hi everyone well since i bought my s2000 04 ap2 about 7 months ago clean title had it inspected by a legit triple A shop but i have noticed that my right read sticks out a little further than my left at the top camber end almost as if one side is neg camber and the other is positive so i just shrugged it off and said its just a camber issue ill have it adjusted when i get my coil-overs and have an alignment done. well i got my coilovers finally and put them in, and then i was off to get an alignment done at a very highly recomended shop in my area well they aligned the front with ease but when they went to the rear they were not able to adjust the camber on either side(camber is left: -2.4 right: -0.5 and the toe is left: -0.09 right: 0.23)so they proceeded to check all toe arms, camber arms, and ball joints including the welds but nothing so they came to the conclusion that my rear sub-frame had been shifted at one point to the right so they said they could pull the rear subframe back into alignment, so i gave them the ok to do so, well i get a call today saying the tried to and in the process cracked my knuckle on the right but said they were able to move the subframe a bit, and also said they would replace the knuckle, and after they do will put it back on the alignment rack to see what the pulling did. **AND THIS HAS BEEN LIKE THIS SINCE I BOUGHT THE CAN NO I DIDNT HIT A CURB**

MY QUESTIONS ARE:
1. do people have this done to subframes often?
2. if it did nothing is 1.5 degrees worth replacing the entire subframe? ( i do track my car from time to time)
3. why was the knuckle broken if its the subframe they were trying to bend?
4. if they are not able to fix it and i dont want to replace the subframe, how much will this affect my handling?
5. WOULD REPLACING MY REAR SUBFRAME BE AN ABSOLUTE FIX?
ANY HELP/ ADVICE WOULD REALLY HELP THANKS EVERYONE

LEFT SIDE-
RIGHT SIDE-

 

no advice?

 

1. They have been done, but rarely. It takes a good hit to move them and a bigger hit to bend them
2. To me yes.
3. I will bet it was already damaged in a prior colision and they just added pressure that caused it to fail completely. They were trying to shift the sub frame, not bend it. There is alittle room to move it from left to right, and I assume they used a pry bar through the knuckle and used the frame as leverage.
4. Lots, but how much depends on what alignment settings they can dial in that are mirrored, right and left.
5. No. I will bet, based on your description, that your lower control arm is also bent. The upper break easy, the lowers bend. Camber is controlled by the lower, toe is controlled by the tie rod. So with thhe lower bent, that throws off the knuckle location and it that toe.

If the subframe looks ok, I would replace the lower control arm first. There is not enough movement in the subframe to correct the amount of adjustment you need to get thing back to where they should be. Also the height of you car wil change the limits of adjustment you can get. Be sure to properly level the car.

 

so is there anyway to tell for sure if my lower arm is bent? because the shop said it wasnt the arm but the frame?

 

Someone with knowledge of the car and suspension should be able to identify that the sub frame is bent. The ones I have seen that have been bent it is easy to see. Of these they all needed new lower control arms too. You would need a known good arm to compare it to to see the bend.

 

^^ thankyou UPDATE!!! CAR IS FIXED and no the sub frame was not bent it was actually a cracked/bent knuckle put a new one on and did an alignment and everything lined up -2.3 both sides and the toe was also perfect sorry forgot the numbers thanks for all your help ^^