Practically Classics Forum

Hi,

After much hassle I rebuilt the front suspension on my S4 Alpine. Replaced all the bushes, painted everything and replaced the dampers. Problem is I noticed that the camber was off on the passengers side when jacked up and compared with the drivers side. Actually rather noticeably.

I replaced all camber shims in the order in which they came out - but do have a different number on each side as I recall - but wonder whether someone previously has made an error when stripping the suspension down and not replaced them properly ? Or is this to correct the road camber?

Could anyone shed any light on this. and if possible on how to sort it. I had heard a story that the camber shims aren't really needed, but would imagine that the steering may be adversely affected?

Thanks,

Andy

Grease Monkey's your man on Alpines (amongst many other things) - hopefully he'll be along and tell you everything you ever wanted to know!

If not you could try a PM to him.

Cheers

Take no notice of what it looks like jacked up, what's it like on its wheels?
There maybe different amounts of shims in each side, but if it still looks like too much negative camber, I assume it's neg camber? then you'll have to get all the steering geometry checked, castor, camber & tracking, and you may have to swop shims from side to side to get it correct.
You could check it yourself by utilizing a spirit level, straight edge and a protractor, stand the car on level ground & make sure the suspension has 'settled', position the spirit level to get the vertical, then position the straight across the wheel rim & measure the angle where the two meet with the protractor, this can be fairly accurate & will give a starting point, compare both sides & get within tolerances.

Let me know how you get on.


John.