[BJames]

Had posted this question over on HondaAccordForum the post sat for 2 weeks with no replies. Wanted to see if anyone here had experience with alignment. I just copied the original post below. Taking the car into the dealer Thursday morning.
Any input would be appreciated.

Original Post

Took my recently purchased 05 Accord EX V6 in for a front end alignment. Problem is it drifts to the left and the wheel is off center to the right.

The shop is reputable with up to date Hunter equipment. They found the left side camber 2.7+ and said it is not adjustable. All they could do is set Toe and they felt doing so might may matters worse. They left it alone and no charge. There's no evidence of tire wear, all 4 look good with normal even wear.

With the car still under factory warranty I decided to check with the dealer and see how they would approach this problem. They say the camber is adjustable! Went ahead and made an appointment with the dealer but won't be until 6/14 due to my schedule.
Any idea's or experience's on the board with camber issues?

 

[anysia]

stevel can probably help with this... i know he's explained it to me (or something very similar) before. i asked him to come on over and check the thread out...

 

[stevel]

the camber might be "tweakable", but it is not fully adjustable. I don't believe there is any way they'll change it from being that far out of spec..... only likelyhood I see is that the first shop didn't have the alignment heads mounted correctly and got very very incorrect readings...... seeing as tire wear is fine. that's where my guess goes....

 

[Fredsvt]

It's highly unlikely that the front wheel camber would be +2.7 degrees. The wheel would be tilted out at the top so badly that it would destroy tires in short order as well as drive horribly.

The alignment place might have meant caster being +2.7 but without readings from the right side to compare it to there's no way to know what needs to be done.

Your car might need the subframe shifted, that's the only way to adjust caster angles on these cars. It won't make a huge change, but possibly enough to get the readings more equal. It will slightly affect camber readings, but not to any great extent.

The only way to get full adjustability is to replace factory parts with adjustable parts from places like spc products or ingalls engineering.

 

[Foreign_Wide]

The absolute way to check and adjust this might be on a body shop "frame machine."

If the car is truly "bent" they could bend it back to factory specifications.

 

[princess]

maybe this can help......:dunno:

 

[Cups]

The alignment place might have meant caster being +2.7

Correct me if I'm wrong but if caster is +2.7 this means it's well within specs, right?

 

[BJames]

update on Alignment

First of all thanks to all who replied.
Took the car in to dealer for alignment today. Here is what they found.
Front left camber 1.0+ not the 2.7+ the tire shop said.
Front Right camber -.26
He was able to adjust camber by loosening the carriage and shifting it.
It is now .79+
The spec per printout is -.75 to +.75
Caster on the left was 1.75 spec is 2.5-4.0
It is now 2.22
So the left side is close but still out of spec.
Toe was in spec before and after.

With all that said I really didn't see any difference in how the car drove. Still drifts left and the wheel although less then before is still slightly off center to the right.
Just read through the S/B Princess posted. May have to print that out for the dealer.
Any thoughts?

 

[Fredsvt]

The left camber is still out of whack. The quarter of a degree negative on the right is more where I'd expect to see it.

that's why it pulls to that side, it will go to the side with the most positive camber and most negative caster.

Is your car a certified used one?

There's really only two things that would cause such a large deviation like what you're seeing. A bent lower control arm or a bent spindle.

Before you bought it the car may have had an encounter with a curb. I'd push for them to replace both. The knuckles on Hondas do bend fairly easily when hitting curbs. This is nothing you'd really be able to see, for where the camber and caster is reading.

The desired front camber is 0 degrees.

 

[Foreign_Wide]

Have you tried rotating the tires?

Sometimes a tire will cause some strange things to happen with handling and ride.

It costs nothing but your time and it's worth a shot

 

[BJames]

Fred the left side did take a good lick as the gash in wheel indicates
F Wide One of the first things I did was rotate tires to move the wheel with the gash to the rear.
You are probably right in saying I have a bent control arm, But how do you tell without throwing parts at it?
Car was not a certified used, The more I drive it the drift is not that bad but still bugs me. Wife of course doesn't even notice it!

 

[VTECaddict]

you can buy an after market front camber kit so the camber angle is adjustable

 

[Fredsvt]

Fred the left side did take a good lick as the gash in wheel indicates
F Wide One of the first things I did was rotate tires to move the wheel with the gash to the rear.
You are probably right in saying I have a bent control arm, But how do you tell without throwing parts at it?
Car was not a certified used, The more I drive it the drift is not that bad but still bugs me. Wife of course doesn't even notice it!

I'd carefully check the subframe where the control arm bolts, for distortion. If the '05s have the cast iron lower arms like my '04 does, they won't bend anywhere near as easy as the sheet metal will.

It is very hard to tell if the cast iron suspension parts have bent, unless they are REALLY tweaked. I've seen several older Civics with wildly positive camber after curb surfing and each time the knuckle was bent.

Also check the rear of the subframe where the alignment holes to the body are, does it look shifted to one side or the other or are they centered?
You could have pushed the whole subframe over to the right side, this would cause the camber to be + on the left and negative on the right.

 

[jerquilter]

This is exactly what is going on with my '97 Accord. Is all this the same info with regards to the camber adjustment? I was told there is no adjustment except for adding an adjustable ball joint.