Caster F*d Up? (L: 3.7, R: 5.4)?

SpdKlzU · May 2, 2003

Hey guys, well after a friend drove the front right side of my car off a curb she hasn't steered straight. After $200 on alignments (went to two places) she still isn't right.

Here are my settings from the last place:

Front: (Left / Right)

Camber: -1.1 / -1.0
Caster: 3.7 / 5.4
Toe: 0.00 / 0.02

Rear: (Left / Right)

Camber: -1.3 / -1.3
Toe: 0.06 / 0.04

Do I need to get him to pay for lower control arms?? This is really bugging me. Nothing looks visibly damaged and I even took it to a frame shop and they said it was fine. Everyone still says it handles great, but they hadn't driven it before... it handled excellent

Can anyone help? Crate of beer to the first man/woman that solves this thing for me :rudolph:

Cheers.

igs · May 2, 2003

Can u give more detail on the problems you're having? I have unsymmetric caster as well but my car drives fine.

SpdKlzU · May 2, 2003

Oh yeah, I should have added some of the symptoms

Okay, so I get random bumpsteer (where the car is sort of deflected off a bump) and if I take an offramp at speed and hit bumps mid-turn the steering wheel bounces all over the place.

Hope someone can help... it really sucks

SpdKlzU · May 3, 2003

Also, is this something that an alignment shop can fix? I know caster isn't really adjustable. What about with a caster kit (GC makes them I think)? Or does this rather imply that something is actually physically bent?

AWD Terror · May 3, 2003

One side looks out of whack, the other is not so bad. According to my last alignment, the spec. range for front caster is between +1.50 and +4.67. My fronts came in around 4.0. :dunno:

SpdKlzU · May 3, 2003

Thanks Tom! What do you think it could be? I mean, I'm guessing it's the lower control arm / ball joint, but again nothing looks visibly bent, broken or missing

I've already taken it to a frame shop and two alignment places and neither of them were any help

Sucks man...

AWD Terror · May 4, 2003

My car was pulling to the right for some unknown reason so I took it to a frame/alignment shop. They measured the distance between the ends of each control arm, and found the right one was "bent". Ended up buying a new lower control arm for the right-hand side and that fixed it.

I realize that a lower control arm is a "bent" piece of metal, but you could try the same and see what values you come up with. It's easier on a hoist, naturally.

SpdKlzU · May 4, 2003

Thanks Tom, I'm going home soon and I'll go get under there and see. I'll try measuring everything left and right and see if there are any discrepancies.

Do you know if there is supposed to be any play in the lateral arms (or any of the pieces for that matter)? I was wondering if I could just start wiggling shit and see if anything seems loose.

Thanks again.

SpicyTuna · May 5, 2003

SpdKlzU said:
Do I need to get him to pay for lower control arms?? This is really bugging me. Nothing looks visibly damaged and I even took it to a frame shop and they said it was fine. Everyone still says it handles great, but they hadn't driven it before... it handled excellent

Can anyone help? Crate of beer to the first man/woman that solves this thing for me :rudolph:

Cheers.

If you take it to a local frame shop, be sure to post what they say....

SpdKlzU · May 5, 2003

Well, I spent about half an hour lying under her today (the car

), and so far nothin'. I can't see anything obviously out of whack. I'm looking around for local frame shops right now. I'll post back the results if I can find a good one.

Still welcoming suggestions.

Thanks all.

SlowUglyDSM · May 5, 2003

Caster is hard to change. If you have a late-96 or later, then you
will find that you have mis-matching caster, with much more on the right then on the left (this is part of why the car turns left
better; the other reason is your big butt being on the left side of
the car <g>). The mis-match can be fixed by pressing out the
compression-arm bushing, turning it over, and pressing it back in,
but this is a big pain for minimal gain. [No pain might imply no
gain, but pain doesn't imply gain ... basic logic <gg>.]

-- It's according to someone @ yahoo groups.

SpdKlzU · May 5, 2003

Okay, the results are in!!

I went to a local frame shop: Dunn's Auto Body in Mountain View. They are really great. They measure the frame and suspension components and found the lower control arm bent (~15mm).

Now the question is: How hard is it to change the lower control arm? Do I need a press? I have impact tools (making Tim Taylor grunting noises). Can anyone give any tips?

Thanks, much appreciated!

SpicyTuna · May 6, 2003

SpdKlzU said:
Okay, the results are in!!

I went to a local frame shop: Dunn's Auto Body in Mountain View. They are really great. They measure the frame and suspension components and found the lower control arm bent (~15mm).

How much did they charge you to diagnose the problem?

SpdKlzU · May 6, 2003

They told me $60 initially, but because they identified the problem they didn't charge me anything. Really nice bunch of people

So, how hard is it to change the control arm? There isn't a lot of room to get that top bolt off. Any special tools needed?

Cheers.

AWD Terror · May 6, 2003

Glad to hear that at least you know what the problem is!

I'm not sure what's involved with removing the arm, since I had the frame shop that diagnosed my problem do the work as well. Do you have the shop manual? It would probably help.

SpdKlzU · May 6, 2003

Thanks for the help man

I have the shop manual, but usually it just says remove bolt 14 then replace arm or something. It doesn't mention all the swearing, blood, sweat and tears that you endure cus you might not have some special tool to remove it

ALLTRBO · May 10, 2003

2G's have 2 lower control arms, the compression lower arm, and the lateral lower arm. (Side note: they both contain non-removable ball joints, so you get a new ball joint with the control arm).
You might want to find out which one is bent before replacing it (duh). Just ask the frame shop if it was toward the front, or rear.

Removal is similar for both, it shouldn't be too hard. You can use basic tools (socket, wratchet, wrench, hammer and such). Aside from the "jack up the car, support securely on jackstands, and remove the tire" bit, basically you just remove the bolts that hold it to the body, remove the bolt holding in the balljoint, and tap out the balljoint/control arm from the steering knuckle. I would say that since you are replacing the whole thing anyway, it doesn't matter if you mess up the threads. Otherwise, you just have to tap the knuckle hoping it breaks the balljoint stud free. Installation is reverse from removal.

This comes from my Haynes manual, and I have taken part of one control arm off to install my RM sway bars, so I have messed with it some.

Good luck, and I hope this helps!

SpdKlzU · May 10, 2003

Hey thanks a lot man. I read some posts that people had a hell of a time doing it, but I think they were just replacing the joint and not the whole thing. I'm probably going to order it this weekend from conicelli and fix it next week. I might try and fix my rattling sunroof too

Thanks for the help!

ALLTRBO · May 10, 2003

No problem. Good luck!

Caster F*d Up? (L: 3.7, R: 5.4)?

SpdKlzU

igs

SpdKlzU

SpdKlzU

AWD Terror

SpdKlzU

AWD Terror

SpdKlzU

SpicyTuna

SpdKlzU

SlowUglyDSM

SpdKlzU

SpicyTuna

SpdKlzU

AWD Terror

SpdKlzU

ALLTRBO

SpdKlzU

ALLTRBO

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