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Ok its me again with another issue different car. Had alignment done today on our Nissan Quest. Tech come to me and asked if its been in a accident at all? Nope. Bought the Van new from Dealer in 2007 and no accidents. He takes me out to look under the van to show me why he is asking. Back driver side tire he cant get the camber angle in acceptable range. He has it maxed out and it still needs to camber out at the bottom to be correct. He say usually this implies the vehicles has been in a accident. But with no accident what would explain that mechanical part to not be long enough to camber out. He had passenger side maxed out and it was in acceptable range but driver side was not. I called and checked with dealer , they used my vin , to see if there has been any recalls but nope. When i looked under the Van with the mechanic we both couldnt find any bent part, anything that looked like it took damage. We both grabbed ahold of most parts and tried to move around to see if anything was loose, couldnt find anything loose. Im at a loss.
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are you experiencing rear tire wear? Is this the dealer doing
the alignment? The only reason I ask is I had a 1997 ram and
the tech did not know what he was doing. Made my alignment all
reversed. I just question when when such drastic changes need
to be made. If you guys inspected the rear suspension and found
nothing worn or bent. I would try another shop or the dealer for
a second opinion. You may need a camber bolt kit.It wouldn’t have to be a full accident, just skidding on ice and bumping a curb could bend things. Don’t ask me how I learned this.
What’s educational is to look at any curved length of curb, like say the exit to my local post office parking lot. It’s a east to north curved turn, not cambered properly and gets icy. The curb has about 50 diagonal slash scars on it, just what would happen if 50 cars skidded into the curb and the tires bottomed out and the wheel edge scarred the concrete. Could be the source of 50 alignment problems right there.
College Man you bring up a good point. I did ask if its possible the machine could be reading incorrectly, and the tech said they havent had any issue with it before. And i havent had any issue with any other alignment on the Van. I wasnt experiencing any wear but had two new tires put on , so wanted to get the Van aligned. Not sure if there is different types of alignment machines used in the mechanical world but they had big mirror looking disk attached to all four tires and the main machine in front of the van with extended arms doing the readings. I do have to go the dealer tomorrow to pick up my parts on my Frontier head rebuild, might just have them do another alignment to check. Just really short on money with this rebuild, was hoping i didnt have to pay another 70 bucks.
grg88 you should open a alignment specialty shop on the opposite corner to that post office. Sounds like a gold mine. LOL. Or a local shop can post a sign there. Alignment special, just mention this post office. 15% off. Thanks guys, looks like a second opinion might be the way to go.If the tires are wearing well I wouldn’t panic about the problem. When you get over your other repairs then look into the alignment adjustment problem.
Sometimes it only takes a slight bump into a curb at the correct angle to bend something.
May have been so minor that you forgot about it.I have also seen alignment angles way out from the factory. Ever seen how they handle new vehicles in transit? It’s scary.
College Man you did mention and put a link for a camber kit. When i walked in the lady mechanic ive normally delt with in the past was in, so i chatted with her and mentioned the problem with the camber adjustment. She instantly came back with , “oh you need a camber kit then”. Then the mechanic walked in that i was dealing with on the alignment, he says when she mentions the camber kit, that you cant use a camber kit on the rear of the van, only on the front. Is this true?
It may come as a surprise to people but when vehicles leave the assembly line they are not aligned at all everything is assembled in a jig so it is assumed that everything is ok. I have done alignments on new cars that were way off, It is cheaper for the manufacturer to pay for this after the fact instead of aligning hundreds of thousands of cars and trucks right away.
some of the Nissan vans and trucks have aftermarket bolt kits that have more adjustment than the factory bolts. What I would do is take it to another shop and have it checked. If it has the same reading then odds are you have one or more worn out bushings. A bushing can look ok and be worn out. Its rubber and it sags over time. Its not something that’s easy to see unless its torn.
alignments are necessary because the suspension sags over time. Bushings wear out causing the wheels to slowly lean in. Not counting loose or bent parts this is the prime reason for wheels being out of alignment. Second opinion the reading then start looking at the rubber suspension parts.
Depending upon how far off it is, it’s sometimes possible to loose bolts up a little, force things into an acceptable position, and then retighten the bolts. That little bit of slop in various bolt holes can sometimes create enough movement to coerce things into position.
I’m in agreement with brokemechanic3000 about many, or most, people assuming that cars are aligned after they roll off of the assembly line.
It could be that this car has been off a little since the day it was built or even knocked out of whack by the transport truck driver the day they unloaded it at the dealership.[quote=”Baker” post=73577]College Man you did mention and put a link for a camber kit. When i walked in the lady mechanic ive normally delt with in the past was in, so i chatted with her and mentioned the problem with the camber adjustment. She instantly came back with , “oh you need a camber kit then”. Then the mechanic walked in that i was dealing with on the alignment, he says when she mentions the camber kit, that you cant use a camber kit on the rear of the van, only on the front. Is this true?[/quote]
I thought on the Nissans camber in the front was fixed non adjustable.
You guys brink up good points. I dont recall at what time i did the first alignment on the Van after buying it brand new in 2007. Most likely i would have done it when i bought its first set of new tires. The factory tires i recall didnt last long at all. For the first 30, 000 miles i had all service done at dealer so they would have rotated the tires for me there , but dont recall them doing any alignment on the first set of tires. College Man , im not to sure on the nissans being fixed in the front. Even more of a reason to take it to the dealer to have its second opinion alignment done and pick the brain of the service adviser. I left a message for one of them yesterday to call me back so i could see if it was common issue they come across. I didnt get a call back. Parts aren’t in yet either so rather not drive there back to back days . See if can sneak it in for a alignment when picking up parts. Maybe ill take a video of the problem area and point out the issues the mechanic showed me. If i do, ill update with the video. thks again guys.
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