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Goatman

· Leaving the lights on
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Discussion starter · #1 ·
Ok, my front end alignment is off a bit, and my tires are worn on the inside pretty bad. My question is, if I rotate them, will it ruin the rear alignment?
 
you should replace the tires cuz you could have a blowout. and get ur alignment done soon so it doesnt mess up you other tires.
 
Discussion starter · #3 ·
Except, according to people here (I haven't talked to a RL mechanic about it yet), the type of alignment problem I have is only fixable by replacing the freaking control arms, and I don't have that kind of money right now, especially for spending on a 20 year old car, even a mint-condition Legend.
 
rotating tires is NOT going to screw up your rear alignment but i would at least get it up on an alignment rack. i just checked the acura interactive network and there isnt any kind of bulletin or service news on control arms or new revised alignment specs...prolly with the age of the car just needs to be done for maint. when was the last alignment done? and did you have someone tell you the arms were bent?...i would say to do an alignment every 6 months just for maint. and for the cost of one its cheaper than buying tires i do mine myself every 3 months but thats just cause i have access to a alignment rack and no labor :bigok:
 
just replace the bushings if it's just an issue of holding the alignment in place...


until then... *because you'll have to do your alignment twice if you really really think your joints and bushings are bad* until then... adjust the tierods by feel.

I.E.: adjust the side that's pulling.. testdrive... repeat until satisfactory.

and don't ask me which way to turn your tierod. i'd have to figure it out when i got under the car.

i got away with a year's worth of driving on my old red s13 w/o an alignment **after replacing all the joints, bushings and rods** just did it by feel.

alignments are waaaay overpriced. they need to bring the price down and a lot more ppl would get it done.
 
Discussion starter · #7 ·
Well, the original owner of the car got alignments done REALLY often. It got into an accident early in its life, and the rear left part of the frame got all screwed up or something like that. But he spent a ton of money fixing it. Anyway, it caused him to feel like he needed to check the alignment every 10,000 miles or so. They NEVER did anything to it, every time it was well within specs both before and after.

People on this board told me it sounded like the camber was bad, which was related to the control arms and couldn't be adjusted. The inside of both front wheels, that is, the side towards the car, is worn down while the outside still has a lot of good tread.
 
Your gonna need to replace the upper control arms to straighten the wheels.
 
Discussion starter · #9 ·
Ya see? That's exactly what I'm talking about.

Now why is that? Why do I gotta spend over $200 to keep my car from burning through tires like there's no tomorrow?

There's GOTTA be a better way...
 
what i'm trying to figure out is what's happened to the suspension on the car since the previous owner had the alignment checked so often and it was fine. what's happened between then and now for it to be set wrong?
 
Discussion starter · #11 ·
Umm... not much.

My dad bought it from the original owner for my stepmom when her Ford's timing belt broke (and it was an interference engine -_-). My stepmom drove it for about a year and a half. After the first year or so, it got into a minor accident. The right front fender panel was replaced. It was ALL body damage, nothing besides that fender was even touched. The frame was fine, the wheel was fine, nothing under the hood was damaged, the hood was untouched.

The damage was like, within $500 of what the insurance said the car was worth, so they totaled it. My dad got it back from them, as well as a bunch of cash. He got it fixed himself. my stepmom continued to drive it for the remaining 6 months, and they got a letter saying it needed to get a salvage title when they renewed the registration. My dad didn't wanna go through the hassle of getting the brakes and lamps certified, the VIN verified, and the Smog done prematurely. So she stopped driving it, and it sat in their garage for the next two years or so.

All along, my dad had planned to give it to me. But I was fine using my mom's car, so why would I want something extra to pay to maintain, as well as take up our parking space. Anyway, one of our dogs got into my mom's car and ripped the seatbelts out. My stepdad had to drive me to school after that, and because of this, my parents pressured me into getting the car from my dad. So I did. Since then, I've hit maybe 3 potholes total. I had the CV axle on the left replaced, because the boot got torn, and replacing the whole axle (which had a LOT of miles on it, it turned out) was cheaper and easier than changing the boot and cleaning it up.

I don't think my dad ever did much with the alignment, but they had only driven it like 15-20,000 miles total while they had it.
 
Discussion starter · #13 ·
Nope. If I did that, I'd end up rotating the tires first, so the new angle on the front tires doesn't wear down the alignment again. Maybe I should just replace the tires and do the alignment at the same time...

How much does an alignment / alignment check cost?
 
i don't want to tell you to get an alignment to find out you still gotta do your control arms. anyone that's told you, you needed control arms tell you why?

i'm just confused on why control arms would randomly be offset, without damaging them
 
Discussion starter · #15 ·
Well, I described the issue before (extreme inner wear with minimal outer wear) and one guy said it was too much camber. Another told me that the camber was not adjustable, and the only way to fix it was to replace the control arms. Then they gave me a link to $200 control arms or something
 
well yeah, inner wear would be camber.. the upper control arm is pulling the upper part of the wheel in. or the lower control arm is pushing out. it isn't adjustable beyond fabricating your knuckle or arms.

EDIT: i was wondering about bad the pot holes were... lol, had to be bad for you to remember them.
 
Discussion starter · #19 ·
Actually, I haven't been driving this car that much. I've only had it for a month and a half.

One of them was kinda bad. The other two were just bad patches in the asphalt.

So I do need to replace the control arms, then? There's nothing else I can do?

It's the same on both sides of the car, btw. And the sorta bad pothole hit the left wheel, not both wheels.
 
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