I replaced Fr. Control arm bushings & spring pads and went to get the wheels aligned. Midway thru the process, the aligment guy comes out to tell me that he can't align the rear because there were only straight bolts in the rear tie rods.
I was quite blind-sided on this one. I wasn't that familiar with the rear axle and hadn't yet really studied it because I hadn't had to do any work other than the brakes.
I had my laptop along with the DVD manual and pulled it up and saw where they were supposed to be installed, then looked at the car and there were only straight bolts.
Now, the toe on the left side was fine, but the toe on the right side at ~0.65 deg was a bit more than 3X the max spec. This is also the side where some damage to the chrome trim on the AMG style rim on the right rear was notable. I figured that this probably happened parallel parking & backing into the curb, that would have tended to push that right rear wheel forward, and thus maybe that car COULD have lined up right in the back with straight bolts.
My question is this:
Would you think that car could have left the factory with straight bolts even if it HAD the proper toe in? I would think not, as there would be no means of adjustment. I can't see how this could have been allowed at the time of manufacture. I really can't spin that one any way to make sense.
Anyone else seen this?
The really stupid part is that the bolts cost about $10 each. Now the repeat of the aligment to get that rear in is another $70. It wasn't HIS fault.
05-27-2009, 12:43 AM
Linear Mode
