camber adjustment

[voodooA4]

went to get my car inspected yesterday, and also had the tires rotated and alignment adjusted...when I went to pick the car up, they said one wheel (driver-side rear) had the camber adjusted as far as it would go, and that next time something would need to be fixed/replaced by the dealer.

my question is, what 'needs' to be fixed, and is it a DIY job?

thanks...

[A4_Andre]

you should have asked them what that "something" is.

[HotSauce]

Hmm...I've never done it on a real car, but back in my days of racing RC cars, the camber was adjusted by a turnbuckle and two ball joints. Knowing this, I have no idea what would have to be replaced. Sorry, that probobly wasn't any help...

[Paul_858]

They could have moved the rear subframe to even out the alignment on both sides, wouldn't fix a severe camber issue just help minimize the wear.

[VtAudi]

No camber adj for isnt there? Or is it just in rear none in front, thought you could add it for like $400 though

[Daft]

Originally posted by Paul_858
They could have moved the rear subframe to even out the alignment on both sides, wouldn't fix a severe camber issue just help minimize the wear.

Only the front can be shifted like that. The rear suspension has individual camber and toe adjustment points. My car had the same problem after I lowered it. The rear driver's side wouldn't get any better than -1.24 degrees. The pass. side went to -0.87 degrees with the cam bolt maxxed out. I had to just set them both at -1.24 degrees and call it a day. I have reason to believe that there must have been a problem with the bolt or the travel of the lower control arm that prevented it from going as far as the passenger side. Quite honestly, there isn't alot of wearable parts in the rear suspension system. Mainly rubber bushings but, you can see and hear when they go bad.

[A4_Andre]

anyone able to explain how to adjust the camber? or know a site that does?

[Daft]

For starters, you need an alignment rack and a computer to read the specs in real-time. Then you need to loosen the cam bolt on the rear lower control arm where it connects to the bottom point of the wheel bearing housing. then you need to watch the display on the computer to see the current camber spec for that side. Turning the bolt head moves the cam and it turn adjustes the angle at which the control arm and the wheel bearing housing meet. It has a range of 180 degrees of adjustment so, you can expect 2-3 degrees of change from one end of the cam to the other.

The front can only be leveled out between both sides. Read my Alignment DIY article in the DIY section of this site.

Brett.