Im having a hard time with Ned...

 

The alignment is off, for the 3rd time in 6 months... and Im wearing thin in the pocketbook at 60 bucks per alignment... Im not offroading or hitting speedbumps or curbs... just daily driving.

 

The wheels toe-in pretty bad.. wearing the outside edge.

 

The alignment shop aligns it "as best they can", tightens all the bolts/parts and sends me on my way. Now, tires are shot again.

 

Im completely stock suspension wise... I want to lower it, which I imagine will fix the toe-in slightly if lifting the vehicle makes it worse... but I want to get things fixed before I lower it... Could this be strut/spring related (which would get swapped out for the Honda lowering suspension)?

Toe in or camber?

 

your kind of describing both. toe is the angle of the tire front to back, camber is the angle of the tire top to bottom.

 

lifting it can mess up the camber unless it is corrected, but I don't know if it would mess up the toe.

 

after three times the shop should notice a pattern of whats going wrong. did they say that X or Y part keeps coming loose or anything? Are they the ones that keep saying you were running too much toe in?

Its camber then. But they said it was toe-in...

 

Maybe thats why its so bad?

 

Nope, they asked if I had done anything recently and I said I had replaced wheel bearings and tie rods and tie rod ends and they said they looked done correctly...

 

They are just as perplexed it seems... the one said that these old Subarus come in with this issue constantly, but mine seems worse and he doesnt see anything jumping out that explains that, but it might just be something I have to make an adapter to fix because they cant do any "custom" work to fix the problem, just make the proper adjustments with the equipment and specs they have.

Edited July 10, 201213 yr by 92_rugby_subie

Specs? Thats the only way we know whats going on...

How are your ball-joints?

depends on what you have, but some struts have a camber adjustment built into them. also ball joints as said earlier, and the lower control arm bushings. don't forget that rims can be untrue sometimes as well. other than that idk, did anyone put different springs or struts in it?

 

also is yours lifted? can't tell real well by the post, but if it is then lowering it down to stock hight would probably help. I wouldn't go "lowered" unless you find whats causing the problem first.

Im completely stock to my knowledge.

 

1986 GL sedan. D/R 5 speed 4X4. 183K miles.

Stock 13" steel wheels on 175/70/13 tires (mismatched, like I said, broke)

Stock height. Want to lower (not to the ground but like Numbchux did to his EA82 wagon)

 

My ball joints seemed good when I did the other work, but I didnt change them... could these be a cause?

 

Maybe an overhaul is needed:

New bushings, wheel bearings (apparently camber and toe-in being screwed up makes them wear faster?), Balljoints, Struts, Springs etc...

 

If its strut/spring related, then I hope to just get lowering springs on Honda suspension or coilovers and move on...

If you lift the front end off the ground, do you have any side to side, up/down, or in/out play in the front wheels?

Side to side is bad ball joints or steering rack, up and down in ball joints or strut top hat, and in/out is wheel bearing.

Also, with a bad bearing it'll wobble in any direction. You can tell by looking at the CV while you wiggle the wheel. If the knuckle stays still, but the CV moves with the wheel, the bearing is loose. Tighten or replace it.

 

A tired and failing strut top, control arm, and even radius rod bushing will cause alignment to slip. Also, engine crossmember. Check the bolts, bushings, etc on that. I doubt it's loose, but something is going on, check all the rubber/moving bits for play. If everything is tight, it won't slip on alignment. So something is loose.