Allignment Issues... What to do?
 

The story begins one month ago...

I swapped the old phonies with the PO for the two piece five spoke rims that are on the car now. The phonies were from an earlier car and were the wrong offset which when turning or going over bumps would cause the tires to rub the fenders.

Swap Successful!

What we notice when we removed the old wheels was that on the front there was massive wear to the inside of the tire... to much negative camber. An allignment was now a must do... but the PO had done an alignment just 6 months before and was not happy to see the condition of the tires that I had just returned to him... blaming me for hitting something. But the wear was identical on both sides.

A day later (so i wouldn't ruin these tires) I went for an allignment. $70 later and I was out the door with only a hint from the mechanic that new eccentric bolts might be needed next time. I didn't feel too worried.

Fast foward to one week ago...

I was doing an oil change and looking over the car as general preventative maitenence and I notice that my right front tire had worn poorly on the inside... too much negative camber. The driver side looked OK, but had some of the same wear issues just not as bad.

Today,

After 2 reschedules I make it in for a new alignment that was under warrenty. 1 hour later the mechanic comes to me and says "Hey, I need to show you something on your Porsche."
As he brought me over to the rack he showed me the screen, explaned what everything was and then we proceeded under the car.

The problem...

Too much negative camber and the eccentric bolts were maxed out! The alignment was at -2.0 camber! How can this be?!?

The car does have bilstein struts and springs up front curtosy of the PO. I also have Koni adjustable rears bought by me myself and I. The car was lowered in the rear by the PO's PO and then her added the lowering suspension up front to even things out... I think this lowered the car 1.5-2.0 Inches. The mechanic also stated that the eccentric bolts looked pretty small already and does not know what to do to help with the situation...

What can i do to fix the camber when the eccentric bolts are already maxxed out? I don't know if I can get smaller bolts to make room for more adjustment because they are pretty small already...

HELP! :confused:

Is it possible that the eccentric bolts are in the wrong hole? They should be in the lower hole. If they are in the correct hole, then being "maxed out" implies that the eccentric is tilting the lower portion of the spindle out from the strut which corresponds to negative camber. You want to pull the bottom of the tire in towards the center of the car and this requires the eccentric to be adjusted so that the deep side of the cam is vertical.

Also - be very careful to check the ball joints and control arms frequently. Lowering cars with aluminum control arms puts a lot of stress on the ball joint and there have been a lot of failures.

I am having the same problem with my passenger side tire. How do check to see if it has been lowered? I just replaced my ball joints from Rennbay. No real difference although the driver side was shot. Control arms are good. Steering is also tough. After the car comes off the jack stand the steering is great till I drive it about a mile, then it is tough again. I am thinking the bad wear on the passenger tire and an alignment might have something to do with it. It also steers real nice when going in reverse! New PS Pump, newer rack, and good tie rods. Any ideas?

It sounds like something is binding as the suspension settles. Make sure all of the bolts (and screws) are tight where the control arm mounts to the crossmember and the caster blocks mount to the body. Also steer lock to lock after the car has settled and make sure the tires are not binding on the springs or the fenders. You may want to have someone sit in the car while you are checking this.

I will chack those tomorrow. I have some other work to do on the car and I just finsihed some other engine work, so now I want to drive it tonight! :) The steering is so tough that you can not steer lock to lock when you are sitting in the car. It DOES steer lock to lock when it is on jack stands without a problem. I'll have to look under it better while it is on the ground to see if something is in the way. Sometimes it will trun real nice to the right, but not to the left.

Balljoints are new from the pervious owner. I have reciepts from June.

Regarding the eccentric bolt, the mechanic was pointing at them both...

I'm going to take it to a dedicated alignment shop and get their view. The shop I went to ,regretfully, was a local sears recommended by the PO... I am ashamed.

I just had a similar problem with the rear of my car. The maintenance shop I use specializes in Porsches. When he was unable to get the proper real alignment he found that the right rear control arm was bent. He found me a used one and when the one I had was removed he found that it was crack half way around the hub. I was probably days from loosing my right rear wheel. Even with the new control arm, it was difficult to align perfectly without enlarging one of the adjustment holes and welding a washer in place over the wider hole. My alignmetn is now perfect. Lesson was that the suspension pieces can get bent (or cracked) and the symptom is the inability to get a good alignment. He susspected that the rear end of the car broke loose in a corner and the driver his a curb. He said the damage was enough that the wheel would have had to be replaced. NOt sure this is much help, but the inability to get a good alignment using the normal adjustments may be an indication of a larger probelm.

Nothing binding in mine that I can see. The passgenger front side does not move at all when you put weight on it. That is also the bad tire like John has. Almost like it is bottomed out. If I lift up the car will come up on that side and stay right where it was left. Then I can push it back down to bottom. I just had the struts apart and had new strut assmebiles from here. I ordered the wrong ones. :( That insert seemed decent though when I put them back together. I also replaced the strut bearings with a monoball bearings from Paragon. New track performance ball joints from Rennbay. When the car is in the air it steers great, on the ground it doesn't want to move. IN reverse it steer great tooThe inserts are different on both sides of the car. Any thoughts or fixes?

Binding monoballs? Ovaled-out control arm to crossmember mounting holes? Binding steering shaft u-joints?

I would try adjusting the camber yourself just so you understand the problem. It is very easy to adjust the eccentric bolts. I adjusted mine from 0 to -2.0 at the racetrack in about 45 minutes although I could do it faster now that I know what I am doing. -2.0 is very obviously tilted in at the top and 0 looks perpendicular to the road. If you mess it up (which is hard) you are taking it to another shop anyway. You could mark the bolt before turning it if you want to be able to reset it (although it sounds like it is not where it ought to be). It also sounds like you are lowered a bit much for safety for the ball joints but I am not positive. BTW my eccentric is the top bolt, not the bottom as mentioned by jwade 944 - but there could be variations - I have the green bilstein strut housing.

I don't think the monoballs are binding. There is space between the nut and the top of the plate at the top of the strut tower.

The control arm looked good when I took it out. No problems with the crossmember bolt hole either.

Maybe I need to look at the steering joints. There is no play in them.

What would cause the suspension to "bottom out" and not return? Like I said, I can lift up on the passenger side of the car and it will hold the position I lift it to. It will only reutn to "bottom" when I put weight on it. Again, once it is on bottom it stays there. I seem to have the greatest steering problems when it is on bottom. It steers fine when the car comes from being lifted. The spring on that side also makes some noise when lifting the car.

When it is on bottom I can feel nothing binding with my hand. There is space between every moving part. The ball joint is not binding on the control arm, The bottom of the strut dose not come close to the control arm. The tie rod has plenty of room lock to lock. And the entire strut assembly has plenty of space to rotate without binding on anything. The tire also has plentyof space all the way around, lock to lock. The only problem is when the car is on the ground and the passenger side is on bottom. Otherwise it steers great for the couple seconds it stays in the air.

I just took the sway bar off. For some reason my car has the 30mm bar. I was reading on Clark's about understeer and oversteer. Do you think this tough steering could be an understeer issue??? Could it get to be this extreem?

The front passenger side now will "bounce" with me pushing on it. It returns now rather then being "suck at bottom." So I am guessing there may be a problem with the sway bar. Bent, too big, I have no idea about sway bars, understeer or oversteer. The sway bar looks to be in decent shape. Nothing obvious is wrong with it. I am also thinking that the sway bar contributed to the binding or locking of the front passenger suspension as it will now at least move.

Steering is still tough driving, but lossens up a lot when I get on it a little in my driveway and get the front end moving up and down.

I also get a little clunking sound from that front side going over bumps. When it was just at the dealer they said the bearings and everything else in the front end was good. I do get some up and down and side to side play in both sides. But it is not much at all. I contributed the minor clunking sound to the suspension hitting bottom. It is very quiet. One of those noieses that ONLY the owner and driver of the car can hear, but it IS there.

Any more ideas or thoughts?

Gremlin - I was wrong about the eccentric. (At my age, I should never trust my memory.) The eccentric is in the top hole and when "maxed out" will move the top of the wheel out.