GearHeadDriver

iTrader: (1)

Civic 95, EG Hatchback

I went to a nation wide shop that I have a lifetime alignment with after I noticed my car was pulling to the right a tad bit. They checked it and said that the "toe" was dead on as well as the alignment was fine on all tires. They indicated to me that the front passenger side tire is a little off with the camber. I asked them what they recommend I do and they really wren't too sure. The one guy said I could do 3 things: 1: Do nothing. 2: Replace the entire suspension back to OEM spec. 3: Buy a camber plate and fix just the one side. He also said I could buy a new strut with a spring for he one side and see if it fixes it. That's assuming something is wrong with it.

The odd part is, I had this shop align my car before several months ago and the car drove completely straight. I don't have any adjustable controls, etc. They are all OEM spec.

I bought the car used and it came with Ticketco struts and Eibach springs. They are not coilovers. The car is barely lowered. I would say no more than 1 or so inches. I don't care about ride height. I'm getting a lot of wear on the tire and would like to correct it if possible.

I'm leaning towards just replacing the entire suspension with one of the kits on eBay that sells for about $300.

I have the printout of the numbers for the alignment if anyone needs to see it.

What do you all suggest I do?

civic402lx

Try a different shop?

GearHeadDriver

iTrader: (1)

I was hoping to do the least expensive thing first. That's why I asked first.

Does anything from the shop sound to be true? Why would only 1 tire be out and all the others are fine?

eHMxhACk

iTrader: (17)

Have you pulled the wheel off and look at the suspension components? Especially the upper control arm, bushings, ball joint.





eH.

GearHeadDriver

iTrader: (1)

Not yet, but I'm having a different shop take a look at my rotors for an unrelated issue on Friday. I can have him take a look at at the same time.

tony_2018

Where's the alignment diagram of the before/after specs?

GearHeadDriver

iTrader: (1)

I don't have the before specs of the alignment, but I do have the current ones. The shop said they didn't change anything when I went in yesterday because all the numbers were good and they can't adjust the camber. As I said before, I was able to drive perfectly straight without any pulling on the same suspension / setup a few months ago.

tony_2018

Where are you seeing wear?

GearHeadDriver

iTrader: (1)

The front passenger tire is seeing the wear. I went to Costco since that's where I originally got my tires and they said there was an unusual amount of tire wear. So, they rotated the tire to the back. That was about 2 weeks ago. I just came from an alignment shop yesterday and it seems like the camber is the reason why my tire is prematurely wearing.

tony_2018

Get adjustable upper control arms or inspect the upper control arm bushings.

GearHeadDriver

iTrader: (1)

Okay, I'll have the shop take a look at that tomorrow. Thanks!

White_EG1

IMO for the height you're at there's no need for a camber kit. Sounds like the shop guy isn't very bright.

When my camber is off on my car that means my ride height is not adjusted symmetrically on both sides meaning that side that has more camber is lowered more than the other. To fix this I would raise the problem side.

Example, my rear right is 2.7 and left is 1.5 that's pretty off.... all I did was lower it correctly on the 1.5 side and now I'm at 2.9 on that side.

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GearHeadDriver

iTrader: (1)

My ride height isn't adjustable with what's on the car currently. I'd have to change the springs.

eHMxhACk

iTrader: (17)

Why are you asking us if you're taking your car to a shop. Wasted responses. What are you going to do, tell the mechanic where to look or what to fix?

If you're taking it to a shop, take it to a shop.

If you're going to work on it yourself, ask questions here.





eH.

GearHeadDriver

iTrader: (1)

​​​​​​​I don't believe there are rules on when I can ask questions to this forum.

I can't believe I have to actually spell this out. The first shop seems to be wrong so I'm asking the questions on this forum to get another opinion. Is it really that hard to understand?

Not to mention I might not use a shop to fix the issue I might use someone in my driveway. I never said I was going to use a shop to definitely fix this issue.

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tony_2018

The diagram really spells it out, unless you got into an accident that fucked up your lower control arm that we don't know about, than the upper control arm replaced with an adjustable camber it is.

GearHeadDriver

iTrader: (1)

Thank you, that makes more sense. Yes, the car was never involved in an accident. I'm still a little surprised why I'm suddenly out of camber now and only on one side when I haven't changed anything recently. I don't mind replacing the upper control arms. I guess my objective was to go with the least amount of money being potentially spent as well as keeping the car relatively stock to avoid any future hassle if possible. This vehicle is my daily driver.

TomCat39

Lets play nicely fellas.... Everyone is entitled to an opinion.

Both of you have valid points on your opinions. I am not going to say either is correct or incorrect.

I am just going to ask for the both of you to play nicely in the sandbox.

eHMxhACk

iTrader: (17)

Really?

That IS playing nice. Damn this place is weak.





eH.

GearHeadDriver

iTrader: (1)

I went back and got my car aligned after I noticed it was pulling still. This time everything is IN after the alignment, except the caster. It's out by a hair. The shop explained there's really nothing more they can do unless I get camber adjustment plates, but they said the alignment came out better this time.

Is this normal for our cars that have an OE spec suspension?

eghatch9295

iTrader: (1)

nope

TomCat39

Would a shift in the subframe affect the caster?

I remember seeing another thread where the alignment couldn't be set perfectly and they found that a slight adjustment to the front subframe position fixed the problem.

What I don't remember is what part of the alignment was affected by the subframe being out of position by a couple of mm.