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Which bushings or control arms to replace to fix front camber
Hello everyone,
Despite searching and reading for hours, I'm still not clear which bushings or control arms to replace in order to eliminate negative front wheel camber...
2008 E350 sedan, sport trim, RWD (not 4matic), car is not lowered other than factory. 115k miles
Camber is at -1.5 and -2.1 and the tires wear super fast on the inside only.
On the diagram below, do I replace arms 100 and 140 or just 140?
Also, if only replacing bushings, do I do only 145 or also 103?
My main concern is super fast tire wear on the inside.
A smaller problem I have noticed is that while driving on the freeway at 70mph or faster, and the road curves and the pavement is uneven, the car slides a bit over bumpy / uneven pavement, almost like trying to continue straight, and wheels not making good contact. Would replacing those parts fix this problem as well or is it a separate issue?
You need to buy the adjustment bolts, similar to 115 in your pic. They have a couple of slots. The bushing 105 has 2 sets of ribs that would fit in the bolt’s slots. To reduce the negative camber you will push the lower control arm towards the center of the vehicle and fit the adjustment bolts with the slots on the outward ribs. If you search this forum you will find this explained better. Your minor problem may be associated.
With 115K miles, replace control arm 100, thrust arm 140, ball joint 20, and upper ball joint 205 on both sides. Your symptoms (assuming the non-Airmatic suspension) indicate a bad bushing and/or bad ball joint(s). You have to tear the suspension apart to replace these parts, do it all at one time and be done with it. The side with -2.1 degrees camber sounds like it has had it. Negative 1.7 degrees camber should be maximum.
Your description of the unsteadiness matches my car exactly before I rebuilt the front suspension; I couldn't take it over 50 mph in the rain without the car feeling like it was trying to slide or swap ends; in the dry it was unsteady and the tires were worn out in only 9000 miles. Replacing the parts above cured all of these ills. FWIW, I got 30,000 miles on my rear tires (my bad) and 36,000 miles on my front tires since the rebuild.
Optionally, you can just replace one part at a time with a day in the shop each time plus a day or two of driving to see if it is fixed or not; that should only take eight days in the shop over the next few months. Thus my advice to bite the bullet and do it all at one time (assuming you can afford it; I've had points in my life where I could only afford the minimum amount of work just to keep my car on the road).
03-03-2018, 04:03 AM
