, than with the alignment equipment/technician combination.
In my case, even with the camber at the limit, the drive never felt less stable. This would lead me to believe that the toe may be too open, unless the camber is way off.
In any case, good luck!
Bill wrote:
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