Team-BHP - Help With Camber / Castor readings

Calling all techies...

I have a Zen and I got alignment/balancing done today at a well known workshop in Pune. Surprisingly the Camber readings show -2.15 (Left) and -2.10 (Right). I knew that something was wrong with the Camber as I observed that the wheels had started moving inwards from the top. The alignment guy told me that he can push in a bolt that is ground on the lathe but I refused to accept this modification as I knew a friend of mine faced lots of troubles with the slimmer strut bolt.

I have recently got new struts and bushes on the car so I can assure that this is not a suspension issue but is possibly caused due to bad roads and frequent bangs on pot-holes.

Can someone give me options that I have to get the tyres in place as I do not want to loose the inner tread of the tyres. P.S. The castor is also out of order due to the Camber positions.

How can I fix this?

What is the camber supposed to be?

Talk to you Maruti service center. They might have a special kit for aligning cars with wrong camber. Its not adjustable normally.

Also inspect your bushings and ball joints for wear.

How is your tire wear? Are you wearing the shoulders more

Hey Moralfibre,

There is no harm in getting the "special bolts" normally termed as setting bolt. All wheel alignement people use this and is practically harmless if the correct stuff is used and solves the problem.

An authorised workshp will not do that as he is not allowed by the company. What would you rather do change a bolt costing couple of RS or free and solve your problem thereby saving your tyres from uneven wear OR changing expensive suspension parts which MAY NOT end up solving the original problem. Your call.

FYI I have fixed these bolts in my Esteem, Santro, Opel Astra, Swing and driven over bad terrain for 3-4 years without any negative effect caused due to the setting bolt.

Viper

I'm not much of a technical expert but in my past 12 years of doing up cars nobody I have come across has offered/given another alternate.

If you doubt their strength either get it tested or get one made . Doesnt take much to get it made. However you have no reason to worry unless you intend to drive your car aka rally style over terrain not meant for street cars. lol:

Go ahead and do it if not comfy in Poona do it Bombay I can recommend a few places who keep genuine stuff.

Viper

Moral fibre, as viper said there's no harm in using what are known as "cam bolts" to adjust the camber. These come as standard on many, if not all, cars with strut suspension.

If they don't come as standard, you can get what's known as a "service strut" which has an oversize hole on one side of the lower strut mounting bolts. With this you can adjust camber.

Castor cannot be adjusted but if your castor is out even after correcting the camber, your lower arm may be bent.