Sirenty

I had my car corner balanced and aligned before a DE recently. The DE was on a tight, bumpy track with lots of turns. Looking at my car now, almost all the camber is gone on the driver’s side. The passenger side looks good, though it may have extra. I think the same thing happened the previous DE which is why I got it aligned again. I had assumed the first shop had just messed it up (due to precedence).

Has anyone else had this happen? I read the bolts need to be replaced when setting camber, which I’m almost positive wasn’t done. Could this be it or something else?

Goughary

Couple things- first, what struts are you using?

Second - did you happen to check the torque specs after the alignment? I always retorque after having an alignment done on anyone's car- and ALWAYS find the torque specs wrong.

Also...are we talking front and rear or just front?

Sirenty

It’s all Cup with monoball mounts.

I did not. Check the torque where precisely?

Both front and rear on the driver’s side.

Goughary

Torque on the front- you have to check the upper and lower bolts on the struts, the upper bolt is the one used to set camber.

On the rear, you have to check the bolts on the spring plates.

It's very strange that one side would change like that. Hard to tell what's going on, but looks like you need to take it back to the shop to tweak the alignment regardless...

Sirenty

Good call. All four bolts on the struts were below torque spec, and not by a little.

Goughary

You have to remember- shops are typically not full of super awesome shops guys...super detail oriented and super precise...it's unfortunate. There is usually the one guy that is the draw for the shop...aka "take it to this guy, he is awesome"...but it's the people he hired that are the guys working on your car, and he doesn't pay much. So guess what...

This is why it's so important to either do it yourself or take it to the right shop....if you can find the "right" shop.

cjoenck

On that topic, economic reality is that some jobs get rushed or there is pressure to finish something faster. Even if the guy was super detailed and super good at what he does, stuff falls through the cracks. I agree that doing things yourself - although I have forgotten/messed up plenty myself - at least can only blame yourself. If we were all as consumers willing to pay a little more for quality, we would get better trained people that have the time and incentive to do it right. Most people take pride in the work they do every day.
Just a thought.

Bruni

I have suffer the same problem earlier. It could only happen with very harsh suspension and high speed driving in bad road surface.
I have race suspension and uniball every places. All torgue setting were correct and still out of camber and toe.
i solve this problems by adding an precise steel plate to upper bolt.