Driving to the Tire Store - Alignment

Sorry for this. I'm in new territory and willing to accept the dumbass of the week award...

2003 Subaru WRX (son's car)

I guess I've lived a charmed life. I'm 65 and this is my first front strut replacement. I've done some other work on the car that meant unbolting the strut at the bottom but I was able to mark the position of the eccentric bolt that controls camber. We got 48,000 miles out of the tires so I figure I couldn't have been too far off. Anyway, I'm kind of guessing with the new struts. I made marks on the bolts at 12 o'clock and did my best to get as close as I could when bolting on the new struts. But how close could I really expect to get? Certainly the camber could be off by a few degrees. Of course, before I thought this out fully I ordered new tires from a Sam's that's 20 miles away.

Does this plan sound suicidal? Because I can have the car towed to the tire store if I'm being stupid. I thought I would test drive it. If it doesn't pull to one side, make noises, or otherwise feel squirrely, then I will carefully drive it to the tire store. I'm thinking that I might cause a little damage to the tires but the purpose of the trip is to replace them. I'll get the new tires and an alignment and go on my merry way.

Did you use the service manual when you worked on the suspension? If yes, were there any notes in the instructions about making sure the suspension was loaded (vehicle weight on the wheels), when you torque the suspension fasteners you removed? Did you torque those fasteners with the vehicle loaded (if applicable)?

If all is good, and you torqued the fasteners correctly, go get your new tires and then have the vehicle aligned. You don't need to have it towed.

If you didn't torque the suspension fasteners correctly, fix that first, and then go get your tires & wheel alignment.

I did use the factory manual, the specified torque values, and a torque wrench that I have calibrated on a regular basis.

But I did deviate from the factory manual a bit. It says torque the tops, then the bottoms - so do them unloaded. But everyone in the Subaru community seems to agree (very rare) that you torque the bottom (strut to knuckle) first, then let the car rest on the wheels, then torque the tops. And that's what I did. That's also what the instructions on new struts recommends. Supposedly you're less likely to have the struts squeaking this way.

Thanks for the advice. I never bothered to learn much about alignments since I'm not even close to being able to do one myself.

You can measure and set camber accurately with very basic tools. Also of the three main suspension setting camber is the least critical.
Camber is simply the angle the tyre makes to the road surface.

(1) You will need access to smooth level floor -- if it isn't absolutely perfectly level you can mesure how far it is off and apply that as correction to add or subtract from your camber measurement.
(2) A cheap digital level - you could use an old style spirit level but you would need to do some maths.
(3) Some planed straight timber --- 2"x4" is ideal. --- or if you are happier working with metal could rectangular section steel.

Cut the timber to slightly longer than the wheel rim diameter, mark end top.
Blow the tyres up to 40 psi.
Steering in straight ahead postion.
Drive the car forward and reverse a few feet to settle the suspension.
Chalkmark the top (12 O'clock) of the tyre.
Hold the wooden batten close to the vertical hard against wheel rim and use the digital level to measure the angle from the vertical
Wheel leaning outward at the top is positive camber, out at the bottom is negative camber.
Next measure the camber on the opposite wheel of the axle.
Repeat the measurements with the chalk mark in the 3 o'clock, 6 o'clock and 9 o;clock positions.
Unlike toe setting you are unlikely to get the camber exactly to specification on a road car.
Camber tends to negative camber as the ride height decreases as the springs settle with age.
Toe setting (within reason) has only a tiny effect on camber.
Modern front drive cars usually speced to run around 0 to -0.5 of camber
High performance cars can often use more negative camber at the expense of tyre wear in a straight line.

see

Wow. Thanks for that.

I just ordered a digital level for next time.

You won't cause any meaningful damage in 20 miles. As long as the tires aren't audibly dragging, you're good to go.

You marked the camber bolts, which probably got you closer than you think. The OE Subaru camber bolts don't have a huge range of adjustment, so you couldn't have gotten it that far off, anyway.

I'd be more concerned about sending it to a shop that's actually willing to set camber. :dry: Green does not mean good!

Thanks. I'll see what I can find on that. I think that camber is the only adjustment on the rear wheels. I know that on our 2002, Firestone said they couldn't honor their lifetime alignment (never again) when a bolt on the rear wouldn't budge...

I take it you are saying that some places only adjust the toe?

I take it you are saying that some places only adjust the toe?

I personally find it has more to do with the technician doing the alignment. Some techs want the best possible alignment, some just wanna 'set the toe and collect the dough'.

Being up front about your expectations when you drop the car off (or make the appointment) will increase the chances that the job gets given to one of the former.

Got it. Thanks again. Once they started using lasers and computers I somehow came to the conclusion I had nothing to worry about. But people haven't changed.

I found someone who comes highly recommended. I've printed out the specs from the FSM, and I will request that my specs are used for the alignment. With 4 new struts I assume that there could be a little settling as the springs wear so it's probably best to start out at spec, which only has a tolerance of 45 minutes of arc.