how do i correct my suspension geometry?

[Gen4 Camry]

ok, My car is a 00 GT, it's lowered about 1.5" all around, put about 10k miles on it after lowering, and last week, one of my inner tie rod broke for no reason, I think it's because my suspension geometry is way off, causing the tie rods not parallel with the ground, and the crazy bumpsteer feel, the car only has 40k miles on it, so I dont think the tie rods would wear out that fast. I need to get my suspension geometry back to normal asap, imagine if the tie rod broke 5 mins earlier when I was on the hwy, i would proably be dead now so yea, any help on how to correct the problem would be great ! so far i know a few parts will fix it, but do I need all of them or just one from the list ? bumpsteer kit, offset rack bushings, shorter sway bar end links, and the x2 ball joints ??

 

[Gen4 Camry]

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[Gen4 Camry]

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[blurred10]

Do you have cc plates installed?

 

[BennyBlown2v]

For the most part, that's all alignment stuff. Go with Maximum Motorsports bumpsteer kit, if you want some rack bushings go with CENTER DRILLED aluminum (my choice) or urethane only! With the stock K-member it is really unnecessary and can create more, harder to deal with, dynamic and static alignment issues if you go with offset rack bushings as opposed to center drilled. The Steeda X2 balljoints can't hurt, would make it easier to bumpsteer correct (less shims), but it isn't 100% needed if you're on a budget. You should not need shorter sway bar endlinks, and in fact stock end links are urethane anyway so they should last quite a while if not over-tightened - also this will not have any effect on alignment, just the amount of (pre)load the bar has, optimum is NONE. As Blurred10 mentioned, if you don't have CC plates pick up a set! Pretty much any 4 bolt setup will do....but MM is my fav!

IMO Maximum Motorsports makes THE best quality pieces I've ever dealt with (and I've gone through ALOT of manufacturers and dealers as well).

www.maximummotorsports.com

 

[T-Sho]

I lowered my car about an inch and a half as well. I just have the springs, shocks, struts, and CC Plates. I was told unless you do an extreme drop (more than 1.5 inches) you don't have to worry about throwing the geometry off too much. Could the fate of Gen4 Camry be mine as well???

 

[Gen4 Camry]

I do have a set of 4 bolts MM cc plates installed already. The tie rods not parallel with the groud bothers me a lot every time i look at it. if not straight, the suspension will put more tension on it cauing it to snap from the joint on rack & pinion.

 

[BennyBlown2v]

I lowered my car about an inch and a half as well. I just have the springs, shocks, struts, and CC Plates. I was told unless you do an extreme drop (more than 1.5 inches) you don't have to worry about throwing the geometry off too much. Could the fate of Gen4 Camry be mine as well???

Again you're not really gonna be throwing off the suspension GEOMETRY, that's a set thing (the relationship between pivots and static points, only thing that can is the tie rod height [angle] relative to the control arm which a bumpsteer kit fixes). Mostly what you'll be changing is the caster/camber and toe.

IMO CC plates should be used whenever upgrading the front struts, might as well when they are out put better ones in! Plus, CC plates allow you to have the alignment guys dial in extra caster which will really help the steering feel of the car and make for better straight line stability and quicker turn in.

Gen4: sounds like all you need is new inner tie rods (do both, if one broke the other might have been overly stressed as well), and a quality bumpsteer kit from MaxMotors; Ford also makes a kit for mild correction, and the Steeda kit is good as well - I just haven't had good luck with their products in the past...

 

[twogts4us]

Good posts BennyBlown2V - excellent advice!

 

[blacksheep-1]

I would say benny is on the money, it has been my experience that once you lower the car, the roll center is now down under the pavement somewhere, the bumpsteer kit will fix that (along with the ball joints)and you may find that it will make a major handling improvement by doing so. I too, don't like offset rack bushings. This happens to be the kit I use, but there are others out there, MM is a good choice.
you'll need this:
http://www.steeda.com/products/bumpsteer_kit.php
and this:
http://www.steeda.com/products/x2_balljoints.php
I happen to run Steeda because they're local.