Negative camber correction

[MarcD]

Ran into a weird issue trying to squeeze my 205/50's onto my mostly stock suspension. Everything fit great except for the passenger side where I can't clear the strut tube. It's almost as if the strut tube has been bent but the distance from the mounting surface to the knuckle is the same left to right as well as the distance from strut tube to the mounting surface. Lower control arms look good. Upper bearing plates don't seem worn. No obvious signs of wear on either front tire. Alignment is not great but I don't see an alignment correcting any negative camber. 

 

The passenger side has a slight negative camber with no obvious signs of damage. Can worn bushings cause this? I went ahead and ordered a set of urethanes from IE thinking it will at least eliminate some of the variables. Honestly the car probably needs a complete pivot point refresh anyway even though everything feels nice and tight when it's up on the rack. I' guessing I should go ahead and replace the strut bearings while I'm in there even if mine still feel tight. I'd rather not go with adjustable plates. If something can be adjusted you bet your ass I will adjust it wrong. 

 

I noticed a thread in my search where someone had a similar issue and the two bushings on the front of their subframe ( radius rod?) installed backwards. There was mention of this possibly causing asymmetric camber issues.  Mine are facing the correct direction but seem worn although feel tight. This is the thread

 

[Mike Self]

Presume you've checked the wheels to make sure they aren't bent...didja try swapping wheels side to side?

 

mike

[Tommy]

Only things related to the contact between tire and strut tube would be the stuff between them. That is tire width, wheel width, wheel ET, hub, brake disc and possible spacers, wheel bearings and the strut tube itself. So, the side to side difference should be found from those components. These can be examined on table, as well as whole assembly. Alignment, ball joints and bushings are all, while otherwise important, irrelevant to this matter.

[MarcD]

8 hours ago, Mike Self said:

Presume you've checked the wheels to make sure they aren't bent...didja try swapping wheels side to side?

 

mike

Swapped the wheels around. Every wheel rubs on the same spot on the front passenger side. Very weird. 

 

7 hours ago, Tommy said:

Only things related to the contact between tire and strut tube would be the stuff between them. That is tire width, wheel width, wheel ET, hub, brake disc and possible spacers, wheel bearings and the strut tube itself. So, the side to side difference should be found from those components. These can be examined on table, as well as whole assembly. Alignment, ball joints and bushings are all, while otherwise important, irrelevant to this matter.

 

That's what I figured. Just seems odd that mounting surface measurements are the same left to right yet I'm contacting the strut tube with the tire so much so I can't even mount the wheel properly. At first I thought it might be worn upper strut mount.

 

The only thing I did not check was strut tube diameter but It's hard to imagine that being the issue. 

 

The only explanation is a bent strut tube. I'll have to put the 195's back on until I take them off to verify and source a replacement strut. 

[Tommy]

4 hours ago, MarcD said:

The only explanation is a bent strut tube. I'll have to put the 195's back on until I take them off to verify and source a replacement strut. 

That's probably it. By cleaning it well you could see deformation somewhere on the tube. Perhaps also the shaft could be bent?

[M3M3]

strut is bent.

[MarcD]

Ah but is the driver side bent out or is the passenger side bent inwards?

[kbmb02]

Data point:

 

I’ve done some investigation of this lately (with 2 race cars with very bent struts after contact incidents).

 

With a digital angle finder/level, I measure a 9 degree angle (+/-)* between the tube and the caliper flange/mounting surface on stock, *50 year old struts.

 

YRMV. -KB

[Tommy]

3 hours ago, MarcD said:

Ah but is the driver side bent out or is the passenger side bent inwards?

Which width and ET wheel you're fitting? We could make a guess...

[Hans]

39 minutes ago, Tommy said:

Which width and ET wheel you're fitting? We could make a guess...

That won't explain why only one side rubs. 

[Tommy]

21 minutes ago, Hans said:

That won't explain why only one side rubs. 

No, no, but knowing that we could try guess which side is bent.

 

If I make assumption that the wheels are 7" wide I can say if the ET is 26 or less the side not fitting is bent. If ET is 28 or more the one that fits is bent.

Edited March 7, 2023 by Tommy

[2002iii]

1 hour ago, Tommy said:

No, no, but knowing that we could try guess which side is bent.

 

If I make assumption that the wheels are 7" wide I can say if the ET is 26 or less the side not fitting is bent. If ET is 28 or more the one that fits is bent.

Pretty sure he ruled that out by switching wheels around.

 

Most likely passenger side strut tube is bent.

[Tommy]

I must be choosing wrong words since neither of you got what I meant.

[Hans]

3 hours ago, Tommy said:

I must be choosing wrong words since neither of you got what I meant.

Tires of the same size can have different widths., so ET isnt conclusive.

[Conserv]

5 hours ago, Tommy said:

I must be choosing wrong words since neither of you got what I meant.

I understand, Tommy. Your method is not conclusive, but may possibly point to the culprit. Without knowing the rim width and ET, however, we can’t move forward with this path of investigation!

 

In an earlier thread, @MarcD made a passing reference to 15 x 7, ET25, but it’s not clear he’s using those rims here.

 

Best regards,

 

Steve