I need a full alignment (4 wheel drive alignment) for Ned. Has anyone heard of some around the Beaverton, Hillsboro area that does REALLY good, thorough work, on the semi-cheap side?

 

I have heard of Paceway, and the usual tire places, but Paceway's reviews say that "all they do is adjust the toe-in, which anybody can do" and I love their price ($49.95 for 4WD alignment as opposed to 79.95-119.95 that Ive been quoted before)

 

I cannot adjust the camber, nor toe-in of my vehicle. As to my knowledge, the Camber is out of whatck on my car and Im eating tires. I do not have the knowledge or space to do this without a shop. The pics below definitely say I need an alignment, so does the wear on my tires and hopefully this will solve the wear issue.

 

Now I was also told that I should check ball joints, tie rods etc. Should I do this before I send it in to get aligned?

 

-Note, I didnt hear it before, but when the vehicle is on the ground, if I put my foot on the top of the tire and rock it side to side, I can hear this "clunk" sound, if that helps diagnose.

 

Driver side front tire:

Passenger side front tire:

Edited April 13, 201114 yr by 92_rugby_subie

Yes, make sure all your tie rods ends and ball joints are tight before having it aligned. Any decent shop willn't even try to align a car with a loose ball joint, but you probably don't even need an alignment, just new ball joints. The pictures you posted don't really show anything abnormal, but you can't usually tell where your alignments at by looking at it unless its REALLY bad. Also, if your inspecting your alignment, you need to so it when its on the ground.

I was pleasantly surprised with the quality wheel alignment done on my '97 Impreza before the last rallycross. Garth did a thorough quality alignment to my specific requests along with a toe adjustment ("rally drivers like this to help the car rotate easier") that certainly did help my car handle more to my liking. His price was more than reasonable considering the amount of time he spent on my car (PM me if you like more info).

http://www.tracksideracetires.com/

I can see from the pics that my cars tires are tilted in at the bottom, but I will take ones of it on the ground as well.

 

Tie rods and ball joints, got it. Will look at those soon.

 

Edrach - looking at their site now its funny, my step-dads name is Garth very rare name it seems lol.

Tires tilted in at the bottom is camber, not toe. Toe in/out is while looking down from the TOP of the car, the fronts (toes) of the tires point in or out. Camber can be positive of negative (though I forget which is which) for how the tire is leaning. Old subarus pretty much ALWAYS have camber that looks like \ / from the front.

 

If you have abnormal tire wear all your suspension bushings may be toast.. mine were on my GL and I couldn't get a set of tires to last more than 30K.

 

Oh and yes check / replace components before an alignment... as you will need another alignment probably after fixing the issues.

Whoops

 

Guess Ill go correct that.

 

What about the knocking sound when I shake the tire from side to side?

Not sure about the knocking sound, but when I went to align my car on the rack, the only thing that is adjustable without modification (drilling) is front toe. It may be possible to shim it though. also, the rack will say that you can adjust more, but the point it shows would require said drilling to adjust it. Check all of your components, including your springs. I know my rear springs are sagged, and that will highly affect camber.

 

As for the pictures, they need to be on the ground. Camber will increase (top of tire out) as you raise the car, and decrease is you compress the suspension.

 

Definitely check the ball joints. When I did my tranny swap, I found that mine were shot. One of them was so bad, I couldn't use the pickle fork to get it out. It would just separate in the joint. Just feel them. The boot should be in good shape. They should move, but not too easily. You don't want them to be floppy. If you replace them, DON'T get the ones from autozone, unless you have some way of getting a boot with a solid metal ring onto the also solid ball joint. Napa's worked though.

Yay! Now I get to fill your head with mucho alignment information!

 

 

In order to check the steering parts before an alignment, jack up the car with the suspension loaded (so a jack under the control arm to "load" the suspension like it would be sitting on the ground). You can now check a lot of stuff. If you put your hands at 12 and 6, you can check the play in the lower ball joints and the wheel bearings. If you put your hands at 3 and 9, you can check side to side play in the tie rods and tie rod ends. If there's any looseness in the bearings, you'll also feel it side to side as well as up and down. If it feels tight, then you can have it aligned. If not, well time to get the parts replaced and then have the alignment done.

 

On an EA82, rear camber and toe can be slightly adjusted but not a lot of places will do it from what I've seen. The front, obviously is just toe since camber and caster aren't technically adjustable. You can loosen parts on the suspension up a little to get some adjustability out of it but thats about it.

I was pleasantly surprised with the quality wheel alignment done on my '97 Impreza before the last rallycross. Garth did a thorough quality alignment to my specific requests along with a toe adjustment ("rally drivers like this to help the car rotate easier") that certainly did help my car handle more to my liking. His price was more than reasonable considering the amount of time he spent on my car (PM me if you like more info).

http://www.tracksideracetires.com/

 

I'm glad you had good luck with him. I tried to get my Brat aligned there, and as soon as he heard what car I had, he turned into a real butthole. I ended up taking it to Firestone in Beaverton.

 

Jacob

Depending on how you drive, the stock toe settings can really burn up the front tires. I went with Les Schwab last time I bought my tires, and had a alignment at the same time (All of my car's bushings, ball joints, and inner tie rod ends were new). Les Schwab prorates credit on your next set of tires if the ones you buy wear out before their mileage rating.

 

After they had replaced a complete set of tires for me (two at a time) after less than 10,000 miles (tires were rated for 100,000), I had them adjust the toe-in to a more neutral setting. There is more understeer, but that set of tires (with a lower mileage rating) has lasted much much longer than the first set and are still going strong. I have had no handling issues or any other issues of any kind with that set-up.

Might try just drilling out the upper strut mount bolt holes a bit so that you can shift it inward a bit. It's ugly but it helps.

Have you tried this? How much did it help? I was told this wasn't worth the modification on another thread.

The ea82 car has a fixed alignment. the only thing that is adjustable is the tie rods. The only other way to get any camber adjustment is to use an aftermarket strut top that has the slotted camber adjustment. There is no wat to adjaut camber where the strut meets the knuckle, since it is a sleve and a pinch bolt versus 2 camber bolts like a legacy would have.

 

the best that can be done for rear alignment is shims on the 3 bolts that hold the outer part of the trailing arm.

 

so if you go to an alignemt shop, make sure you are paying for a 2 wheel alignment instead of a 4 wheel, and since its only the tie rods, make sure you get a book time that reflects only that.

I think I will just get a whole new front end.

 

Ive got some weird strut issue or something, might just go get a whole new front end for like 100 bucks or something lol i dont know.