Suspension guru help needed

Saturday I fought my ‘04 Jetta TDI to replace struts LCA bushings and ball joints. Eventually everything seemed to go back together, but it appear I have some negative camber. From my understanding there are no real options for camber adjustment on the MK4, any tips or thoughts on what may be wrong? Only thing I can think of is that maybe the struts didn’t drop all the way into the knuckles.... I fought them a while and then they seemed to drop in. Maybe they are hind up just a little from the bottom of the knuckles. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Struts used: Monroe quick strut
Ball joints: acdelco
Control arms/bushings: Delphi

In my experience, the Monroe quick struts may make the front end ride a bit high at least at first. Do your control arms look to be parallel to the ground?

If the strut dropped into the clamp and the bolt was able to go through the hole in the strut's location tab then, that is where they were intended to be placed. If the strut tube was higher or lower from that position by 1/8" either way it probably would not made that much difference in the camber.

The knuckle (aka bearing carrier, upright) has that hole for the strut to drop into. The strut should have a blade or fin sticking out that fits into the slot for it in the knuckle. That slot also gives room for constricting the knuckle around the strut body. So, since the pinch bolt has to go through, that fin should have a hole that matches up to give the bolt a clean path through to the other side, where of course the nut can be applied and tightened. The hole will properly locate the strut in the knuckle, so that concern should be eliminated.

There are then 2 places for camber 'adjustment', although there isn't much. The first would be at the top, where, if everything is still stock, there really isn't a way to make any adjustment unless aftermarket parts are used and some installation work is done to accommodate them.

The second is at the bottom where the knuckle's lower ball joint bolts to the lower control arm. There are slots for the 3 bolts, and that is all the adjustment there is. So, overall, not a lot, but it might be enough.

Are the springs correct and of stock length? Are the new parts OEM type (i.e. not a "coil over" shock/strut)? Have any parts been substituted to change the ride height (i.e. a lift kit or lowering parts)?

If all of these new parts are the same design as what came from the factory, and they have been installed correctly, then you should be very close on camber and can adjust there at the bottom of the ball joint at the knuckle.

Hope that helps,

PH

The three holes in the lower control arm for the ball joint bolts are a bit slotted. Also, there is a bit of "play" in the bolt holes for the two LCR bushings (front and back). Of course, the guy doing the alignment needs to know about these minute capabilities for adjusting the Camber...

Diesel_K82 said:

Saturday I fought my ‘04 Jetta TDI to replace struts LCA bushings and ball joints. Eventually everything seemed to go back together, but it appear I have some negative camber. From my understanding there are no real options for camber adjustment on the MK4, any tips or thoughts on what may be wrong? Only thing I can think of is that maybe the struts didn’t drop all the way into the knuckles.... I fought them a while and then they seemed to drop in. Maybe they are hind up just a little from the bottom of the knuckles. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
Struts used: Monroe quick strut
Ball joints: acdelco
Control arms/bushings: Delphi

Click to expand...

The ball joint bolt openings in the LCA are slotted and allow some camber adjustment; I wouldn't think enough to notice by the naked eye. There is also some adjustment in the subframe if you loosened it to do the passenger side.

I seem to remember when the strut drops in fully its curved bottom just slightly protrudes from the underside of the knuckle (but it's been 6 years since I did strut change).

Since most recommend you get an alignment anyway (even though you're right, there is little to adjust on the MKIV), I would consider double checking your work, driving it around a little, and then bringing it in. I seem to recall when I first put the car down on the ground after a full suspension change that I felt I had some new negative camber, but it was close to being within spec when I had it measured.

Bring it in, they can at least tell you what is out if there is something out. The hub could be bent too. Hard enough hit can do that.

How much is "some" negative camber? Have you had it on an alignment rack and measured yet?

VW specs call for some negative camber... The spec is typically -0.50 +/- 0.50 (so total acceptable range of -1.00 to 0.00).

And, keep in mind, changing the Camber adjustment from it was initially, will affect the Toe.

This happened to me.
Come to find out, the rocket scientist that replaced the struts didn't get the three bolts in the lower ball joint back in the right position, leaving one bolt not going through the ball joint.