Rear driverside wheel not straightening!

[yo24]

I Paid £290 to have the old rear alignment bolts cut off and two new ones put on along with two new control arms to find that my mechanic could not get the rear driver side any more straighter (has negative camber). so now it is sticking out a little, not loads as it is 95% flush with the ground, whilst the other wheel is straight (I am feeling the car swaying due to this when I drive over small bumps etc).


Before I had this done it was the other wheel which was out more and was 85% flush so it was quite bad but it's now straight.

My mechanic reckons the car must have been hit and not reported at some point.


I have been told by a guy at a wheel alignment shop that those two alignment bolts I had replaced are the only bolts used to change the rear wheels camber on a Ford Focus.

Shall I jsut get my mechanic to adjust the good wheel back out so it's at the same angle for now until I can gfind out what isn't straight on that bad wheel?

Edited by yo24 on Monday 1st October 10:54

[996Keef]

The rear bolts adjust camber and toe together,

If the rear is toeing in a lot, the car will be VERY unstable

The rear upperlink is probably bent if you can't get the toe correct after changing the lower arms.

You can buy adjustable ones as well

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Adjustable-Control-Arm-...

[TooMany2cvs]

yo24 said:

my mechanic could not get the rear driver side any more straighter (has negative camber). so now it is sticking out a little, not loads as it is 95% flush with the ground, whilst the other wheel is straight (I am feeling the car swaying due to this when I drive over small bumps etc).

<looks vaguely baffled>
Do you have an alignment printout? Because I'm really not quite following what you mean here.



If the camber IS out, we'll be talking 1 or 2mm at most. If it's any more than that, something's broken or bent.

[yo24]

It's the camber that is the issue at least visually.toeing is probably off too but I can clearly see that he couldn't get the wheel straight so it is sticking out like this \ a bit.

[yo24]

Negative camber on the rear driverside wheel only. he said he couldn't get it to come in anymore by adjusting.

[TooMany2cvs]

yo24 said:

It's the camber that is the issue at least visually.toeing is probably off too but I can clearly see that he couldn't get the wheel straight so it is sticking out like this \ a bit.

Then something's very bent - or he's fitted it wrong.

[yo24]

TooMany2cvs said:

Then something's very bent - or he's fitted it wrong.

Yes I guess that is why he reckons something hit it. Knowing my luck the former. He did say something about a small bar poking through being a couple of mm off centre I fogot what he said now.

Edited by yo24 on Monday 1st October 11:15

[budgie smuggler]

yo24 said:

Negative camber on the rear driverside wheel only. he said he couldn't get it to come in anymore by adjusting.

Not a black Zetec 58 plate is it?

[yo24]

budgie smuggler said:

Not a black Zetec 58 plate is it?

No it's a saloon.

[996Keef]

There's not much to be bent really , can only be the hub itself or the rear upper link

There's loads of adjustment in those inner bolts , are you sure the eccentric washers were fitted correctly, and in between the pressings on the subframes. Otherwise they won't push/ pull the lower arms around properly.

Can you get a photo

[yo24]

996Keef said:

There's not much to be bent really , can only be the hub itself or the rear upper link

There's loads of adjustment in those inner bolts , are you sure the eccentric washers were fitted correctly, and in between the pressings on the subframes. Otherwise they won't push/ pull the lower arms around properly.

Can you get a photo

Photo of the washers? I can try now.

By the inner bolts you mean the two alignment bolts? I will go and have a look quickly.

Edited by yo24 on Monday 1st October 11:21

[996Keef]

Yeh

[yo24]

https://ibb.co/nrMfDe
https://ibb.co/hrBQeK

I did notice toeing too which is probably why the car feels st at handling since he adjusted the wheels.

Edited by yo24 on Monday 1st October 11:43

Edited by yo24 on Monday 1st October 11:43

[996Keef]

They're fitted ok.

The drivers side wheel could be pulled in more by rotating the bolt clockwise, this would reduce the negative camber more.

Best to go for an alignment and see what they say


The toe will need setting anyway - the car will feel horrible over white lines and undulating surfaces. Mine was dreadful until aligned (v50 but same underpinnings)

[yo24]

996Keef said:

They're fitted ok.

The drivers side wheel could be pulled in more by rotating the bolt clockwise, this would reduce the negative camber more.

Best to go for an alignment and see what they say


The toe will need setting anyway - the car will feel horrible over white lines and undulating surfaces. Mine was dreadful until aligned (v50 but same underpinnings)

Yeah after reading what you asked about the washers I was just looking at the pictures and could see what you were asking, they look good.

He said he couldn't get it to come in anymore on that driver side, like you said best to have the toeing fixed at least. the negative camber isn't bad but it will obviously still wear in time.

[yo24]

Just spoke to protyre on the phone and they said that camber can not be adjusted on the focuses, I asked how my mecahnic managed to get them straight.. he said that there is some movement by not adjustment? weird.

Edited by yo24 on Monday 1st October 12:06

[996Keef]

Those bolts 100% change camber and toe at the same time. Byvirtue of them pushing or pulling the bottom of the hub in or out, with the way the hub is linked at the front, also makes it toe.

Best get the toe set, ignore the camber for now and look into replacing the other links at a later date. The toe really makes the tyres wear badly and wholesale unstable, so get it set asap

The adjustable links I posted earlier might be useful. I use them on mine as it is on air ride and impossible to get camber and toe correct with standard links

Yours should be ok with replacements. Wants looking at carefully while on the ramp at the alignment

[yo24]

Thanks keef, one last thing I noticed was when I was taking the pictures was the rear passenger side suspension looked longer (more stretched) whilst the suspension on the side where the wheels negative camber is visible is shorter (more slightly lower). Might be where it's parked thoough so I willl check again when I am in work.

P.S. So that adjustable control arm will do what the aligment bolts can't do?

Edited by yo24 on Monday 1st October 12:16

[Mr2Mike]

yo24 said:

Just spoke to protyre on the phone and they said that camber can not be adjusted on the focuses, I asked how my mecahnic managed to get them straight.. he said that there is some movement by not adjustment? weird.

Unusual for ProTyre! My experience is exactly the opposite, attempting to charge me for adjusting camber/toe on the rear of two cars, neither of which had any method of adjustment (simple beam axles in both cases).