camber problems

Hello Gareth,

With the greatest respect to your local garage, they may not have a clue what they are talking about. Take the car to a steering specialist with your workshop manual and let them have a look at it. It is obviously stressing you so the sooner you do the sooner the cause can be corrected.

Ron.
 
yea wot i want to do first is replace the front springs so i thought get that done first and save doing the spring after i done the tracking so i can say its nothing to do with the spring i also spoke to my friend to day that has a p6 and he had a look at it and thinks its not the tracking as he says it no way the tracking can make the wheels are that angle to me and him its just seems like the front end needs to go down so the wheels and get almost right
 
I suggested that the tracking may be a possible cause, not that it was the definitive cause. When you post some photos, we can all see how the wheels sit, makes it difficult otherwise.

Ron.
 
Have you done any work on the front suspension recently?

Anything where the bolts holding the main link bars were loosened and retightened?

What is the condition of the front chassis rails?

Richard
 
yea well i got to put the driver seat in so i can move it off the drive then show you wot the wheels are sitting like to be honest they have been like this when my dad had it and he just kept replacing the tyres and i want to get it sorted yea the rails and in good condition and the rest of the suspension all seems fine there i have replace the bottom arms as i thought it might have had a bent arm but still made no difference at all well as soon its stop rainning her i can get some photos for you guys to have a look

gareth
 
I don't know if this comes from my memory or my imagination, (I could have made it up), but when you replace the bottom arms, you should NOT tighten them fully until you have the car on the ground. If you have fully tightened them with the front end suspended, it can cause the car to sit high, and do exactly what it is doing now.

Personally, I would loosen, (just slightly - not remove) the bolts which hold the bottom arms and the nuts at each end of the top support, then bounce the car up and down until it sits level. Measure the suspension to check it's sitting at the right height (see your manual for measurements) then retighten them all to the correct torque with the car sitting on the ground.

I am not saying that this is the problem, just that it might be, and it's cheaper than changing parts.

Richard
 
quattro said:
I don't know if this comes from my memory or my imagination, (I could have made it up), but when you replace the bottom arms, you should NOT tighten them fully until you have the car on the ground.
Click to expand...

This is true on the rear suspension, bottom arm to DeDion elbow bolt, but i am sure not about the front.
 
Hi demetris,
it is the same for the front as well, all should be tightened up after when the car is sat on the ground and everything is back one the car, especially if you are doing a total re-build like mr task

joseph
 
thanks guys i never knew that i will do that and see what happens with that b4 i start to take things apart as you said it might do it but might not but its worth a try and you never know better then nothing aint it
 
Hi Gareth,
I have lateral movement of front RH wheel, felt when stopping and then releasing brake pedal - the wheel "resets" itself, indicating shot rear control arm bush on that side. They fail if exposed to oil over time, esp the rears that are exposed to seepage - have yours been checked? My idea being, if your ride height is out, as previous postings suggest it might be, AND control arm bushes (4 of) are all as old as the car you could have a compound effect?
 
yea mine have been all check and all ok i been looking at the haynes book bout those bottom link bolts and they do say only tighten them when the car is level so i think thats the next to be done first on mine and go from there and see what happenes with that as i know when i change mine i tighten them up when it was on the jack and dont know if they had got replace when my dad had it and if so he probley would have done the same so thats wot i am going to do is jack her up and unlosing the bolts drop her down move her forward a bit till the wheels are straight and i can see of then tighting them up cause wot its doing when you drive its got postive camber and when you goes back its straightens up then goes to negitive camber
 
Hello Gareth,

What was the outcome of loosening the lower front links, rolling the car back and forth and then doing up to the correct torque?

Ron.
 
not had the chance to do it yet with all the bad weather we have had hear so hopfully will try and do it 1 day this week as soon i have done it i will let you all know how the out come has been fingers cross with it see how it goes
 
Another vote for the tracking here.
Too much toe in will cause this problem as others have said, I had this problem (quite severely) when my tracking was out. Got it tracked and it fixed the problem instantly.
If you imagine an exaggerated tracking problem, both wheels turned inwards slightly will force the suspension to rise, and if you reverse the car the opposite will happen and the wheels will try to pull the suspension down.

I think what might be muddying the picture is the angles when the car is jacked up- When all the weight is off the front of the car it will show lots of positive camber but that's normal for any car.

My advice is to take it in to get tracked but not to mention the problems your having and see what happens. For the cost of having it tracked it's worth doing even if it just eliminates a possibility.
Hope that helps and good luck :D
 
hi ron not at the moment no were we have been having nice weather here just want to use her and tidy it up for the shows i was going to unlosing the bolts on the front arms today and then drop it down then tighting them up but it been raining all day so once its dry and got nothing to do i will be having a look at those arms and try that then phone around some garage about the tracking if they can do the p6 and go from there hopfully i will try and do it b4 next month as i got a classic car show in pencoed and the week after off on holiday so finger cross i will try and sort that out i was hoping to do the arms 2 weeks ago but was having trouble with my gearselector was playing up so had to drop the box on that but i am getting it slowly with her all in good time
 
Hi Gareth, I know I'm reviving an old post but did you get the negative/positive camber problem sorted? if so, what was it?I think I have the same issue with mine.
 
well did find out mth had to strong front spring at the front so replaced them and then redid the tracking and it was better but still not great how ever i not long replaced the top ball joints and i think its almost right but to be honest not really looked at it. the prob i was having mth was sitting to high at the front looked like it was still jacked up i would check yr springs and then look at the tracking and top ball joints hope this helps
 
I know the tracking is out for sure but didn't think it would sort out my problem. Mines been completely apart and all bushes and balljoints replaced except the top link bushes which are excellent anyway. Interestingly the anti roll bar mounting is not at 90 degrees to the bulkhead, it's more like 60 degrees. I only noticed this after it was all reassembled and having read other posts on this forum, I decided its probably best left alone although I'm now thinking this could be the cause of the problem. Basically it's doing the same as yours. Although the car is not on the road yet, I can roll it out of my garage with positive camber and once bumped over the 2 inch deep threshold, it has negative camber. I may try jacking up, loosening all nuts and bolts, lowering it to the ground and tightening up to see if that helps.
 
yea i had a spare set of top links with good bushes so put them on mth so did not touch nothing there yea i was shock how much the tracking did it drop the suspenion about 1 inch cause as she moved forward the suspension would go up and the wheels would stick futher in at the bottom but when it went backwords it would go the other way. is yr sitting to high at the front might be a worth a look yea i did unlosing all the bolts and tightened them up when the weight was on the car and that made no difference to be honest will have to check the camber again soon to check it
 
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