Suspension?

Tiny
LAELAH19
  • MEMBER
  • 2008 MAZDA 3
  • 2.0L
  • 2WD
  • AUTOMATIC
  • 185,896 MILES
I took my car in to get a wheel alignment because it is wobbling and out of alignment and they told me rear right camber out bring back and the paper says the rear right.
Friday, November 4th, 2022 AT 12:37 PM

1 Reply

Tiny
CARADIODOC
  • MECHANIC
  • 33,873 POSTS
What is the problem you're trying to solve, or the question?

A wobble has to be caused by something that is rotating. In this case the best suspects are a bent wheel and a broken belt in a tire. There can also be loose or worn steering and suspension parts that must be replaced before the car can be aligned. Those worn parts will not cause a wobble, but they can allow a wobble to occur when it is set up by something else.

"Camber" is the tilt of the wheel in or out on top, as viewed from in front or back of the car. Positive camber means the wheel is tipped out on top. If excessive or beyond allowable specs, it will cause rapid wear of the outer edge of the tread on just that one tire. Camber on one wheel doesn't affect wear on the other tires. Camber does affect which way a tire wants to pull. They pull to the side they're leaning toward. Besides being set to specs for good tire wear, we also need to set both sides nearly the same so their pulls offset each other and the car goes straight when you let go of the steering wheel. Beyond that, we usually set the left front slightly more positive than the right front wheel to offset the effects of "road crown". That is the tilt of the road surfaces to make rain water run off to the right.

Normally alignment specs are pretty easy to read, but Mazda made it really complicated, as shown in these drawings. If you get a printout of your alignment, and post the numbers for "caster", "camber", and "toe" for each wheel, I can interpret them for you and compare them to what the specs call for.
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Friday, November 4th, 2022 AT 4:21 PM

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