[ALeatham]

Hi all,

I have been having alignment issues for several years on my 2010 Elantra GLS. I went to a shop in 2017 that I had lifetime alignment with, and they said they couldn't align the rear or front, that they would need to install new camber bolts int he front and adjustable camber arms in the back. They wanted $2k for it, I said no thanks as I thought they were ripping me off, and the car isn't worth 2k with all the miles I have on it. Recently (the past 2 months), I have noticed the car trailing to the left, and have had 2 auto shops that I trust tell me I have cupping on my tires. I have changed my tire rotation schedule from every 7500 miles (recommended) to every 5000 miles, so every 2 times I change my oil, the tires have been rotated 3 times.

I went into a new auto shop that has great ratings and I have verified that these are accurate with some more knowledgeable friends, and asked them to align the car (they took over the Firestones in the area, and honored all of their lifetime alignment customers), they said the same thing, I need camber bolts in the front and adjustable camber arms in the rear, but this time, it would cost $250 a piece for the rear (parts and labor for adjustable camber arms) and $85 for the front (parts and labor for camber bolts), so a little under $600, less than 1/3 of the price that Firestone was asking. I have done some light car work on my own car, but I cannot find any mention of a part called "rear camber arm" for my year of Elantra, only adjustable control arms. I've seen other posts in the forum talking about lots of different ways to solve this issue with the rear of this year and model of Hyundai going out of alignment using many different methods, but before I dropped $600 on fixing this, I wanted to make sure I wasn't getting screwed?

Is the rear camber arm the same as the control arm? Can I just use camber bolts in the rear (like the ones Moog makes)?

 

[Drunken Elvis]

The rear camber arm is an adjustable [ length varies ] control arm that replaces the original upper control arm. As the original rubber bushings age/shrink/settle the suspension sags and the rear wheels lean in at the top. Typically this is corrected using an adjustable upper control arm. The rear suspension should already have adjustable cam bolts in a control arm used to adjust rear toe -in-out. These are unrelated to the camber/upper control arm problem.

The front shouldn't really need adjustable cam bolts unless the front suspension has been bent but I've seen them needed for no apparent reason. Sometimes simply filing [elongating] the holes in the strut can serve the same purpose as cam bolts in the front suspension. There are youtube videos on how to do this.

I think I have seen a youtube video on replacing the rear upper control arm with an adjustable unit. The $600 price is not out of line.

 

[ALeatham]

Thank you for your help Drunken Elvis, I took a picture of what I'm seeing under my car and circled what I believe is my upper control arm, is that in fact my upper control arm? If so, I believe this repair will be easy enough to do on my own

 

[jbryan]

Yes, that's the culprit of all our issues.
I ended up getting the adjustable arms on a popular parts place that start with Rock. Easy to install, then took it back in and had them set at "0". Mine was wearing the inside to the point of showing cord with the outside looking new. Easy to do, just did the work myself.

 

[ALeatham]

Yes, that's the culprit of all our issues.
I ended up getting the adjustable arms on a popular parts place that start with Rock. Easy to install, then took it back in and had them set at "0". Mine was wearing the inside to the point of showing cord with the outside looking new. Easy to do, just did the work myself.

Thanks jbryan. Did you use the jack the way they show in the video? Or was it not needed? I don't have one and my parts are coming in in a couple of days and I need to know if I need to get a jack

 

[jbryan]

I just took mine off, but had a jack just to be sure it didn't colapse. Not sure it would but be safe.
I took the old one off and made the new one the same length. Be sure to turn the adjustment so it turns both ends the same. I put a screwdriver thru the new one into the old one. I held the other end and turned the adjuster.

 

[jbryan]

Here's my thread: Rear Alignment

 

[ALeatham]

Here's my thread: Rear Alignment

Thank you, that was very helpful. My parts are in tomorrow so I'll be doing that sometime this week, then off to the alignment shop to get it taken care of. I'll update after all that. I also got new camber bolts for the front because one of them needed to be replaced, so I figure I'd just do both at this point.

 

[ThePariss333]

Thank you, that was very helpful. My parts are in tomorrow so I'll be doing that sometime this week, then off to the alignment shop to get it taken care of. I'll update after all that. I also got new camber bolts for the front because one of them needed to be replaced, so I figure I'd just do both at this point.

I never had any problem with my alignment front or rear . I had 4 new tires Goodyear installed 82 k miles ago and the shop push me for alignment so I paid, then never came back not even for balance . I just rotate my tires every 5 K miles front to back when I do my oil change and I just replace it by the same Tires. So tires last more than 82 K and still was Good at the time of say good bye. My Elantra 2008 has 134K miles .

 

[ALeatham]

I never had any problem with my alignment front or rear . I had 4 new tires Goodyear installed 82 k miles ago and the shop push me for alignment so I paid, then never came back not even for balance . I just rotate my tires every 5 K miles front to back when I do my oil change and I just replace it by the same Tires. So tires last more than 82 K and still was Good at the time of say good bye. My Elantra 2008 has 134K miles .

You're pretty lucky then! I've had rear alignment issues since I've had 50,000 miles on the car. I rotated every 7500 when I changed my oil as well, but now I've bumped it up to every 5000 miles. I've got 182k miles on my 2010 Elantra, and I buy the cheapest brand of tires I get at Sam's Club, and so far they've lasted me around 60k miles.