Chevy Astro and GMC Safari Forum banner

my rear tires are cambered in, is that normal??

2016 Views 19 Replies 6 Participants Last post by  Leeann_93
2000 safari awd

I had a small accident where the right rear tire was hit, the shop did an alignment and replaced the right rear axle that was bent they said but the rear tires seem like they are cambered in to far.

Are they even suppose to be cambered in ?

Also the van has an obvious dog track to it which it never had proir to the accident .

Should a proper alignment bring the vehicle straight again and get rid of the dog track ?

I drove behind another safari and it seemed to have no camber to the rear wheels,the handling is not very good on snowpack or ice at highway speeds either it seems to pull and almost lose control,very scarey
1 - 5 of 20 Posts
I went to the dealership [Chysler jeep] where I had the work done and they are finally going to send it to a chevy dealership to have them look at it.

The body shop mgr. had given me pretty lame excuses for my concerns originally,but I guess my persistence paid off.

I'll post tomorrow on what the chevy dealer has to say.

I put a level againest my rear wheel rims and found them to both be out by quite a bit.
OK ,heres the lateset update after the chevy dealer had it for 2 days.

right rear toe and thrust angle out of spec.

measured rear suspension and found rear differential housing bent.

The crhysler dealersship says it has to get back to my insurer and get them to approve more repairs before he can do any work.

The body shop manager explained the process and it sounds like a big job that might require a rebuild of the rear axle and housing or an entirely new rear axle/diff.

If this was found on the first assesment of damage the vehicle would have been written off for sure.

I guess I'll find out next what the finally answer will be.

I think the body shop manager said my tires being cambered in had something to do with the axle damage and the dogtracking not just an alignment issue.

It's to bad I have had this vehicle since new and it is in near mint shape with only 185,000 km, and I had just found the matching rear bench with the reclining seat for it.

I'll post again when I hear the finally decision from my auto insurer.
See less See more
The auto insurer got back to both myself and the dealership chrysler,they were not happy at all with the dealership and if they approve the repair which sounds like they will they want the dealership to swallow have the cost of the additional work because they missed such an expensive addition [ at least $1300 more] to the original claim that the car would have no doubt been written off.
The damage so far has reached $3000.00
Manitoba public insurance is politly telling me I have to stay with the Crhysler dealership so that they will have to pay half the cost of additional work.
The body shop manager and I have keep a good relationship through all of this and he has said that he is going to try and send my van across the street to the chevydealer to have them do the rear end work .
I would feel better at the chevy dealer ,because they have all the spec.s and technical bulletins for any changes or recalls of any sort that the other dealer would have any clue about.
The body shop manager has promised me that he will find out the history of the used axle tube that they are using to replace mine.

The reason I used the Crhrysler dealership was that the guy who caused my accident is the sales manager and I thought that if my vehicle was written off that maybe he could help me out with a better deal than usual.
As that turned out in the very beginning I was asking about a vehicle and he gave me his BEST price ,which was terrible. I had made one phone call to another dealership and hadn't even told my price yet and they were lower with there first offer,I seem to be getting the stick that is dirty at both ends from this dealership.

Oh well lessons learned, and I will ask about the rest of the vehicle components that were mentioned above.

Thanks for all the help so far

Marty
See less See more
Ok the end of the story is here ,the jeep dealership gave the van to the chevy dealer accross the street and they put in a used rear axle housing and did all the proper alingments.
The jeep dealer gave me all the paper work from the chevy dealer and it had al the spec's. of before and after degrees of all toes ,cambers, thrust and so forth.

The van drives well finally .

Thanks for all the help with this matter and all the other great topics on this forum.

Marty
1 - 5 of 20 Posts
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top