AZS2KDancer

I've had more than one alignment on the S ( MY 01, 96,000 miles) and nver paid too much attention before. The one I had done today says the right rear camber is -2.1 degrees Maxxed out. The spec on the sheet says -1.7 ti -1.3 would be in spec. Maybe my springs are wearing out and the car is settling? I just replaced the rear tires due to excessive wear on the inside edges. The rest of the tire looked good. Any ideas why the inside tire edges in the rear are wearing out faster? Thanks.

Slowcrash_101

Toe, check your upper control arm bushings, or the bushings on the rear tie rods. The bushings on the rear tie rods are shite. Replacing bushings + tie rods fixed the exact issue you have.

When the tie rod bushing goes your rear alignment becomes temporary at best. Worn upper bushings, especially if only one is torn, will cause dramatic toe changes under load.

AZS2KDancer

Thanks. I just had the car into the dealer for a "free" check up. They pointed out the worn tires, yet didn't say anything about tie rods or bushings. Will I be able to see these with the car on the ground, or should I lift it onto jack stands?

Slowcrash_101

You have to remove the wheel to see them clearly. Incidentally you can look at the knuckle/spindle, if the lower ball join is touching it you may have a bent knuckle which will make getting a decent alignment hard at best and impossible at worst. Usually with a bent knuckle you won't be able to get a lot of camber out of the arm.

There's a rubber tab on the rubber part of the bushings, if they're torn they won't be continuous, they'll be ripped from their position.



This is the tab I mean, it's slightly torn on this arm, I've seen worse.

It's almost impossible to see the bushing on the rear tie rod because it's hidden by the alignment adjusters. Luckily I have a brand new ones I'm throwing on my car this weekend.



As you can see this bushing is pretty shite and this arm should probably be changed around the 100k mile mark, more or less. It's very easy to tear just from normal use.

AZS2KDancer

Thanks. I've never worked on suspension, yet I'm willing to give it a try. Are there any special tools or jacks needed? I plan to do a complete fluid change soon, so I'll have the car up on jack stands. I'll also be putting in new rear brake pads, so I'll have the wheels off for that, plus the brake fluid change out.

Slowcrash_101

You need a press, a driver and a receiver cup, as well as a ball join separator to swap out the bushings. Removing the arms is easy, putting them back on can be annoying if the ball joint starts spinning on you. You have to put some pressure on the ball joint into it's socket to get it to stop spinning. You can alternately put the ball join in first and then the control arms, but that's tricky without someone to help.



The rear bushings you can purchase from Honda, but they'll only work if you have an AP2. The front ones you can get hard race bushings
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hardrace-Fro...37Yfpg&vxp=mtr

or these Taiwanese ones
http://www.ebay.com/itm/4-FRONT-UPPE...BVwxLs&vxp=mtr

I got the taiwanese ones for free so I put them in my car, they're fine.

On AP1's the fronts are the same as the rears.