[whitebird031]

I just recently got done doing a bunch of suspension work to my 05 V. I did KW V3s, Hotchkis sway bars, front upper control arm bushings, along with the rear components as follows: CS toe rods, BMR anti-hop kit, Revshift upper control arm bushings, and the car has the TAB rear brace on it. I also elongated the rear lower control arm adjustment and modified the lower control arm to be able to articulate completely and so I could adjust the camber back within factory spec.

I have had the car on the alignment rack 3 times in the past month chasing chaos in the rear and am close to giving up. The alignment is now perfect rear wise, -1.5* camber and -.15* toe. Unfortunately, the car shimmys going down the road, best I can tell, it feels as if the rear wheels just start tugging it side to side. Everything has been torqued, nut and bolted, wheels swapped to cancel out any tire oddities, I've set alignment at different specs ( -.8* camber and -.05* toe) and nothing has helped OTHER then giving it a lot of toe, -.5* toe roughly. To me that is to the point that it'd got to be loading a bushing up and minimizing the effects. However, that's going to KILL some tires quick.

When I got the car, it was JACKED up, within the year I've had it, I have killed a set of tires. The suspension rebuild was supposed to allow me to dial it all in perfectly and baby some tires.

I found ONE thread on Tech that discussed the same issue, but that guy hasn't logged on in 4 years. I'm at a loss and would rather not throw my wallet at replacing piece after piece, but if I have to I will because I can't daily this thing and enjoy it when it feels so terrible. ESPECIALLY after spending so much time and effort on it already...

 

[AAIIIC]

Got any pics or a more detailed description of what you did to the rear lower control arms? And why were those modifications necessary? It doesn't seem to me that the things you've done would have precluded the ability to get the alignment in spec without modifying the control arms and/or slotting the rear subframe to provide more adjustment. If you had to do those mods just get back to a normal alignment, that makes me wonder if there's something else going on in the rear suspension. I can't really think of what that "something else" might be, but it doesn't seem right that additional work was necessary to get the alignment in spec.

Is the shimmy you're feeling happening all the time, or only in response to bumps?

 

[odla]

Has the car ever been rear ended or in a wreck? I'm thinking something is bent. Also have you road forced the tires?

 

[whitebird031]

It is not tracking, it's not in response to just bumps, but it is not all the time. This is why it's so hard to pinpoint the problem.

Yes, the slots I elongated were on the rear sub-frame. I lowered the car probably 2" and when I initially put it on the alignment rack it had over 3* of negative camber, so I went back and modified the holes. however after slotting them I found taht when you installed the arm it was interfere on the bottom edge, so I clearanced it enough to articulate appropriately if I found myself needing to move the arm the full distance inward. Just FYI, after these pictures I dusted the parts with paint.