I can't seem to align my car. I changed driver side lower control arm and shock with new parts. I was told now the other side has he same problem because parts are seized. They had to cut control arm off since they couldn't unbolt it. What do you guys suggest I do? I don't want to start changing parts that's going to add up and put a hole in my wallet. I recently just ordered 225 45 17 and 255 40 17 Bridgestone potenza re-71r tires. Going to install them and try to resolve this issue.

 

Has the car been in an accident? There is a HUGE difference in caster. Is the front subframe or chassis bent? LCA bent?


FWIW, it is common to have a stuck caster adjuster if the car has seen road salt. Yours looks to have been winter driven. You likely need a new LCA and adjuster on the passenger side.

buy one AFTER checking for bent parts.

 

Tires will not cure that.

 

Nothing is bent from what they checked. They said that the bolts are seized and can't adjust anything on the right side. They originally said the same thing about lower control arms on driver side and I put new ones. Car was in an accident a long time ago. 6 years ago I would say. I'm the same owner. Someone told me subframe and some told me change the passenger control arm. Only good shop by me is camber and toe and I am going there next week but wanted to get some responses from people with experience

 

Its possible that the adjuster is stuck. its also possible that you badly bent something during the accident and it was never fixed.

Maybe the adjuster was stuck back then too...and the shop that fixed the damage did not adjust it.

Is that car a 08-09? I'm judging year by looking at the wheels. Or is it an AP1 like it says on the alignment sheet?

What was damaged when you crashed it? Was that wheel shoved backward?

 

+1. It sounds like you simply had frozen compliance bushing bolt. This would prevent them from adjusting caster. That is usually when the issue is found, alignment shop cant adjust.

So while its a pain to fix, its not a huge deal or anything special to worry about. Its cheap to diy fix, but its time consuming, so it can be pricey for a shop to fix it.

One thing, make sure the shop that did it lubed the new compliance bushing bolt, the entire length of the bolt, before they assembled, or else youll be facing the same issue again eventually.

If they didn't, or if you just get the feeling that when they say they did, that maybe they really didn't, its ok. Just need to have it done before the next alignment, before anything gets a chance to corrode.

The thing is though, this is not the kind of thing you can really ask a shop to do. "Remove a certain control arm bolt, lube it up, put it back. Dont worry about the disrupting the alignment, as Im about to have it redone". This is one of those thongs where you kinda need to do it yourself, or it wont happen. Or find someone local that can help you do it. Its really not more involved than jack car, remove wheel, remove bolt, lube, put bolt back, go get an alignment.

I prefer to use antiseize for lubing such fasteners.

Sent from my SM-G920P using IB AutoGroup

 

You don't need to buy a new arm. You can buy hardened rubber bushings, and replace the bad ones on your arm. If you need receiver cups dies etc, I've done the job various times, PM me. A 37mm impact socket is exactly the right size to push the bushing out. Use the metal sleeve of the old bushing to push in the new one.

 

Thanks, I'm going to tell the shop I'm taking it to, to do exactly that. My car is an 02 but it's all cr'ed out. It's basically getting a whole new paint job (same color) just needed it. Slowcrash, I'll pm you with questions I may have. I'll update this as soon as I get final results.

 

Bolt is stuck they say? Sounds to me like somebody doesn't know about WD-40 (perhaps you have an equivalent in your area). The car looks to have been hit frontally on the right wheel, right?

The fact that you changed the front right wishbone is a good place to start. The upper wishbone might need to be checked too. A proper mechanic will be able to compare left and right with a simple tape measurer and tell with decent certainty if you need to change that one too.

I've been going through similar things myself, by the way and now I'm on the body repair stage. I have a blog about this, perhaps you can find useful stuff.

 

The only hope of pulling the compliance bolt out of a seized bushing is with a bearing puller. The camber bolt, you can free it with a ball joint press, both are tricky to position, but once you get it in there, if it's not fused it should be able to free the sleeve from the bushing. The chance of damaging the bushing exists but it's minimal because the metal sleeve is using the chassis as support and not the rubber. You can also use heat and cold to try to break them free, use penetrating spray and heat the sleeve of the bushing taking care not to torch the rubber, then use one of those computer duster things and spray the eccentric bolt/sleeve upside down to cool it.