alignment question

Hi i got an alignment at firestone recently and they cam back with -.8 camber on the front passenger side, so i did some research and it said that something could be loose. I looked at the suspension and I noticed that the UCA bolt was looser. I could tell because my mechanic put an orange paint line on the bolt/washer to the actual uca and it's a little less than an inch from that line. Do you think that that would cause the negative camber issue? If, I retorque it to the 85 foot pounds will i need another alignment? I have SPC ucas.

 

All i can comment is i had a camber issue on my 2001 tundra that toyota couldn't solve, or didn't make a serious effort to saying each time the alignment was within spec and that was it....it had too much positive camber on the passenger front side tire. I got pissed, and took to a midas shop that a friend was working for. In one visit they adjusted the passenger side control arm. No more premature tire wear ever. Question i have is for toyota....long as they see an alignment in factory spec., why won't they won't investigate the issue further, except saying they checked, and all is ok.

 

Um just because the camber is negative doesn't mean it's loose. Also, I think the spec range does go a little negative but it is more positive so you may be out of spec. What is the other camber reading on the driver's side?

SPC UCAs use the upper ball joint to adjust camber. Move it ( the UCA) out for more positive camber or in for more negative. Also that is a slotted washer which adjusts caster. I forget the setting A to F for -4 to +4 caster or something like that. Of course, you have to set the OEM cam bolts first, get the readings as close as you can to the desired spec then fine tune with the SPC UCA. I guess you could do it the other way (SPC UCA then OEM camber bolts) but the SPC UCA camber and caster are separate adjustments whereas the OEM cam bolts adjust both caster and camber at the same time. A good alignment guy could do it either way no problem.

 

SPCs have an adjustment for camber but it's at the ball joint. There's a slot where the ball joint is that allows you to move it in/out. The long bolt going through the arm has nothing to do with adjusting the alignment, but it being loose can cause other problems. Tighten it up and you shouldn't need another alignment because of that.

I would check to see if maybe the ball joint moved in the camber adjustment slot. The nut that holds it in place is torqued to 150 ft/lbs, or at least it should be. If it's even a little loose it can get knocked out of alignment on one side.

 

Post your sheet...
My bet is, you got a 'toe-n-go'.