Went to get my car aligned today and many areas were out of their specified range. Wondering what parts would be recommended to fix the issue.
Information on the car:
2000 Integra
140,000 miles
Tein Flex coilovers ( had them for about 50,000miles)
Camber kit in the front (I know not recommended, they've been there for years)
shock tower bar up front
17" rims, the car is moderatly lowered.

 

Holly hell, your numbers are all over the place!

For the front, I don't like that one side is maxed out, and the other is not, however it's not the end of the world. There will be some differences from side to side.

Have the match the left, to the passanger side.



The fact your rear toe is that far out of spec would make me nervous. And I really don't like the fact your camber is that far apart.

has the car been in a accident?

 

The rear right was hit, but did not cause serious damage just a dent on the back quarter panel.

 

I think that hit caused the trailing arm or compensator arm to bend giving the really screwy toe readings. I'd also say that your right front needs to be raised a bit to bring the camber in line with the left side

 

from the numbers alone I would say either multiple parts are broken/bent/severely worn or you are a little more than just moderately low

Here is a basic link that has pretty generalized solutions to at least get you headed in the right direction.

Make sure that you are in fact just not too low, I know from personal experience that low looked nice but i was maxing out my camber kit raising it just an inch gained a new level of adjustment in the adjustable upper control arms.

also there is ways to adjust stock caster by adding or removing washers in relation to one of the mounting points on a control arm, not sure if this is applicable to integras as its not mentioned in the manual yet is mentioned in the manual for a prelude, you might want to look into this bc your caster will greatly effect how well your car returns to center after steering imputs

another technique to gain toe adjustment in the back is to actually lengthen the notch in the chassis to allow greater adjustment. This is a crude solution and if you can avoid drilling the chassis by raising the car, it would be most advised. Not 100% sure of all the risks in doing so, but within moderation im sure a little is fine.

https://honda-tech.com/forums/showth...3#post46355333

that last link is to another thread where i posted various links which talk about the significants of the different variables that go into a properly aligned car, a good read to understand how the different numbers will change the cars handle and behavior

 

http://throwdownperformance.com/inde...roducts_id=655

lol there is always the ballin solution to camber/caster adjustment...but its alot of money

 

Its really easy for the trailing arms to bend from being hit by another car. You should replace the right rear trailing arm.

The reason the left rear is out of spec is because the alignment tech's goal is to get the Total Toe in spec if they can't get the individual side in spec. So right now, your car is what they call, "dog tracking"

I'm not sure why he didn't get the front right camber in spec if you have a camber kit. He probably didn't even adjust your camber.

 

Negative caster?

Something is seriously wrong with that car. What kind of "camber kit" is being used? The Ingalls style sliding UCA pivot kits can serious screw with caster.

 

Thank you for the recommendation, i'll definately inspect the trailing arm and replace it if its bent. The bushings are the original ones the vehicle came with so I had planned to replace them soon anyway, they'll just be pushed up on my to do list hopefully that helps as well.

The car is by no means slammed, it's able to climb most of highest speed bumps straight up without fear , but I would be open to raising it a bit if it would help align the vehicle properly. Anyone had good luck with the extended ball joints by mfactory for alignment.

 

I believe it is that style.

 

Honest recommendation from someone who had a set of those on his car. Take them off and put the stock UCA subframes back on.

While they avoid the clearance issues of the sliding balljoint style "camber kits", the difficulty in adjusting combined with unintentional changes to the caster make them much more trouble than they're worth.

Unless you can do your own alignments and have the time to spend doing so, but they make trying to keep the caster correct make the alignment take 4X longer, which most techs aren't willing to spend the time to do, so you end up with screwed up caster.

 

How do they allow caster adjustment? Is it because the UCA can get cocked sideways if both the front & rear bushings aren't adjusted exactly the same. I never thought of this before...

BTW: Doesn't the negative toe in the LR mean toe-out? Why would he say it's maxed-out if it's just adjusted that way on purpose? Donut is probably right though.

Also, you can try to even out the camber by loosening the front subframe and knocking it over towards the drivers side. Of course I doubt the alignment shop will do this (unless you ask). Probably better to ditch the ingalls kit before attempting this.

Here is a pic of the offending unit:

 

UCA, not LCA.

And yes, if they aren't adjusted exactly evenly the UCA's balljoint is moved fore/aft, changing the caster.

 

That's what I meant....sorry. Edited above post.

Thanks for sharing your experience. That is incredibly good to know. Makes me more and more glad I never bothered with camber kits and after-market control arms.

 

I put a set of Ingalls adjusters on my car, got it aligned (asked for as much camber as possible, didn't think about caster issues), and drove around with 0* caster on one side, and -1* on the other. Car wandered all over the road, didn't self center the steering, turned easier one way than the other...

I was so fed up with it, I put the stock UCA subframes back on and paid for another alignment, after 2 weeks.

 

You're more than likely not going to be able to judge whether its bent just by looking at it since the toe isn't out of spec enough to see. If you could see it bent then the car would be a handful, constantly crabbing to one side. Possibly if you removed both TA's and compared side by side, but otherwise probably not.

 

I agree, it's damn near impossible to see if it's bent, even side by side. It takes the slightest bend to cause your toe to max out like that and still be within spec in total toe. If you were able to see a bend, it would be obvious and the total toe would be way off. The only way is to replace it, or mask the problem by getting adjustable toe links. Even with adjustable toe links, the rear trailing arm may rub the 'tunnel' it resides in when your suspension cycles.