I’ve been lurking on this forum here for a few months, and have gleaned tons of useful information from this great resource. That being said, I’ve been fighting alignment issues that I would like to get some advice on.

Here’s my situation: My GS400 has Tein HA suspension, and was lowered substantially by the previous owner—I did not measure, but it was less than a zero-finger gap. Looked great, but was hell on tires, as most of you know. Naturally, I was experiencing excessive tire wear—the inside edges of my rear tires were gone in about 2,000 miles. To try and correct this camber issue, I have been raising the ride height—I’m up to about a 1-finger gap all around. Each of the three times I’ve raised it up, I’ve had the alignment adjusted at a local tire shop, and the last two times, they haven’t been able to center the steering wheel. What’s up with that??

One of the first times I took my car to this shop, they explained my outer tie rod ends are worn out. However, I am not an expert on alignment setups, and they did not make any correlation between worn tie rod ends and the inability to correctly center the wheel. All the service manager would emphasize is that the car is so low they cannot bring everything into specification until it is returned to a ride height closer to factory. Am I correct in assuming that the tie rod ends could be to blame for the non-centered steering wheel?

As far as the camber wear: Searching on the forum here, it seems there are several options for correcting excessive camber/out of spec alignment in the rear, from Ikeya Formula upper/lower arms, FIGS lower arms, various RCA kits, Megan rear toe arms…there are plenty of aftermarket solutions available and for a suspension n00b like me, it’s a little overwhelming. I’m looking for the appropriate solution for a daily driver.

Any input would be appreciated--experience with suspension setups or good alignment shops in Tampa, good threads I might have missed, etc. Thanks guys!

 

Yes worn tie rods will affect your toe, and if your toe is off, your car won't track straight. I just got mine replaced and it's finally driving in the right direction. Also, whenever my tires wear down on the inside, the car tends to drift to the side. Once I throw on new tires, they don't drift as much.

If your caster arm is also shot, your toe will be constantly changing as you drive.

 

Good to know; I'll get those tie rods asap then. Hopefully they'll help straighten out the steering wheel

I've already gotten the Daizen bushing kits and replaced the bushings in the caster arms, steering rack and sway bars, so hopefully I've minimized deflection from those components.

 

GStec: How much adjustability does the front outter tie rods have? i replaced mine a while back n noticed there was a lot but wasnt sure if its safe.

 

There is a quite a bit of adjustment but you shouldn't need to go far beyond stock setting unless your daily ride height is practically slammed to the floor.

 

hmm so thats why they didnt make aftermarket arms like the rear toe arms =p haha

so your saying there the alignment guy cant make up any excuse to put toe in spec when slammed?

 

They don't make it (so far) because most people dont run their cars slammed to the ground to the point where the frame is centimeters away from the ground. By then you have more things to worry about than just toe

When you're that slammed, the adjustment may not always get you back to spec since you're at the extreme. If you find that even on the lowest adjustment, you still can't get the toe to be within an acceptable range, then you should resort to getting some RCAs if you haven't already. It'll help alleviate the problem.

 

body shop sent my car to sears and sears told them that the caster is off but the car is driving straight. That car had been in an accident. Could the steering inner or outter tie rod affect caster?

I'm gonna have to check to see where the caster control arm is located.

problem is on driver side.