left wheel. well behind

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mini paj
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The Issue. Is that the Wheel base on my left hand side measeures 25mm less than my right . Stated wheel base is 2450mm, the right side measured 2449mm the left 2424mm.

I can not see any reason for this , for excample no noticable collision pionts , no arms bent, no flailing bushes. drives straight. ( I only asked for a wheel alignment with tyre rotation and they pionted this problem out.) the problem is while it is drivable i can almost see the tyres getting chewed more every day.

I have not crashed it. ( sadly did not spot the problem on pre purchase inspection) ( 2003 ZR 4 door 153000 on clock. just found over 15K forum club).

Does anyone know ware to start?

io io, its of to fun we go.

 

fordem
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There are two ways to get to where you are...

The front can be tweaked, or the back can be tweaked, and I'm going to guess it's the front - I also believe that the alignment shop could/should be able to tell you which it is - they should be able to tell you if the thrust line is centered, if it's not, then the rear axle is tweaked.

The reason why I'm guessing it's the front is that the front suspension design allows for quite a bit of flex - the lower control arms are mounted in rubber bushes and are dependent on the diagonal rod to locate them fore & aft.

Another possible cause might be suspension sag or droop - park the car on level ground and then look at it from 20~30 feet away - are the control arms sitting at the same angle relative to the ground?  As the suspension cycles through it's travel the outer end of the arm not only moves up/down, it also moves left/right (causes a camber and track change) and back/forward (causes a caster and wheelbase change).

bob_oz
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wheelbase

mine has this and it is un-crashed, my drivers rear sits further back than it should by about 10mm.
this is a function of my panard rod not centering the rear axle and as a result the upper control arms cause it to sit slightly scew.

i'm going to adjust the rear panjard rod out with an adjustable unit to re-center the axle and measure again. Mine is not noticable at all and has been like this since new as far as I can tell - i only notice it when I replace lower trailing arm rubbers and the drivers side "springs" appart once the bolts are removed where the passengers side just sits there with holes lined up without bolts in place.

fitting SID's bash plate we noticed easily 20mm missalignment in the front end as his had been crashed - again didn't affect the driving.

tyres will only chew out badly if toe is set incorrectly, 

.

mini paj
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Pedders

I have just taken her to Pedders, mentioning that the left  wheel was back 25mm, They did their $28 test and came back with springs a bit tired (lift kit and bush kit is in shed), front brakes sticking on, and left hand side needs camber bolts.

I have done further reading and found that it is common to have manufacturer "front setback".  Does any one know what ours is ment to be?

My plan now is to get a set of camber bolts for both sides then have a huge fitting weekend with my two brothers lifting her smiley and replacing all new rubber bushes steering links and ball joints. then go to a place that does four wheel aligning to make sure that the rear thrust line is true also. ( must do the brakes also)

io io, its of to fun we go.

 

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