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Front left side bottom arm possibly bent .. Help !!! Please

funkyfxxker

funkyfxxker

Messages
69
Help, front left wheel cambers out at the top, no obvious damage or anything bent, had it inspected by two different garages .. Up on the ramps.. Both say they can't see anything wrong.. I've had a good look myself, possible bottom arm is bent, because I can see two paint cracks, or maybe it's the ball joint.. Or the suspension shaft.. Now the ball joint looks like its fixed to the hub.. Is it ?? It's only cheep to replace, so I'm going to replace that (if I can) before I move on the the bottom arm, then the strut .. Has anyone else had this issue ?.. 04 plate facelift
 
Grab a pic buddy.

After a while the paint blisters and cracks.. If there is no visible bend/scrapes in that particular area of the arm - then it's highly unlikely that the lower arms actually bent. That's the kind of part that is subject to massive abuse, it would require a substantial knock, I feel, for that part to deform.

Check the bushes in that area. A worn/fcked ball joint could cause such an issue - perhaps have your geometry checked? How bad is the camber?
 
No I haven't hit anything, I only bought the car a few weeks ago.. And didn't notice it when checking it out.. It's not been wrote off or anything, no signs of repair on the wing or inner wing.. I suspect it's the ball joint.. But it looks like its part of the hub.. I will take a picture tomorrow.. Also when I drove it at night the bloody headlights randomly turn off on different sides, so I flick them off and on then they both come on again, two minutes later they go off again.. When I looked it's had a xenon conversion .. Do you know anything about them ?
 
First garrage said its probably the tracking, so they tracked it.. Didn't cure it (I didn't expect it to) they didn't charge me, told me to go to a camber specialist.. So I did, they checked all the wheels and told me only the rear camber is adjustable.. Something must be bent.. But know one can see anything obvious .. Thing is it drives really smoothe, the camber does look quite bad to be honest, and when I steer to the left its very light, but a little heavier to the right..
 
Unless you have adjustable rear camber arms, the rear camber is not adjustable. Using OEM camber arms, the rear will only adjust naturally, by lowering the car using fixed arms. The lower you go, the more negative camber is employed.. this is natural as a result of the way the suspension is on the EP3.

Infact the front camber on OEM suspension has more adjustability (known as OEM "tolerances") than the rear - due to the elongated mounting holes/points. I would get a second opinion.

I remember going through tyres on one of my old cars - it was on one particular side that there wear was bad.. it turned out to be a ball-joint.

Get a second opinion on your geometry before looking at the ball joint. The specialists you went to, seem a bit suspect in their diagnosis unless you do indeed have adjustable rear arms, that have been adjusted.

Tie-rod ends and steering arms, wouldn't affect camber - but they do affect toe. shot rod ends, depending on how bad, would alter the steering feel.
 
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All the other wheels are fine.. All lazer measured when you look at that wheel in particular it is well out .. The top edge of the tyre is level with the wheel arch.. When all the other tyres are in buy maybe an inch or half an inch.. The wheel is tilted out
 
It's impossible for the lower or upper balljoint to become unaligned enough to put the camber out. They're literally a ball and socket joint and if we're heavily worn would be majorly knocking.

As sun says a deformation in the lower arm is highly unlikely without obvious signs of accident damage.

Ensure the 2x bolts that connect the upper spring and shock suspension to the lower half are still in place and see of one of them has been replaced with a camber adjuster bolt that may have come loose and caused a camber issue.

Lights sound like dodgy wiring/connections in the HIDs. Check/refit.
 
Are the geo guys saying that they cannot straighten it out? Or do they straighten it out, and then it always ends up being thrown back out again?
 
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