VinceP

Within the last couple of weeks I replaced the struts and shocks on my 08 Panel. I am not sure when doing this how much it affect the alignment so I took her in for a 4 wheel alignment. I know if your alignment is out it will cause bad tire wear and the car has to work harder causing poor gas mileage. My tires were not wearing odd or anything, just thought I should do it since the parts were changed.

My struts and shocks were totally gone, no rebound what so ever. My question is, do worn out shocks/struts cause the alignment to be out? Seems so to me but I am no engineer so you guys tell me. The reason I ask is that my mileage seems to have improved a bit since I replaced the worn parts. It seemed to improve before I had the alignment done.

Any input?

Thanks!

firemangeorge

The question is. How much out of alignment was it? Did you ask the shop that did the alignment?
As far as new shocks/struts and no alignment, I doubt there would be a difference. Shocks/struts pretty much control the cushioning of bumps and ride quality with their dampining ability.
Your gas mileage increase could be from the warmer weather and the gasoline companies summer "blend" gas products.

swerv0428

They would have to be way out of alignment to hurt mileage. Wheel would have to have a crazy amount of toe in or out. You would have been able to see that.

VinceP

No tire wear but way better ride....lol. There was no pull left or right and the steering wheel stayed true. As I said I noticed the change after the replacement parts were installed. Never thought about the gasoline blend. Sounds like it could all be coincidental.
Thanks for the input!

swerv0428

Could be. Glad your riding smooth again.

donbrew

The only replaceable parts on standard HHR front end that affects alignment are the tie-rod ends and steering rack & pinion and the control arm bushings (front & rear). If a 4 wheel alignment makes you happy, go ahead and have it done. anything other than toe means bad parts and most mechanics do not know where to look for wear. The alignment guys love these cars, they get paid to look all professional with the lasers and computers, but all they really do is look at the bushings.

BUT.

The caster and camber are set way back on the engineers drawing board, only the toe can be adjusted. Unless you have changed the wheel off sets or are racing on a round track you are wasting time and money and angst on 4 wheel alignment. If the rear wheels are out of alignment, then you need to replace the trailing arm bushings and/or the bearings or the axle beam itself. If the caster or camber is out, you need to get a uni-body pull or maybe new hub bearings or maybe new control arm bushings. If your toe is actually off, then parts need to be closely inspected and probably replaced before a realignment is attempted.

In fewer words; if you need realignment somebody needs to looking very closely for worn/bent/broken parts, NOT adjustments to bad parts.

If you are worrying about that last (literal) cc of fuel of mileage, then the toe could help. More likely is that the shop set the tire pressure for you. Obama says "a tire pressure gauge will save you more money than a gas tax reduction" that was paraphrased, so maybe the quotes should not be there, but 4 years ago it was close.

VinceP

Thanks again for the input. Everything checked out fine on the alignment. No worn parts that the dealer needed/wanted to replace. I keep a pretty close eye on my air pressure so I don't think that was the issue. The dealer sent me a coupon for a great deal on an alignment so that is why I took it to them. Since I had part of the front end loose I figured I would have them check it out. Better safe than sorry I guess.

As far as the wheel bearings are concerned they told me they did not hear anything out of the ordinary so they did not change either of them. Told me it was "road" noise. I told them I knew better and it was BS. I will take it back to the dealer where I purchased it and let them listen to it.

Once again, thanks for the input everyone.

Doc brown

It could be road noise/cupped tires. Some tires tend to make a LOT of noise once they start wearing the wrong way. Worn control arm bushings coupled with bad struts will most certainly cause a wear pattern that can generate a lot of noise. I know because this is exactly what happened to my HHR.

barfan1

You can adjust the front camber with special offset strut mount bolts. You can also adjust the rear with shims that fit between the axle mounting face and the hub assembly. If you go to a good shop, they can get a car dialed in pretty good, unfortunately most places just check the front toe in/out and send you down the road.

VinceP

You are correct it could be but in my case it is not. Tire wear is very even on all 4 corners. My tires get rotated every 5-6K and air pressure is constantly watched. The noise starts in around 35mph as a slight growl, changing to more of a thumping type noise (as if a flat spotted bearing) around 45 and gets steadily more upbeat as speed increases. I just recently rotated the tires and the noise did not change. I am sure it is a bad bearing on the front, just not sure which one. I am also sure they heard road noise if they test drove the car as the road in front of the dealership is concrete and does make my GoodYears sing at speed. On blacktop roads it is very evident that it is not road noise. I suspect they just check for excessive runout and looseness on the bearings and did not find any so everything must be o.k.

I will be taking to the dealer where originally purchased and go for a ride with someone to make sure they hear what I hear.