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How bad is my alignment? Your advice would be greatly appreciated

2084 Views 10 Replies 7 Participants Last post by  rahul1023
My car has a minor rear end accident a while back.

Last week I got 4 new tires, today I took my car in for an alignment. The shop said all but the Left Rear adjusted fine; for the Left Rear, I needed a rear Camber, Toe, Caster kit installed for $340.

Based on the before and after alignment results, should I pony up $340 or live with this misalignment? $340 seems pretty steep if its only a minor tire wear problem.

Could some kind soul chime in for some expert advice? I would really appreciate your advice.

Attached are my adjustment results.

High res picture: https://www.dropbox.com/s/8cncc7dpz1vzw34/20130918_125525.jpg

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. . . Did you have unusual tire wear on your old tires?
Start here ^: You said you replaced your tires, but you didn't say what, if anything, you noticed about the tires taken off.

Maybe your rear accident was more than "minor". Was the collision on the rear left? Did you get hit in the rear or did you run over something? Maybe suspension damage or bent unibody.
All good questions. I doubt the unibody (sometimes mistakenly called the "frame") is bent -- the misalignment is not that extreme -- but, more important, if this is related to the accident you had, it should have been included in the repair work and (perhaps) covered by insurance.

$340 seems reasonable for repair and realignment if they use OEM parts. (Emphasis added.)
I agree. And, let me add, two degrees of negative camber, while not extreme, is still an "other than normal" number for normal driving. (Negative camber means the tire is tipped in at the top, out at the bottom.) If it were on the left front rather than the left rear, it would be fine for autocrossing, but two degrees of negative camber is not something you want on the left rear or for commuting. If accurate, it needs to be corrected or, as you were told, it will result in noticeable, pre-mature tire wear. How much and how quickly is tough to call from here.
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