I took my car to Lexus for an alignment.

They told me BOTH rear control arms needed to be replaced to correct the rear camber ..... How is that possible on a car with 50,000 miles ? The car is 100% stock.

 

First of all, other shop can do alignment too. Check with a good alignment shop before listening to the dealer. Usually the front control arms go before the rear and not at 50K miles.
Raise your car up, hold the wheel and shake it if it has movement you may have a problem.

 

If they truly need replacing, I think it's pretty unusual. Since its an 05 with only 50k miles, I'd try and get the dealer to do the replacement under warranty. The age and miles point to a premature failure in my opinion.

What did they quote you for the replacement? Which control arms do they want to replace?

 

I took the car to the Lexus dealer afer another shop did the alignment and said the rear camber was slightly off spec.

They won't do ANYTHING under warranty. I am not sure whick control arms they wanted to replace, but they were talking about an $1,100 repair.

The issue I am having is I feel the car reqires excessive and constant steering input to drive straight down the highway. It drifts left, then drifts right - I thought it has been in an accident but I was told by Lexus and the first alignment shop that it was in excellent original condition. I have replaced the tires twice and it stil is not driving straight without a lot of steering.

I will try and fix this, but if I can't I will not have this car for long, which is a damn shame because otherwise it's fantastic.

 

Isn't this really a test step for bad wheel bearings?

 

It also give indication of a bad bushings for the control arms if the wheel has some movement. Or you can look to see the bushing are bad, also if the control arm look bend then something did happen to the car.

 

Thanks for the input

I guess I need another professional opinion. The first alignment shop said the rear camber was off - just slightly. Lexus want to replace rear control arms.

Can rear camber issues make the car wander at highway speed ?

Took a 4 hour highway run this weekend. Not very happy so tomorrow I'm off to another Lexus dealer for alignment # 3 and see what they say.

This is still my dream car, and I hope it stays that way.

 

What rims and specific type of tire do you have? What is the tire pressure you are using?

Having the rear slightly out of spec is considered normal. In my experience tires can absolutely cause the type of behaviour you are seeing.

 

Having the rear slightly out of spec is considered normal ? what makes you say this .... I highly doubt Lexus does not achieve its own camber spec.

I am using OEM 18s with 245/45 Continental ExtremeContact DWS tires - brand new. I have used tire pressures between 32 and 38 p.s.i

 

I had my 05 aligned when I had my latest round of tires put on the car by my dealer. The Service dept there is very good and gives you all the measurements pre\post alignment.

From my report it says that the rear Camber has a specified range from -1.8 to -0.8. My rear left is at -1.5, my rear right is at -1.8 which is right on the limit. Technically that is shown in red on my report, but the dealer says it's OK as this is quite normal for that reading. My cross camber and total toe values for the rear are showing as within spec. There isn't much they can do with the rear as I think toe is the only adjustment.

On the front thought it's totally different: camber, caster, toe, SAI, included angle, cross camber, cross caster, cross SAI and total toe are all measured.

What values did your dealer give you after the alignment?

 

There is no adjustment for camber on our cars. In order for them to adjust for camber different length arms are used. If adjustment is needed then they need to replace the arms to get it where they need to be. Also if everything else is in spec camber alone wont cause your issue. When I air down my car my camber is out of spec but I dont experience any of the issues you're having.

 

^^^^Exactly what he said!.....

 

well .... then clearly it looks like my Lexus dealer was going to "fix" something that was not broken ( greedy thiefs ! ) .... this dealer will never see me or my car again !

Thanks everyone for your input. I am going to take it somewhere more honest to get this diagnosed and repaired.

 

There are good dealers and there are bad dealers. I only have my car serviced and repaired in the US at what I consider a great dealer. Enough said.

I am sure we've had threads here before talk about how alignment was screwed up by some repair place not knowing what they were doing. Discount Tire in WA told me they can't do alignment for LS vehicles and referred me back to Lexus. My dealer says they have specialized equipment for this and I don't doubt that after seeing all the measurements they produced. Other tire places would undoubtably offer to do an alignment, but this doesn't mean it would be done well.

I'd contact your dealer and simply ask them for all the measurements. That gives us all a clue as to what is really happening with your car. If the dealer says they have no records of before\after then it might be time to move on from them.

 

I found the Lexus print out from their alignment
here are the numbers ...

left rear
camber minus 1.9
toe .29

right rear
camber minus 1.8
toe .14

not sure if the below values are the right
or left because it's shown in the middle ?
total toe .43
thrust angle .08