Hi all, I have an '08 HHR LS with a noticeable positive camber (top of tire angled away from car) on the passenger side front wheel. That same corner is also wearing the outside edge of the tire very quickly. The driver's side camber is slightly negative and tire wear is normal. The car was previously slid into a curb at 5-10 mph, hitting the passenger front wheel. The bent wheel was replaced and the alignment was checked at the time and found to be fine. Im not sure when the camber issue started.

I just replaced the passenger side lower control arm (including new bushings and lower ball joint) due to a bad rear bushing. This helped the car to drive straight down the road (was pulling right), but the passenger side wheel camber is still off. All other suspension components (bushings, ball joints, tie-rod ends, struts, sway bar) were inspected and look/feel fine.

Since the camber is not designed to be adjustable on this car, what else could be causing this problem? Could the curb hit have bent a strut or the frame? The old control arm was not obviously bent and I would have expected this part to take most of the impact. Thanks for the help!

 

You can get a camber kit that will give about 2 degrees adjustment.

Most likely you had it aligned with bad parts. So, now with new parts the alignment is off.

One time I installed 2 new LCAs and the camber needed adjustment.

Yes, a curb can bend things and break things that can't be seen.

 

Thanks for the response don. I was hoping to use a camber kit as a last resort and fix the underlying issue instead.

 

Seems to me the strut is bent

 

Thanks oldblue. Do you know if the struts are symmetrical (minus the sway bar connection)? Could I swap the left/right struts and see if the problem switches sides?

 

NO, they are L & R.

 

Don is correct they are left and right. Please replace the struts in pairs

 

Thanks for the help guys. Ill try new struts soon.

 

Before just trying struts, I would suggest a good collision center. Get it up on a frame measuring jig and they'll be able to tell you exactly what's bent.

I used to work in an automotive repair and body shop. I've sent a number of cars from our repair side over to the body shop side to get them to measure and point out where the bent parts were. Saved me from having to just throw parts at one trying to figure it out.

 

Positive camber could be caused by the LCA front mounting point being pushed in, which would be consistent with hitting a kerb on that side, as would bending the brackets on the strut that attach it to the top of the knuckle, the result of both of those should have been evident on an alignment check, but frame measurement will tell you more definitely.