Control arm bent?
 

Mother ----. I got my car back from alignment today and all the guy could get on the front passenger side was 1.4* of camber, I am led to believe here that either my subframe or my control arms are bent. Anyone have a good idea of how to test each?

I am a bit furious, the more I think about it, I more I remember at RA I had an off where I might have ran over something. Anyways, should I just buy new arms and say ---- it or is there a sure way to find isolate each?

what do your other control arms look like?

In for results as you know! Ive been suspicious of bent stuff for a long while, But I have never run into a good way to find out what. My thought, that I havent had time to fully investigate is to look at spec miatas forum, they probably bend ---- all of the time, and they could probably tell you the dimensions of everything off the top of their heads.

what do you mean? they look like control arms...Visually, there isn't anything wrong with them. ---- man this is so gay. I am just going to buy two used ones from parts group.

i was talking about rust, becuse i was gonna say put new ones on. profit

I dont think rust would be an issue tbh. Unless you saw holes in them. At that point I would replace them anyways.

what did you hit at ra? I doubt they would have actually bent unless it was a really big hit.

I don't know. it was loud, but my car certainly didn't feel different. crashncar theory is its a ball joint... didn't really know that could affect things.

I can't remember if I had that off on the first or second day, because we checked my camber on day 1 at night and it was spot on 2*.


Yea, rust wise, my car is fine. other than surface rust spots, the CAs are clean. Which is whats worrying me, what if my subframe got tweaked? but how really, I mean unless I drive into curbs in my sleep and fix it...

I know that feel bro. This is exactly what Im still trying to figure out on my car... When we do my homebrew (On a flat spot this time!) alignment me and a few of my friends are going to try to find any possible spots that are tweaked on mine.

---- it, I bought a lower ball joint. 2nd day air, if I can get it by saturday I will put it in and try to fix the alignment, if it doesn't fix it then I will get a used LCA from partsgroup and try to have it in and aligned by friday. I want to get out to CMP on a good ------ note damn it.

the shitty part is, I am going to go back and get it realigned. $125 down the f'in drain.

Ouch dude... they dont offer like a... sorry your shits broken, come back with it fixed and we will give you a discount... discount?

sounds like he needs a new dude. mine guy will check her out, if shits broke 20 bucks bring it back fixed and then get your alignment

Thats what Im saying, LRR seems like the kinda place that would do that.

my dude is at a ford dealership of all places. lol best alignment guy in the area though

My friend works at firestone, lifetime alignments for the win. Problem is my car takes forever to align, potential reasons stated above, and so it always gets rushed by the cars waiting behind me for the rack.

I don't know, LRR didn't torque down my eccentrics last time. And Eric also has a habit of putting the alignment that suits him best, rather than what I want. His suggestions are good, but when I ask for 2.2* of camber, I want 2.2* ------- degrees of camber, not 2.0*.

This guy just did my alignment twice for no added charge. I took it in on tuesday, he said its not doing so hot, so I took it back put new eccentrics in and we tried again on wednesday, still no luck. If he does do it at a discount, I will love him forever.

I couldn't get all the camber I wanted last year when I switched over to ES Bushings. I'm curious to see how this turns out. I think they could only get 1.3 or something out of mine. It was a Firestone and I was in a hurry to get to the track just like you. I plan on having a speed shop corner balance it and redo my alignment this spring.

NA and NB Front LCAs the same? I have my entire front '93 assembly still chillin'

NB is reinforced, is heavier, and has a single shear sway bar endlink mount.

Wish V8Roadsters subframe and Control arms didn't cost as much as the car itself. This would fix our problem for sure.

I seemed to have miss this post.

if you are at 5.25" ride height or lower, you should EASILY get 2.2*+

I had pretty good alignment numbers previously and it was no big deal, I don't think the ES bushings are the problem, in other words.

Yes, I agree that it isn't the bushings. That was just the reason why I had to take it in for an alignment.

right right, well I will update on if the lower ball joint fixes it.

If it doesn't then, I am going to replace the LCA. Just hope that parts group can ship it to me quickly so I can put it on before friday (of next week).

Lower ball joint did not fix it.

Neither did a used NA Lower Control Arm.

I am ------- pissed.

Oh, I also switched wheels and that didn't fix it either. So, I have tried:

Lower ball joint
Lower Control arm
Wheel


That leaves...Subframe and possibly upper control arm?

I don't really know anymore...

sorry to hear that, price of tracking it i guess :sad2:

What about bushings and camber bolts?

replace the camber bolts, the bushings are ES bushings. they have less than 5k miles on them too.

Sorry, what I meant was: When you installed them, did you torque the bolts on your bushings while under load? Maybe you have one bound up?

I doubt it. The ES bushings don't preload due to the sleeve and bushing being unattached. As for binding, I doubt it, I jacked the car up and loosened the eccentrics and they control arm seemed to move freely.

plus, I got the old bushings out of the "new" used control arm and put the ES bushings back in with new lube. If they were binding because of lubrication, it certainly should not anymore.

I am thinking I will replace the UCA with a new one since they are cheap and if that doesn't help, then I am just going to plan for a new subframe. If its still fucked then, I am selling my miata and buying grocery getter and giving up my life of adrenalin and excitement.

LOL, good luck man.