EN_VY

Ok well recently, my balljoint snapped on me... So I replace the balljoints, and also changed out one tire. Ever since, my car has been riding like crap. The steering wheel vibrates like crazy.. Its bad! So I decided to get it aligned again, and took it to the same place as I have 6mo warranty. The guy told me that the alignment is good, but that the caster is way off. He also said that caster is non adjustable. Also, he asked me if my car had been in a wreck before because one of the tires looked to be more in front than the other. Well my car has been in wrecks, but after I got it out of the bodyshop, I had the car aligned at that shop and it was riding smooth. I'm on air suspension, so its now riding terrible! Plese take a look at my alignment printout and advice Geez this car is going to leave me broke!
I put the picture in here but its huge, so here is the link.. Sorry
http://a.imageshack.us/img716/9214/dscn0894x.jpg

GSteg

iTrader: (15)

That is the spec sheet after the alignment?? Looks more like what happens after a wreck! Is that the best they could do?

From the looks of it, your car is drifting to the right. The caster is likely the source of your vibration. The bushing may be shot so your toe is constantly changing.


As for the rear, invest in some adjustable tie rods. The amount of toe is really killing your tires. 0.79 degrees cross toe is horrible.

5t341th

iTrader: (16)

hmm the tech didnt save before measurements. either he didnt touch anything, or your eccentric bolts are maxxed out. i believe its the former

EN_VY

i took it there the first time about 3 months ago.. Seeing that my car was shaking like crazy I took it back. The guy didn't do anything to the car, he told me that the alignment was still good, but the caster was way off and that was not adjustable. He told me to take it to a shop and have them figure it out, the take it back to him, as he couldn't do anything. I know the toe is way off but that is because I drive slammed, and yes, I need adjustable parts.

No one has the before measurements either..

EN_VY

Ok here is my previous alignment sheet 3 months ago. Only thing that changed was my balljoint snapping on me
http://img808.imageshack.us/img808/5985/alig.jpg

TonyHC

Keep in mind that your alignment specs will vary with ride height. You need to pick the ride height you ride the most at......MARK IT somehow.......get it aligned at that ride height. Any ride height higher or lower than the height you got aligned at will off and wear the crap out of your tires.

I lowered my GS with Tanabe NF210's which is not even a crazy drop and my TOE needed to be corrected. Most cars tend to TOE-OUT when lowered.

A lot people think that if their car still drives STRAIGHT after they lower it, they are fine without an alignment, but little do they know they have TOE-OUT which scrubs the heck out of the inner tire. The car will not pull either way because the tires are equally trying to drive away from each other and scrubbing away at the street.

Correcting the CAMBER is good, but correcting the TOE is even better. Improper TOE will wear the heck out of your tires more than improper CAMBER.

A properly aligned car will roll and coast better because the wheels are pointing straight.
Take 2 identical cars, same weight, one with poor alignment, one with proper alignment. Put both of them in Neutral and try pushing them. The one with the proper alignment will be easier to push and will roll better.

EN_VY

Well I have a digital pressure gauge so the first time I aligned it, I set it to the drive height(which is low) and I remembered the psi in each bag.. I learned te hard way that toe will kill your tires not camber.

sonic5888

Hi...I just did alignment on my 2000 gs3000. I did adjusted the caster in front (if I remember correctly). Here is how I did....
I put the car on the rack...mount the 4 sensors on the wheels....roll the car back and forth to align the sensor with the laser signal.
Steering left and right, then center (instruction from computer)
Then brake the car (using a brake tool push it from the brake pedal to front of the driver seat or against the steering wheel) making sure the vehical not moving while you are adjusting the veh.
Adjust alignment for the rear wheels first then the front wheel. (if you adjust the front 1st, it will mess up the front wheels' alignment when adjust the rear wheel last). This is important.
After adjust the alignment for the rear wheel then I adjust the front wheel (caster then toe)
Caster adjust bolts (19mm bolt) are on under the engine. And the toe bolts r normally on the struts (I did not see one on this vehical, I did see on other vehical....I used to work for Toyota dealership)


If your steering shaking that mean something loose or something worn out. I dont think your caster...

I saw worn caster adjuster bolt (it called escentric bolts) on a vehical before, the veh did not shake when I test drove it.

Could the shaking from wheel balacing? If the shake only only high speed...maybe 60. 70 or sometime 80mph. That is the wheel balancing problem , bent wheels or wheel bearing.

I hope this will help...

GSteg

iTrader: (15)

^^^ You just described a wheel alignment, but nothing about caster adjustment. What you changed was camber. Caster is not adjustable on our cars. There are only a handful of Lexus that allows you to change caster, and the 2GS is not one of them.

And yes, a bad lower control arm (Caster bushing) can cause vibration if it can't dampen the suspension's resonance frequency at ~60mph.

sonic5888

to adjust the caster. U need the loosen the escentric nuts..I adjusted one side at a time. Used 2 19mm wrench (one to loose the nut and the other is on the bolt) Look at the screen on the monitor, use the wrench rotate the escentric bolt slowly to left or right. Get the spec to as close to the green (means within spec) part as possible (the spec on the screen). then tight the nut. then do the same to other side. Then I adjusted the toes...but you have to do all this After you have adjusted the rear wheels alignment

Rarely you will see caster and camber adjustment bolts on a passenger car; mostly you will see them on trucks or suv. But on my gs300, there are caster adjustment bolts...It was weird, I noticed the screen on the computer says that caster is not adjustable...I don't know if it was the software error or what...But If I see the escentric bolts, I will use it to adjust the caster even if the computer said unadjusteable. And I did noticed that the spec changed

skperformance

iTrader: (6)

Sonic it can't be done. You did just adjust the camber only with those bolts .
Caster is controlled by the caster arm which is one large bolt on the undercarriage and 2 others connecting it to the lower control arm . None with adjustment.

BTW you need to change the caster bushing envy.
I made a huger thread on it last year in the suspension section.

/209JOHN\

iTrader: (5)

Envy,

this site sells aftermarket caster / camber adj. arms.
http://http://www.spcalignment.com/P...d2=72270&cmd3=

specialty products part # 72270

they are 400/ pr. I hope this helps.

Newchapter

iTrader: (2)

Caster can be adjusted on our cars indirectly via camber and toe. It's not huge but you can affect it.

sonic5888

Skperformance... you might be right...I did the alignment couple months ago, so I dont remember exactly which adjustment that I adjusted. But all or most of the align. spec on my veh are within the manufacture spec. I will look for my align print out again and let u know...I will be very busy this week but I will try to get back as soon as I can