camber issue

[lamplighter]

Hello all i had a bit of an accident last Thursday on my way home from work with a white van man coming round a bend on wrong side of the road on a country lane ,i had to take evasive action as not to hit him in doing so i hit the edge of the road where the tar mack had broken away with a thud actually a bloody big thud i limped the car to a local pub to find i had blown the Tyre so took the wheel of to find a small dent in the rim of the wheel.

I have had the wheel checked out and all good and a new Tyre fitted, so tonight i went and got the tracking looked at and the camber on the left side is way out bearing in mind i only had the tracking done last Saturday so compared the readings .

The guy in the garage said well its bent somewhere and he cant adjust the camber.

SO QUESTION IS  if i change wishbone, shock, drop links will i be able to get he camber back correctly???

Lamps     

[lemski]

Shpuld do. Should have been able to see a bent wishbone pr shock id have thought.
There should be a little movement on the bottom ball joint but depends how far out...

[lamplighter]

thanks for your reply lemski  i wont be able to tell as much with the wishbone until i get it out and compare with the replacement  this car has the cast type fitted which i would have thought would have taken some punishment before giving out. 

[lemski]

Its mostlikely the shock has taken the brunt of it and bent slightly. Not the first time id have seen it on a car.
Just out of interest how far out is the camber to the other week??
It wont take a big kink in something to chuck the camber in a few degrees

[lamplighter]

ok so my last weeks final reading was

left front -1.09       right -0.43   camber  both in green


tonight's reading which i didn't get a print as he did it as a favor
left front  was way in the red        right front -0.43  camber green

hope you can understand this

[lemski]

-1.5 is in the red i think on the settings. Without digging out a old tracking sheet of a golf or something its a educated guess.
If by well in the red you mean 2-3 degrees negative camber then you would think the bent object would be apparent. Wishbone would id have thought have a stress mark from inpa t and strut would have a slight kink.

It depends on the point of impact to wear ita bent. Regardless though if you change the things you mentioned it (i would have thought) would bring back into spec. I know if it came into me id be looking at the shock of the work bench and wishbone taking measurments to see which one was the culprit. But as a time consuming thing its probally cheaper to just swap out the parts you mentioned.

[lamplighter]

Thanks lemski i will go get the bits tomorrow and if weather is good change them on Friday as i have the day off would it be prudent to change the top mount as well and bottom ball joint.

one of the guys at work said it would be best to change both shocks do i need to do that as its only on one side that the camber is out .

Lamps

[lemski]

The shock on other side may be aging alittle so wont perform as would. But same can be said about bottom arm the other side.
The bottom joint should come with the arm and top mount would make sence as you have to remove it to swap the spring over.
Some people only swap things in pairs but that could work out quite expensive. Its all doen to preference. The minimum is the bits mentioned and the top mount if you wish. Depends on how bad top mount is...

[lamplighter]

Thanks for the info lemski as the car has only done 29k so just over 3k a year now 9 years old i should think that the drivers shock should still be good im going to order parts tonight one thing i noticed when looking for a new shock i get two different sized thread length one 50mm one 55mm not sure what to get and i guess i should get to tps to order new bolts as well


Lamps 

[lemski]

Im not sure 5mm isnt actually alot. Maybe shocks are dependent on edition model and standard. Id say ring tps and ask but my local tps are a little reluctant to give info a way so you have to guess at a parts place.

Thats low mileage!!!!!
Sounds like your ready to go at it though