Excessive Camber/something bent? - MR2

[Marf]

I bought a set of wheels for my MR2 on the weekend, BBS LM split rims, 17x8 ET35 for the front and 17x9 ET 35 for the rear. Fitted them on Saturday afternoon, but noticed that my passenger front wheel has excessive negative camber. The wheels are the ideal size for the car, and will fit perfectly, I have confirmed this with other MR2 owners and seen it for myself.

The drivers side wheel fits in the arch perfectly, but the passenger side stands proud of the arch, maybe 1/2" at the north of the wheel, and more like 1" at the east west points of the wheel.

Now in the snow we had a couple of months ago I managed to slide into a kerb, at something between 5-10mph with the front passenger wheel taking the impact.

Does it sound likely that I have bent something in the suspension on that corner, or could it simply be my alignment has been knocked quite far out?

[Mr2Mike]

Unless you have been sold a non-matching set of alloys, it sounds like you have severely bent something. If the top of the wheel is too far out, then you have positive camber, not negative, and this would tie in with hitting a kerb. Check the two bolts that attach the strut to the upright for starters.

[Marf]

Mr2Mike said:

Unless you have been sold a non-matching set of alloys, it sounds like you have severely bent something. If the top of the wheel is too far out, then you have positive camber, not negative, and this would tie in with hitting a kerb. Check the two bolts that attach the strut to the upright for starters.

Hi Mike,

The car was in the garage today, it definately had negative camber, the top of the wheel was sticking out of the top of the arch, but the bottom of the wheel was sticking out even more, it was like this

drivers side |----\ passenger side

After trial fitting the BBS wheels, I put my originals back on given the problems, which are 15x6.5

The garage have corrected the camber on the passenger side, but it appears the passenger wheel is closer to the edge of the arch than the drivers side, so I have a feeling the BBS wheel will still sit proud of the passenger side arch. I'll find out tomorrow when I try putting them on again.

[theshrew]

So the wheel is sticking out from the arch but still has negative camber ( but to much ) is what i think your saying.

Is this the case with the old wheels on the car. Are the new wheels the same ? Measure them just to be certain.

[Marf]

Well I got the car back from the garage yesterday, they have corrected the negative camber and the 8j BBS wheel now sits in the arch much better. It still sits just a little bit proud of the arch, but only a smidge, the garage felt something may be up with the hub or stub axle to cause this.

theshrew said:

Is this the case with the old wheels on the car

No, the old wheels were only 6.5j and both sat inside the arch, although the passenger side was closer to the edge of the arch than the drivers side but the negative camber was less obvious with the narrower wheel.