Our stock 2003 Civic Hybrid had new tires put on yesterday. They did a courtesy check of the alignment. Toe was off a little on 3 wheels, but there are adjustments for that, so a regular alignment should take care of it. On the rear camber was -1.2 (in spec) on the driver's side and -1.9 (out of spec) on the passenger's side. There is no adjustment for rear camber, so something needs to be replaced or shimmed or camber bolted to resolve this.

After staring at the suspension drawings for a while it looks like the most likely culprits are the upper control arm and its bushing. Here is my reasoning. As a gross approximation of the rear suspension it is an equilateral triangle with the hub at 1 vertex and about 1 foot of separation between the upper and lower pivot points at the other two vertices. If the upper bushing allows an extra 1 mm of motion inwards it will make the camber angle more negative by arcsin(1/(25.4*12) = 0.18 degrees. Any distortion of the upper control arm would also make the camber more negative. So small changes in the upper arm could easily account for the observed negative camber. Changes in the lower control arm look like they would make the camber more positive.

What would you do in this situation? Replace the upper control arm with a stock (or equivalent), replace just the bushing, or replace the upper control arm with an adjustable one (like the Specialty Products 67230)? The bushing is the least expensive part but might or might not fix the issue, the upper control arm would include the bushing and would most likely fix it, but might not if the body was bent somehow, and the adjustable control arm would definitely fix it, but it would cost about twice as much as an arm which is not adjustable.

Thanks.

 

Excessive rear camber caused by bushings, although possible, is unlikely, usually the culprit would be sagging springs/tired shocks, however if your springs/shocks are new, it is possible as you mentioned that the control arm was bent in some way in that case there might be more to your problem then just camber as the force needed to bend the body and/or the control arm will probably create other issues in the future

 

The shocks and springs are definitely not new, most likely they are the ones that shipped from the factory. How does one quantitate "sagging springs"? Visually the car sits square. By the bounce test the shocks are OK. I do not see anything that looks bent in the suspension, and the sections of the body where these bolt on also look OK to me. The visible parts of the bushings look about the same on the left and the right, but of course that doesn't mean internally that they are in the same shape. It would help if I knew what they were supposed to look like. Neither one of them looks the same all the way around - are these bushings supposed to have a uniform flat face in the gap between the metal, or is there supposed to some sort of variation? If the former, then they are shot. I can take a picture, but don't see an option to attach an image in this web interface. (New on the forum, maybe that only shows up after a few more posts?)

 

Sorry about the quality of the inboard pictures - the camera just did not want to stay in focus on the right spot, in every case focusing on the orange high voltage lines nearby. Anyway, here is what the bushings look like. All of them look like they have a "C" shaped outer casing with the small gap located in the same position on each side. Beyond that I don't see anything terrible, no rubber hanging out or anything like that. Most of the variation seen is varying amounts of dirt and brake dust on the side of the bushing. There is a little surface rust on the inboard mounting part of the control arm. With the pictures of that section being out of focus it looks much worse than it actually is.

Passenger inboard 1
http://tinyurl.com/cqb2urb

Passenger inboard 2
http://tinyurl.com/comnfnw

Passenger outboard 2
http://tinyurl.com/clsspbq

Driver inboard 1
http://tinyurl.com/csgwfwg

Driver inboard2
http://tinyurl.com/bo6w5nz

Drive outboard 1
http://tinyurl.com/cyfrnbu

Drive outboard 2
http://tinyurl.com/ctxb98z

 

None of your image links work, due to them being improper image links. You need to have the URL link end in a proper image file type (.jpg, .bmp, etc...).

 

The springs (and somewhat the struts) are notoriously weak on these Civics. I went through springs about every 50-60K miles around here.

1.2 is right on the edge of being in spec while 1.9 is a little out of spec. Which leads me to believe weak springs if the bushings look good and the vehicle passes the bounce test..

If you just put new, non-adjustable control arms on it might not fix the problem. Adjustable control arms would fix the problem- for now.

I would replace the springs and see how much camber you get back. If it's still not good enough for you I would get adjustable control arms.

 

Leaky, worn shocks will lower ride height.

Replace the struts and see where your alignment falls.

 

The images work for me, although I don't see anything particularly alarming there, Springs and shocks suck on all 7th gen Civics, I had to replace mine as well and I actually put lowering springs (2"). Even with the lowering springs on, the car sits (almost) the same way as it did before with the done suspension ... which is kind of funny however they don't bottom out everywhere and I'm still just out of spec for the camber, as for the appearance check out other Civics as you drive usually a Stock Civic would have around 2.5" between the fenders and the tire, its really noticeable!

 

There's really no way to quantify it. You test, inspect and replace depending on how the suspension works and the tests/inspections it passes.

If you passed the bounce test (down, up, then settle) and inspection (your bushings look fine) you need new springs.
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edit: Sorry about that. I hit the post button and the power went out.

 

How many miles on your 2003 hybrid?
I have less than 61k on my 2003 hybrid and I have bigger aftermarket sway bars on mine. The stealership last month when they checked the light switch did a free inspection on it and said my suspension was fine and the alignment was within specs.

 

Around 110K.