camber bolt

[Ishan]

ok, so, what's a camber bolt? i have no idea..

my buddy took her car in for an alignment, and they told her she needed one, to keep it aligned, and wanted to charge like 25 dollars for it. she declined for the time being, but, wants to know if she actually needs this or not.

she also said she found different camber bolt's on web sites for under 2$, yet yeah, they wanna charge 25$.

Thanks,
Brandon.

[pfofit]

What kind of car? year?

Camber is the tilt of the top of the wheel toward or away from the engine and is normally less than a degree, Negative. Which is tilt inward. As you go around a corner the lean of the car puts pressures on the outside tire and makes it tip out to the road. This makes you ride on the edge of the tire and you lose your tire footprint and hence traction.

On most cars it is adjusted by the slots in the mounting holes at the bottom of the strut. connecting it to the steering knuckle there are two. One hole is a slot and acts like a pivot. Sometimes the slot is in the steering knuckle.

Camber affects toe, so the camber is set first and then toe. There is also caster but that is irrelevent as most cars have it fixed in the design.

Some cars have no adjustment like the form tempo. The strut tube fits into the steering knuckle and locked by a single pinch bolt. If you need adjustment, then the 3 holes at the top of the strut tower have to be slotted. Of coarse, 1 degree is not that much.

The old ford truck twin I beam suspension had off centered bushings that were rotated to obtain the proper alignment. They ran pretty dear.

Regular strut bolts are a few bucks the last time i needed one due to stripped threads that could be tightened to the proper torque without slipping.

Perhaps its the ole female ripoff thing or its just the way they do business. Like the brake/muffler joints that try and ding you $40 bucks for a drum spring kit, when any auto parts place they go for 8 to 10.

[2003GAGT]

I don't think camber can be adjusted on grand am's without that camber bolt kit...

[asepgrad98]

to adjust the camber the cam bolt has to be added OR one of the holes in the strut has to be elongated.