Pasman

I had my C4 lowered a while back with Eibach lowering springs
and just the other day noticed that there is way too much camber on
the passenger side rear wheel. Brought the car in for an alignment along
with adjusting the camber on the one wheel (other side is fine) and
was told by the mechanic that there is no more adjustment to bring
the wheel more vertical? Any suggestions on what is going on? Car
was never wrecked as the mechanic thought that maybe the trailing
arm might be bent?
Any help would be appreciated..

Thanks
Paul

s4magman

We need Bill Verburg for this one! Bill where are you? Please help the fella figure this one out.

Vandit

There should be two eccentrics on the OEM spring plates (i.e. inboard piece on the rear trailing arm). They adjust toe and camber and both settings move when you adjust either so it gets a bit tricky getting it dialed in.

What exact negative camber amount are you at?

Steve Weiner-Rennsport Systems

Hi Paul,

I'm not Bill V, however I may be able to help.

It does sound like a bent trailing arm, based on experience, however I'd like to see the alignment printout to look at the other measurements.

This is NOT uncommon,....... As time goes on, we see a lot more cars with this "affliction".

Pasman

Unfortunately this photo is the best I can do for now. The mechanic did not give me a printout of the measurements. Is there any good resources for trailing arms and how tough is it to install?
Thanks everyone for your input.

Vandit

Some big, long, tight bolts and a big nut on the axle but it's not too bad. It's easier if you undo the spring plate from the arm and leave the spring plate in place on the unibody.

dlpalumbo

My two cents. I had a tech tell me he couldn't adjust camber on my right front. Gave me a list of parts to replace as some were bent. Being the suspicious type, I got a camber gauge, loosened the bolts and the wheel dropped right past set point as the spring pushed it out. Was able to adjust it to spec after that. Feeling capable at that point I tried the rears. No way. Too hard. Car needs to be on a table and tech needs to know what he's doing. Went to another shop and they got all 4 corners in spec.

Moral: Unless you really trust tech, get another opinion before you drop big bucks.

ThomasC2

Agree, the rear end is difficult to adjust if you're not used to it.

Thomas

-nick

^ Definitely. Paul, was this a specialist Porsche shop? A regular alignment store is unlikely to know what to do. Did they tell you what minimum camber they were able to achieve? If you can really see it, then it sounds like 2 degrees or more.

But if the mechanic has it right, then couldn't worn trailing arm / spring plate bushings cause this too? I'm surprised there are instances of bent arms. Seems like that thick aluminum would crack first? Or is it more likely for a bent spring plate?

Bit of a pain to replace the arm. If you're going to replace it in your garage, then invest in a very strong breaker bar and a steel pipe to go over it. Some very tight bolts in there. Having a shop loosen the lower shock bolt with an air gun isn't a bad idea either. I wasn't able to get that one loose any other way. Good luck!

Pasman

Thanks guys for the information.

The alignment was not done at a Pcar
specialty shop, but I will have my mechanic who is,
take a look at it. He doesn't do alignments, but
he should be able to adjust the camber to the rear
tire. Hopefully....
I'll let you all know how everything turns out.
Cheers!
Paul