Ok guys, so the mystery begins now. I took my car to get it aligned now that I finally got camber plates, TSW camber plates to be exact. Well, I had already pounded away at the inside of my fenders to make room for more camber, both camber plates were able to utilize their full range of motion, this should be ~ -3 degrees! Well after getting it aligned we found out that the driver side's range of adjustment was ~ -1.3 to -3 or more. The passenger side was ~ 0 to -1.5 odd, very odd. I was hoping for -2 degrees up front but wasn't going to get it, so I settled for -1.5 to even out both sides. However it was maxing out the passenger side plate. The alignment shop failed to check the full range of steering and a little later I found out that at only -1.5 on the passenger side I was getting the spring to rub the inside of the fender when turning the wheel to the left.

I contacted TSW as this was very strange and I wanted to make sure that everything was ok with the plates. After sending pictures we collectivally decided that something MUST be bent. I had installed the plates perfectly, and everything looked correct, except for the amount of adjustment needed to get the pax side to -1.5 hmmmm? Jeff also mentioned that I might measure the ride hieght on both sides to make sure that was even. Well, its not. The passenger side (measured from the ground to the bottome of the side refelctor on the front bumper) is 1 centimeter higher than the driver side.

Here are my alignment specs which may be clues as to the problem:

Driver Front:
-1.5 Camber
0 Toe
4.6 Caster

Passenger Front
-1.5 Camber
0 Toe
4.29 Caster

Driver Rear
-1.5 Camber
0 Toe

Passenger Rear
-1.99 Camber
0 Toe

So something is causing my caster on the pax front to be .3 degrees off, and something else messed up my pax rear camber -.5 degrees

Since I bought the car at 16k miles I have had the M7 Front strut bar for its anti mushrooming properties, and from what it looks like to me, I am not mushrooming. Also by sandwiching the strut tower between the M7 plate and the TSW camber plate, even if it was slightly mushroomed sqeezing it between the two probably would have fixed it. I can take pics and post them if you guys would like to check that out.

Basically, I'm looking for your help, what did I or the previous owner bend that caused this? The car has never been in an accident, and I've never hit anything that would make me worry about the suspension. Have you had this problem before? My only real option at this point is to start replacing parts starting with the cheapest...but if I can go straight to the source I would be ecstatic.

Thank You NAM!

 

Where is the contact location which prevents more negative camber? In your signature it is hard to tell what springs you have. If you have aftermarket springs, try mounting the OEM springs and see if that resolves the disparity. Typical initial contact occurs at the middle coil.

In the photo below is a TSW spring with improper winding, notice the upper spring coil traveling outside the upper spring perch. Under load the condition worsened. If the wall were massaged enough to clear the middle coils, that would leave the upper perch as the next possibility.


Proper winding for the perch coil is over the top, not to the outside.

 

Yea in my sig instead of writing TSW, TSW, TSW I did what I did. I have TSW springs.

I think though that you are talking about a different thing. I'm not worried about the spring rubbing on the inside, that I fixed today by just taking a little camber back out. Now its probably at -1.3 instead of -1.5 and it doesn't rub. The problem is that the placement on the adjustment plate for -1.5 or -1.3 degrees nearly maxes the PLATE out against itself NOT the spring against the fender, and it should max out at ~ -3. But it is a consequence that at -1.5 degrees, because the plate is maxed out it does happen to rub when the wheel is turned left.

Again easy fix was just take the camber out, now I need to find the real problem that is causing this.

 

hmmm...anybody?

 

I would be interested to what you find out with this, b/c i have almost the same exact issue. My caster is .5 lower on the pax then the drivers, and my toe is off on the pax rear. I am getting rear control arms to correct the rear, but the front has me concerned.

Only thing i can really think of is the front control arm is bent, and while i didnt notice anything obvious, it wouldnt take much to effect the caster that little.

 

Well once I find out what it is, I will be posting it in the thread. Their really isn't much to the front suspension. This is everything that I think is possible to be bent, and in order that I think they would be affected:

07 WISHBONE BRACKET WITH RUBBER MOUNT RIGHT 1 31126757562 (connects A arm to subframe)

12 BALL JOINT, RIGHT 1 31126753992 (connects A arm to subframe)

06 RIGHT WISHBONE 1 31126761410 (A Arm)

01 FRONT RIGHT SPRING STRUT 1 03/2002 09/2006 31306764920 +core (the strut itself)

[FONT=&quot]05 CARRIER, RIGHT 1 03/2002 31216757498 +core[/FONT] (knuckle)

Last on that list would be subframe and then finally the actual shock tower itself. I would be very surprised if either of those bent before any of the other stuff though.

 

I am still leaning towards the control arm, b/c as i read earlier in a another thread, they are designed to take a bit of the impact in an accident. I would think this would make them slightly weak and open to other things damaging them. And like i said before, it would take much...

What about measuring from the lower ball joint to different points on the chassis to see if there is any difference between each side. Depending on where you measure to, the numbers should be identical.