Clunking noise from IRS lowered with camber kit installed

[zeropalooba]

I was wondering if anyone has experienced problems with camber kits causing bolt holes to become flogged out.
Some years ago I installed low king springs at the rear of my VS Acclaim with camber kits on the inner bushes. I had a shop do an alignment (the car was never right afterwards, steered to the left like a pig). A noise has been getting progressively worse over the last year or so. It's a clunking sound like a metal bar hitting the sub-frame and it occurs when the rear suspension gets laterally loaded, i.e. going around corners, one wheel hitting a bump etc. To try and isolate the source, I disconnected the sway bar with no change, the shocks with no change. I even swapped the open diff for a sweet M80 LSD but no joy. What I have noticed, when I did my own alignment (got a much better result with a tape measure, seriously), was one of the bolt holes for an adjustable bush seems to be elongated a fraction. I suspect this is the problem. Has anyone else had this?

 

[vc commodore]

Sounds like the bushes in the kit are getting worn out.....All bushes do wear eventually, so it would be a common occurrance.

As for the adjustment side of things....Wouldn't surprise me if the shop didn't adjust it properly, causing the car to "steer" from the rear....When it was first done, I would have taken it back and got them to do it properly, however time has obviously passed by.....

 

[Immortality]

...Or they didn't tighten something properly or (the more scary one is) they set the bushes wrong and the axle shafts are binding in the CV joints. The kit instructions are quiet clear on checking the axles for binding after fitting and doing a wheel alignment.

My bet though is they didn't tighten something and it's worked it's way loose over time.

 

[EYY]

Yep very likely to be the driveshafts bottoming out in the diff. Took forever to find a place that could actually do an alignment on mine. NEVER EVER get an alignment at a tyre shop.

 

[vc commodore]

. NEVER EVER get an alignment at a tyre shop.

Funny you say that....I work in a tyre shop and seem to get a heap of repeat business because people get their car done properly the first time. Some have even followed me to the last 2 shops I worked at, with my current one being 45 minutes out of there way.

Funny thing....About 10 years ago, I worked down the road from a Pedders Franchise...This particular franchise was having issues with their alignment machine, so they sent all their cars to me to be aligned.... Pedders were getting charged trade price ($60 for a front and rear) and charging the poor customer $110 for my handy work....That franchise never said they had a customer come back complaining

So yep, agree 110% with you....Don't get a tyre shop to do alignments

 

[EYY]

One very simple reason I say that. Tyre shops sell and fit tyres, all day every day. Sure they may replace suspension components every now and again which is fine for standard replacement parts.

I couldn’t tell you how many tyre places I called before I gave up trying to find somebody who could do an alignment on my vs. Quite a few more than ten.

Finally, one place said they could do it. I took it there, they failed and jammed the driveshafts into the diff, admitted defeat and apologised to me for wasting my time and claiming to do something they couldn’t.

I was eventually pointed towards pedders (one branch in particular) by another major tyre franchise.

It all seems to be toe and go these days. Had an alignment done by a local bob Jane and they didn’t even touch the camber despite me giving them the specs I wanted. When I got the car back the steering wheel was way off to the right when the wheels were straight ahead.

Whilst there may be some individuals working at tyre shops that actually do take some care like yourself, you’d be hard pressed to find them.

These rear camber kits are far more difficult to align than most vehicles.

 

[vc commodore]

Little tip @EYY Bob Jane only do toe and go....They wouldn't know what camber and caster was. They generally employ young people to do this sort of work and they are "trained" to distinguish red is bad, green is good...Nothing more..They are also very limited in the time allowed to do an alignment.....So doing any sort of adjustment with camber and caster is out of their allotted time frame

They aren't permitted to do any sort of mechanical work.....They are only allowed, by the Bob Jane corporation, to do wheels/tyres and alignments...The alignment side of things is very gunghoe....If they are caught doing any sort of mechanical work, they are booted from the store, regardless if they own the store, or are managing the store.

The secret to getting an alignment done is, finding an experienced person....Yes a difficult task, but it's the same finding a decent mechanic or body person....Asking around generally gets the result required...

 

[losh1971]

I know most people bag out KTAS but the one near my work is pretty good. BJTM is useless, as is the local Peds. In Launceston we have probably three places who can perform a 4 wheel alignment and also adjust camber and castor. Jax is a shocker, they fitted new tyres and performed an alignment on my ute a few months before I bought it and the t, end was absolutely cactus. It was so bad i can't see how it could have even been aligned. Yet the invoice in the glove box said what work they claim to have done. I took it to KTAS and they said it couldn't be aligned with the component in the condition it was in. We have a fair number of dodgy mechs in Tas. The stories i hear in work, I'm surprised that the workshop staff can feel OK with the work they do. We have workshops that invoice for work that hasn't even been performed.... I'm shocked that places get away with it. The only issue I have with my local KTAS is price, they charge huge mark ups on parts and labor is $120 an hour.

 

[zeropalooba]

I pulled the trailing arm off my car and the hole is getting bigger. There are spiky shreds of steel hanging off it. The thread on the bolt has been worn down by all the movement. It is truly ugly. This is the source of the noise, it's just too ugly not to be. I am not going to try to weld up the hole - I have no idea where the hole was originally and no way of checking the alignment. I pulled a good sub-frame off a wreck and will swap it in. I will not use a camber kit ever again.

I have a little job to do on the sub-frame first - I am fitting wider VX trailing arms and I have to decide what to do about the toe-control links. I so want to use them, but they will need to be engineered. Does anyone know a good fabricator in Sydney?

 

[zeropalooba]

Fabrication done - $80 to tig weld two brackets from a VX onto my VS. My new IRS will have toe control.