[voganni]

I've been searching the forum and the 'net and cannot find an answer as to whether the Volt has adjustable caster and camber in front. I'm particularly interested in caster as mine has a slight pull to the left and very slight steering wheel off-center. Rotated my new tires and pull is the same. I never noticed it with the old tires.

 

[Bill Step]

caster is non adjustable,camber can be w/ aftermarket strut bolts.most likely you'll get a toe an go alignment.

 

[Ron in Omaha]

Yes. The Volt can be fully aligned in all directions.

 

[SirSpammenot]

Camber didn't change.. but be aware you are supposed to recenter the steering collar sensor as part of the realignment procedure.

 

[llninja]

When my volt hit a curb pretty hard, my alignment was off and in the 2 days that I had to drive around before getting an appointment with the dealer, I wore the edges of two of my tires pretty badly. So schedule an alignment session ASAP before it's too late and you end up springing for a new set of tires every few months.

 

[Bill Step]

Yes. The Volt can be fully aligned in all directions.

tell me how the caster gets adjusted in the front end?

 

[El Dobro]

If the caster's out, you replace components that are knocking it out.

 

[voganni]

That is my question too, since I have a slight pull to the left. I have not hit anything with the car and it may be my new tires are just more sensitive than the old ones. I have a slight torque steer to the left also that I hadn't noticed before. I saw eccentric cam bolts available for camber adjustment, but unless something is available to move the lower control arm, which doesn't look likely, I don't see any caster adjustment. I hit a curb once in my Miata and thereafter it had a pronounced pull to the right. Lower control arm got bent. Only fix was to replace it.
This forum is great! Thanks to all who chimed in here.

 

[voganni]

Thanks El Dobro! I was typing as you made your post. The misalignment of my Volt, if any, is very slight. Tires are wearing normally. I'm gonna wait till after winter in case I do slam into something and definitely knock it out!

 

[Prohidium]

I had my alignment checked on my 2013 earlier this year and it was still within specs. I have hit my share of pot holes and bumps so I think the Volt suspension is pretty tough.

 

[Dutch]

As I always do, I had an alignment done when I bought new tires.
Toe-in was just barely out of spec and that was all. (41,000 miles)

 

[ampera_jed]

The chassis' response to a castor adjustment is usually very 'strong' and you may end up making the situation worse.

Why do you think the steering wheel is 'out'? Have you had anyone adjusting the toe-in/out, or any work involving that?

After my bearing the wheel did not sit 'exactly' straight and nor was the toe-in right, IMHO. As car suspensions age, it is usually best to increase toe-in to accommodate wear and tear.

A toe-out set-up will exaggerate the camber of the roads and wear patterns of the tyres.

Resetting the castor would be an extreme action, which should come after investigating newer tyres and a 'more-straight-ahead' setting than is recommended for a new car.

 

[Supe]

We had this start of a conversation at work regarding the Camber so i wanted to compare notes if we can resurect this thread.

My Camber is a little further out as listed should i be looking at getting a bolt kit installed to adjust or what do you guys think based upon your past experience?


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I like to ask random questions so here is one for the Car Guru's

my Volt unibody which doesn't have Camber adjustments is sitting at 96,000 KM i was curious as i had hte alignment check for the first time and the numbers are


Camber Front Driver -0.8 Front passenger -1.3 ( spec was .4 and maxed out at 1.2 ) so it's .1 of a degree out of max spec?

How significant generally speaking will this be on tire wear on average?

The shop figured the root cause may be strut on passenger side may be sitting 1/4 of a inch lower then the drivers side.

I like to get a few different opinions just to compare notes so Thanks again.

*****


I've heard of this happening on the these vehicle's and others. They undersize the struts. Think of an old VW bug looking at it from behind the wheels are always angled out on the bottom. Its because of all the weight of the engine in the back bouncing up and down, especially on our roads, the spring component of the strut get week and mnemory gets lost. Same principal on the front of yours. You have all the added battery weight. We usde to stick wedges in the spring coils to prop up our VW's, when we couldn't afford to replace parts. lol.

96000KMS on that front end is pretty good if you never had anything done.










*****


Sounds about right plus removing the camber adjustment likely doesn't help any.

Any suggestions on replacement struts with a good warranty for me to research.

And are the Cheaper made Unibody adjustments available with a Wedge or is throw aways.

( the shocks themselves are stable still just the droop which is causing the camber issue ) So i would like to get anoher 50,000km out of them.




******





Struts are a maintenance item (unless they actually break in the warranty period of the vehicle. How badly are they wearing your tires? check out pricing on supply and install from dealer and aftermarket like Kal tire or someone like that. Compare that to replacement cost of two tires same brand and type on it now. If the shock and spring are still bot good replacing tires might be cheaper. but also rotating your tires every 10,000 KM will reduce the wear cycle as well.