Accidental Camber Adjustment

[BasilB7]

Hi Guys,

I need some help. I recently slide into a kerb in bad weather at low speed, less than 10mph and damaged my car. I hit it side on. As a result my steering wheel is not straight when the wheels are?? The camber on the wheel seems to be off as well. What might be the problem. The wishbone seems to be fine. If its any help the distance between the wheel arch and the the wheel is different on the side I hit compared to the other side. Please help.

[yannick]

There are a whole host of things that could be wrong:

bent wishbone,

bent steering rod,

warped bodyshell

You'll probably need to go and have the alignment checked professionally at least, and see what they say.

Same thing happened to me once, and it was a bent steering rod. The alignment guys compensated with some adjustments, but it was a short term repair. Luckily the car only had to last another 6 months.

If the damage is more serious, it's worth going to a crash repair centre or a proper garage, and ask them to give it a once over. They should be able to tell fairly quickly what is wrong.

[BasilB7]

Thanks Yannick,

I know I'll definately need to get the alignment done, but I was reluctant to do this until I had at least an idea of what might be causing the camber off set. A mechanic friend has had the car on a ramp and couldn't see any damage to the wishbone, not that this rules it out, but I don't want to start replacing expensive parts unneccessarily. Would a <10mph impact bend a wishbone? The steering rod sounds like a contender because the wheel steering wheel is not straight when the wheels are, but would this throw the camber?

[SuperRetard]

Errrr.... my mate's just come <this> close to writing-off his imported Scooby Type-R after kerbing it broadside at 10mph. Twisted subframe, broken swingarm, twisted BODY! Luckily it can be repaired, and he's got fully-protected, fully-comp too...

[SuperRetard]

Errrr.... my mate's just come <this> close to writing-off his imported Scooby Type-R after kerbing it broadside at 10mph. Twisted subframe, broken swingarm, twisted BODY! Luckily it can be repaired, and he's got fully-protected, fully-comp too...

[yannick]

Would a <10mph impact bend a wishbone? The steering rod sounds like a contender because the wheel steering wheel is not straight when the wheels are, but would this throw the camber?

I shock even at that speed can do serious damage, I'm afraid. Cars are meant to take those sort of shocks front on, not sideways. :(

The steering rod could explain your steering wheel alignment, but on the other hand this would mean that you've not got the 2 front wheels parallel at the moment, which can lead to serious wear on the tyres, as well as extra strain on the suspension.

If the wishbone looks OK, then it probably will be the steering rod, but... AFAIK this wouldn't explain the camber. Unfortunately this sounds like a bodyshell deformation, and you'll need to get it jigged to straighten properly. A garage could tell you if you can correct the problem with adjustments elsewhere, but IMO it'll only be a short-term solution :(

[BasilB7]

Thanks again,

I have also spoken to the people at Toyota and the advice is to get the car aligned on a good four wheel jig and take it from there. Apparently it could be the knuckle, the strut or the wishbone. I wasn't able to pin them down to howe they would identify which of these would be at fault. This makes me reluctant to leave the car with them as I've had shody work before, my timing belt was fitted incorrectly first time round. I'm in the process of pricing a hub assembly from a breaker. If this is reasonably priced I'll get my mechanic pal to fit this and hopefully never come across this problem again. If it's not reasonably priced I'll have to leave it in to Topyota and make them tell me what it is.

:(

[yannick]

the advice is to get the car aligned on a good four wheel jig and take it from there. Apparently it could be the knuckle, the strut or the wishbone. I wasn't able to pin them down to howe they would identify which of these would be at fault.

A jig will measure a load of distances between known points on the car. If part of the Shell has been deformed it will be detected. Since they take so many measurements (or should :D ) they can pinpoint exactly where the car is deformed. From there you can straighten the Shell if its not too serious.

This really is a job for pros if the Shell is deformed (not necessarily Toyota, but any decent crash repair centre). It's not just a case of replacing a wishbone or some rods.

After the work they re-measure everything to make sure that the shell is straight again.

Good luck

[BasilB7]

I got a replacement hub and strut second hand from a local parts place. I can exchange these for the wishbone if this doesn't sort the problem. This was a fraction of the price Toyota were quoting me for the parts. My thinking is to get these parts replaced, hopefully fixing the camber and then get the alignment done. Hope to get his done today.

[dj_davo]

my camber is off too and im gonna get a shocker and hub too, as it appears my shocker has a slight bend on it, so if i (and you) replace both it should cure the problem. if there is no play in bottom and top balljoints, and no apparent bending, the hub shocker option is the most logical

shockers can get bent just by driving on our crap roads, i regularly drive a pot hole infested abortion of a road!

makes you wonder where all our road tax payments go to! :ffs:

[ZeroBlade]

makes you wonder where all our road tax payments go to! :ffs:

Let's not get started on that again, else ima go mental! :ffs:

:censor: :censor: :censor: :censor: :censor:

:ffs: :ffs: :ffs:

....

-Z

[BasilB7]

Misery Over Chaps. My Celica is back on the road. Man am I relieved. It worked out well. I made an arrangement with the people I got the strut and hub off that if they didn't sort the problem I could exchange them for a wishbone. As it happened I only needed the strut so I returned the hub - Excellent. Got the wheels aligned the next day and everything is tickety boo. Car is driving great. I had a courtesy Ford Escort while the Celica was ill - what a crap car. I had a bad opinion of Fords before driving that and I have to say it hasn't changed. Thanks all for the help and advice.

Here is the beauty!