3rd & 4th Generation (1992–1996 & 1997–2001)Toyota Camry Discussion for years: 1992-1996 & 1997-2001
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Got an alignment today at a local shop. The technician is a former master tech at park place Lexus so he knows these cars, nice guy.
A couple things are off, since the car is lowered the camber was still off in the left front tire. He explained and illustrated what I need to do to. First, since there is still a slight pull to the right, he told me to swap the front tires in case there is radial pull in them, then loosen the strut to knuckle bolts on the driver's side front and pull the strut out in order to fix the camber, then bring it back to the shop tomorrow to re-align it.
SAI is steering axis inclination. It's the result of suspension geometry and the vertical line through the center of the tire on FWD MacPherson designs. It's not directly adjustable itself. But if you pull the bottom of the strut out I think it will increase a bit?? Or maybe not enough to be measurable. My guess is the higher than spec value SAI is because you lowered the suspension but not really sure.
Are you on stock bolts? I'd be interested to know how much adjustment is possible. There's supposed to be no adjustment with stock bolts, but maybe there is enough wiggle room.
Seems like SAI is affected by camber?, but isn't something to really worry about.
Yes, the bolts are stock. He said a little movement can be done, looking at the front left tire from a distance and you could see the camber was too positive. I know the strut can move inward and outward, so I would move it inward a little and push the steering knuckle inward as well. That seems like it would work, I will see tomorrow.
AFAIK, on MacPherson designs it's measured differently than short-long-arm (Honda) type suspension systems. But what little I know at least on SLA it's affected by camber.
Your camber right now should be too negative. Just like cars with new springs sagging, those cambers go negative too. (That's why it's a good idea to check alignment after the first 15K miles or so on new springs).
So the top of your tires are tilting inward (not outward)? That's negative. You should pull the strut out and tilting the top of the steering knuckle out (making the top of the tire come out, away form the engine bay) to get more positive camber, which I think is what you need, right?
AFAIK, on MacPherson designs it's measured differently than short-long-arm (Honda) type suspension systems. But what little I know at least on SLA it's affected by camber.
Your camber right now should be too negative. Just like cars with new springs sagging, those cambers go negative too. (That's why it's good to check alignment after the first 15K miles or so on new springs). So the top of your tires are tilting inward (not outward)? That's negative.
So you should pull the strut out and tilting the top of the steering knuckle out (making the top of the tire come out, away form the engine bay) to get more positive camber, which I think is what you need, right?
From what I saw, the top of the tire was more outward than the bottom.
The tire looks more like the positive camber on the chart which has me completely confused right now. I need to look at it from a distance again.
Do double check, because your alignment report shows -1.2 to -1.4 negative camber, which means the tops of the tires should tilt toward the engine bay.
Got an alignment today at a local shop.
A couple things are off, since the car is lowered the camber was still off in the left front tire. He explained and illustrated what I need to do to. First, since there is still a slight pull to the right, he told me to swap the front tires in case there is radial pull in them, then loosen the strut to knuckle bolts on the driver's side front and pull the strut out in order to fix the camber, then bring it back to the shop tomorrow to re-align it.
So you got the alignment checked, but since it pulled you knew it was probably off to start with. Why didn't you just let the shop do the adjustments while they had it on the alignment rack? And why are you attempting to do the adjustments only to bring it back to the shop and have them align it? You do know you can not accurately eye ball an alignment right?
Last edited by Pvt-Public; 07-16-2011 at 02:18 PM.
I was able to pull the driver side front strut out about a 1/8-1/4" so it should be in spec now, probably around -1.0. I will take it back on Monday to get the alignment rechecked, still pulling to the right after I swapped the front tires, a little more now. So I think the alignment is still off and a little radial pull in the tires, will see.
I still say your best bet is to let the shop do the alignment and quit guessing at it. Or do you really think you can see the difference between 1 and 1.5 degrees? And besides you will waste more time playing with it and getting it rechecked many times over. Just the time being wasted going back and forth to and from the shop and the time to check it, (not even counting the labor involved in guessing at adjustments) is worth more than an alignment charge.
Last edited by Pvt-Public; 07-16-2011 at 08:25 PM.
When I went to pick up the car yesterday, it was almost closing time and my friends who gave me a ride had to go somewhere...so he told me to do those adjustments, and bring it back to him if anything is wrong and he will fix it, so that's what I'm going to do on Monday.
Got the alignment fixed, me pulling the strut out brought the camber -1.2 on both sides. Also the mechanic fixed the pull, its basically gone. He said after I get new tires and realign it should be good. He told me to get a tire with at least 700 treadwear, so I found Yokohama AVID TRZ tires with 700 treadwear, A traction and B temperature. I will need these by the end of the year. He's a very nice guy, he let me watch him do an alignment and explained how it works.
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1999 Toyota Avalon
Also the mechanic fixed the pull, its basically gone. He said after I get new tires and realign it should be good. He told me to get a tire with at least 700 treadwear, so I found 
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