PROBLEM AFTER ALIGNMENT

Well I am now furious!! I took my truck to get it aligned this evening after work. I get it back, drive it home, over the 5 speed bumps that it takes to get to my apartment, and no problems. Decided to head to the store to pick up some beer, go over the second speed bump and BAM, loud noise and almost like a metal grinding sound. I continue to the next and the same thing happens. Decide to go slow over them one tire at a time. I find out that the noise is coming from the drivers side. So I decided to pull up on the curb with that side, and the noise happens once more. When it is slow and going up or down from the curb it sounds like metal is grinding. Of course I will be giving them a call in the morning and taking it back to them. However, any idea what this could be!? I checked the bolts and nuts they are all there. Could they have forgot to tighten it back down after aligning?

 

Lifted? Sway bar hitting coil springs?

 

Yes, lifted with OME, 885 coils. Sway bar deleted.

 

Also have Icon tubular UCAs.

 

Does it change when you have your wheels turned or straight?

Oh, and when you say BAM does that mean you heard something make a sudden noise?

Can you get it to make noise (you may have to crawl under to listen for a faint scraping or grinding) if you have someone rock the truck in a parking spot?

 

Here is what I have found.

I also took this video, the popping sound is what I think it is, it just gets extreme over a speed bump.

 

That cam is crazy turned for running Icon UCAs. They should be pretty much close to factory spec with them.

Can you turn it easily? I once had a ruined alignment cam from a careless shop. When I pulled it out all the threads has been stripped from it. OTOH, I bet they see all kinds of frozen hardware so be nice to them and soak the cams and tie rod ends for a couple of weeks to give them a fighting chance.

 

It does not turn by hand at all, but I have now had several people tell me that it's upside down even. Should I get them to try and fix this issue when I take it back in? Or can this even be fixed without replacing parts? I have zero knowledge on alignments. I am starting to think that maybe I need to find a new shop to do the work even though I have a 3 year alignment with this perticular shop...

 

Wouldn't think with Icon UCAs the cams would need to be turned so much. I guess you could ask them to try again but I'm not sure I'd trust them, just me. Have you checked that all the upper and lower control arm bolts are torqued and that with the cams turned so much the LCA isn't binding?

 

I have checked the upper arm bolts and they are fine. I am going to tighten the lower and take it back to then and have a nice little talk with them. I would like to know why they are upside down and want it fixed. If if they were not the ones to flip them, at this point it's the least they can do for me.

 

Did the truck have lift before you put on the UCAs?

 

Yes, I have had the lift about a month and the UCAs this past weekend. Everything has been fine till after the alignment. I actually drove it about 150 miles after installing UCAs without one problem.

 

If the truck was aligned with the lift and stock UCAs then that could explain why the cams are turned like that. Otherwise I dunno. I went from a stock suspension to coil-overs and Camburg UCAs and the alignment shop only had to tweak the cams to get the camber back to zero. Nothing like what that looks like. When they align the truck make sure they don't try to get the caster right, it will be whatever it will be (plenty with the new UCAs). Get the toe and camber to factory or just zero degrees.

 

They did align it with just the lift without the UCAs. Can I have them go ahead and flip them back around now that I have the UCAs or will this mess it up? I do not trust these guys anymore but I had just purchased a 3 year alignment with them because the first couple times they did good work. I am going to see if I can take it to 4wheel parts and have them inspect it. I will make sure Tire Engineers pays for this.

 

The cam is at 0, which is usually pointed up. -0 and +0 are still 0. That is not the issue.

 

I am 90% sure they forgot to tighten it back up, I check this morning after my 2 mile drive to work (very slow) and the tab has slipped even further. They are on the way to pick my truck up. They are going to tighten it back up before they make the 1 mile drive back to the shop, and they are aware that any problems from this will be their fault and I will not have to pay for this.

 

Good on them

 

Can you explain? They've always looked like this on my IFS Toyotas and I get different explanations on what's right. The FSM shows the fronts with the marks down, rears with the marks up in the diagram (which would indicate mine are wrong and the OP are probably right).

 

I am referring to the adjuster center mark being vertical. That is the 0 position. I don't know whether Up vs Down is correct but for how I use my truck I would prefer them to be up and that's how my alignments have always been done. With them up it doesn't allow them to be caught by rocks.

 

OP, Dude torque your lower cam bolts to 100 lbs. They should have at the alignment shop. The ones to torque are the very front bolt and the very rear bolt. These are the outside bolts and not the inside bolts if that makes sense. That is all the needs to be tightened properly. Do both side, driver and passenger.

Bobby