Camber / Caster

[nc211]

Can someone educate me on camber and caster settings on a 95 ls 400? Someone described my wobble feeling to a T' last week, like a front wheel on a bad shopping cart. They mentioned caster camber settings and that my front wheels are most likely too far forward?? I'm stumped on this one, even though it seems simple enough.

Thanks guys!

[SRK]

I doubt very much that your caster and camber settings have changed enough to produce a wobble. That will more likely be caused by a bad tire, or wheel balance, or toe-in settings.

Caster is the angle of the steering pivots viewed from the side, and on these cars it is positive, meaning the upper pivot is behind the lower. That angle is only a few degrees, if I recall about 3-4. Camber is the tilt in or out of the tire, viewed from the front, and is very close to zero degrees, especially with the wider tires used on these cars. Toe-in will change with bushing wear, especially the strut rods, so if they are worn, a good alignment will be needed after replacement.

Lexus provides all of the adjustments for the rear axle as well, so a four wheel alignment is indicated. Typically, the adjustment methods for both axles are easily done, so any good shop can achieve a high degree of accuracy quickly.

Have a good wheel balance done, and check the tires for out of round or "hop" as it is called, during the balance, and then have a pre alignment check done to find any worn parts, followed by a four wheel alignment.

[nc211]

I just don't get it. All the suspension parts up front are less than 10 months old. The only things that aren't new, oem parts, up there are the inner tie rods, rack and brake rotors. The rotors were turned not but 2 months ago and I have no brake pedal vibration. Now, when I hit a certain dip in the road in the morning, I'm hearing a faint clunk noise in the front left....AGAIN. Not but 10k miles on the new parts, and I've got that noise again. The car has been aligned 3 times in the past 6 weeks, tires checked, rims checked, everything. I'm sick of this

You turn the car in a circle and it feels like the front outter tire is wobbling and will fold under the car. You start it up in the morning, drive up to speed on a slight incline, and the car hops, literally hops up and down. You get it out on the highway and you've got to pay close attention to keep it straight. Feels like I'm driving a grocery cart, not a Lexus LS400. I've spent too much money "$2,200+" on this car. If it's not a setting somewhere, or something simple and cheap, my days of LS400 ownership are through. period. I don't care how much I like this car, how nice it is, if it ain't going to do what it's designed to do with out sucking $500 out of my wallet every 6 weeks, then screw it.

Question: at what angle are the strut rods supposed to be attached in conjunction to the verticle line of the car? I remember doing the suspension work on the front, had everything off but the strut rods, and they were hanging at about a 20 degree down angle.

[bartkat]

Could be a tire with an off center and/or broken belt.

[nc211]

I am giong to pull out the full size spare this weekend and see what that does. also, does anybody know how to adjust the parking brake so it works, other than taking off the rear rotors again? I put on new rotors two weeks ago, and the parking brake doesn't work anymore. Go figure that one? Fix one problem to only create one more.

[LScott400]

Did you check out the Link I posted on your "Tire Psi" thread? You should have your tires checked on one of these before you throw in the towel. Click on the "Locate a GSP9700" tab in the upper right hand corner to find one near you.

[nc211]

Scott, yeah I've looked for the Hunter system, and the local lexus dealership has one. But I think the guy who used to do the alignemnt/balance for Johnson Lexus is no longer there and some new dude is. The last time I was there for this service, I had to go back because of poor workmanship. The weights fell off. I'm gonna give it one more try, and if a FULL alignment of all settings, not just toes, doesn't fix it, then I'm going to drive the car until whatever is causing the problem finally breaks and identifies itself. And you better believe I'm gonna run the snot out of it too! For this kind of money, I'm gonna get my kicks out of it.

bartkat, nice picture! Hahahaha. When we post up next to eachother, I'm sure it scares the hell out of some people! What part of 'bama are you in?

[sha4000]

nc i see in your sig.that you havent change the wheel bearings. you have so many new parts that they may be putting stress on the old bearings. when they go bad you can usually feel it in turns. the wheel might wobble on the hub. just jack the car up and grab the wheel on thetop and bottom and push it in and out to see if there is any play, if there is you need to change them

[nc211]

Hmmmm....that sounds like a real possibility Sha. Thanks amigo! I'm going to do some work on it this weekend and will check the bearings. Will the wheel move in and out quite a bit? Or just a slight slight bit, like a mm or so?

[bartkat]

Scott, yeah I've looked for the Hunter system, and the local lexus dealership has one. But I think the guy who used to do the alignemnt/balance for Johnson Lexus is no longer there and some new dude is. The last time I was there for this service, I had to go back because of poor workmanship. The weights fell off. I'm gonna give it one more try, and if a FULL alignment of all settings, not just toes, doesn't fix it, then I'm going to drive the car until whatever is causing the problem finally breaks and identifies itself. And you better believe I'm gonna run the snot out of it too! For this kind of money, I'm gonna get my kicks out of it.

bartkat, nice picture! Hahahaha. When we post up next to eachother, I'm sure it scares the hell out of some people! What part of 'bama are you in?

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LOL. I'm in the northeast corner of the state near the Tenn, GA border.