Rufus

Hello -

Is there an adjustment for camber on the rear of the '06 RX330? If so, could someone please explain how it's done?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Bob.....

mitsuguy

iTrader: (2)

I can't say I've ever done an alignment on a RX, but most vehicles with rear control arm suspension like that will have eccentric bolts where the control arm mounts to the chassis...

same as the alignment specs, I'll look it up in the book tomorrow...

Rufus

My wife's RX330 was hit hard in the rear about 18 months ago. After the body shop fixed it (including a 4 wheel alignment) the rear tires were replaced because of rapid wear that occurred between the time of the accident and when the body shop could start work on it.

Now after about 24,000 miles there's some pretty bad wear on the inner edges of the rear tires; particularly the left. I gather from what I read that 24,000 miles from the Goodyear RSA 235/55-18 tires isn't really too bad, but the rest of the rear treads show only minimal wear.

As I posted earlier, the camber is about 1.7 deg negative on each side. I measured the total toe-in at about .626 deg (I had to wait until it got dark so my laser was more visible). I'm diligent about maintaining proper tire pressures.

What I'm trying to figure out is:
1. If the rear alignment was either not set or set incorrectly,

2. If the alignment shop intentionally set more toe-in to try to compensate for what seems like a lot of negative camber to even out wear between the inner and outer edges of the tread...

3. If they ran out of adjustment and these settings are as close to spec as they could get....it doesn't look like there's much adjustment left to reduce toe-in.

I realize it's next to impossible to diagnose a problem on a wreck without seeing it, and your original suggestion of taking it to an expert is probably the best idea. Any other help or thoughts are welcome.

Regards,
Bob

mitsuguy

iTrader: (2)

without seeing it, I would say that there might just not be enough adjustment left to get it back into proper alignment... Again, I don't recall the specific rear suspension setup on the RX's, but I think there are two eccentric bolts to adjust camber and toe... toe is related to camber in the rear, and the two typically have to be adjusted together in order to get the car aligned properly...

given the info you just gave us, I would say that the car's negative camber has probably ran out of adjustment, and toe in should be there (IIRC), but be fairly minimal, maybe .25 degrees...

One of the most important things you learn in alignment training is that a cars alignment should never change, and if it does, it's because of worn parts, sagging springs, something bent, or someone left something loose when they did the alignment last... typically it's worn parts/sagging springs... however in your case you might have some slight frame damage... if so, not the end of the world... I'll look at the specs tomorrow...