Uneven rear suspension - cambers fault?

[Squirrelofdoom]

Hi guys,

So I fitted my adjustable rear tie arms a few days ago, but haven't got the 4WA done yet for various reasons - so I know at the moment my rear offside is on about -3 degrees camber.

Anyway, I parked up this morning and noticed that it looked almost as if my rear offside suspension had collapsed! Couldn't get any fingers between the tyre and the wheel arch. So, figured it was just the ground I was parked on being uneven - so rolled it into my garage. That seemed to help a lot, but the two sides are still uneven. The nearside I can get about 3 fingers between the wheel arch and the tyre; the offside I can only get 2 - and it's a squeeze.

So, question is; would that -3 degrees of camber be enough to causes that sort of difference in ride height on near and off sides? Or do I have another problem too?

Oh, wheels are 18" 225x40 section tyres.

Thanks guys,
Aran

 

[[Dave B]]

Sounds odd, is everything still bolted in place? Where did you fit the tie-arms, bottom or top?

 

[Squirrelofdoom]

yeah, everything's still on there. I fit them to the top

 

[s3clarke]

did you undo the shocks? just wondering if you tightened them up fully whilst it was still in the air as this would hold the suspension up a little..

 

[[Dave B]]

Any pics of the camber? What springs are you running? Did you adjust the new arms to the length of the old arms before fitting?

 

[Squirrelofdoom]

1) Did not undo the shocks, haven't touched them. Only touched the two bolts for the upper rear tie arm
2) Can get pics, not right now though. Springs are stock and have been replaced wtihin the cars lifetime. I adjusted the arms to the length of the arms that came out

Also, might be worth noting that the rear offside camber has ALWAYS been -2 / -3 degrees since I bought the car. I've fitted the adjustable rear tie arms to fix this fact, just haven't got the 4WA done yet. Just wondered whether the camber would change the ride height at all (simple maths say it would do, but it just seemed like a lot)

 

[*P3nfold*]

I have mine fitted to the top and I've had nothing but problems with 4 wheel alignment etc...I will swapping my tie arms around and getting dave's polybushes fitted to the standard tie arms. Hopefully this will resolve my similar issue.

 

[Squirrelofdoom]

you gonna put them on the bottom then?

 

[jojo]

The camber should have very little effect on ride height, it's probably more of an optical illusion. But running 3 degrees camber on one side, why did you not attempt to correct it a bit whilst fitting? It's out anyways, you might aswell make a random attempt to correct it before the 4WA?!

On my car, I fitted them to the bottom, but I wound both side a full one turn of the adjuster inwards to correct the camber slightly, had no driving issues on the way to the 4WA place.

 

[Squirrelofdoom]

yeah, it will affect it - but I was thinking it shouldn't affect it too much. Basically jojo I ran out of time for using the ramp on which I was doing the work and I thought it looked ok till I got it home