Hello my alignment on my beautiful newly acquired 1997 xk8 is off. I am getting a reading of 0.4 on the left hand side, .6 degrees beyond the factory spec (-.2) to correct this I was wondering what I should do to fix this. My ride height is 15.7 inches so that its not the springs or shocks. Will the eccentric bolt help or is that only for negative camber? Can it be the bushings and if so which ones should I try replacing? Or can certain parts of the suspension be bent? Thank you

 

Do not know. I just had new tires and an alignment on my '99 with 150,000 miles. They could adjust all but the caster to specs. Said there was nothing to adjust for the caster.

 

Most of these don't have the eccentric bolt unless they had trouble getting camber in spec at the factory. The eccentric bolt apparently can be ordered and installed if needed. My car the camber is ok but the castor is off and the only way to adjust castor is to rearrange the 4 shims which is a pain so I am leaving it alone as it doesn't affect tire wear.


Dave

 

Just curious, DaveinVa, what are the symptoms of incorrect caster? How did you determine your caster was off?

 

When I bought my car the front tires were worn on the insides and it failed state inspection so I took it to get it aligned so I wouldn't chew up a new set of tires. The problem was mostly in the toe-in being off. The camber was in spec. However the castor was off by .6 on the passenger front. After doing some research I found that each car comes with 4 shims installed on the wishbone that are 2 different sizes and they are set at the factory. To adjust the castor you move the shims around as needed but you can't add or subtract any shims from the total as they add up to a specific thickness that needs to be there. They are a pain though because the only way to get them out is to take out the bolt. So unless you need to replace the bushings anyways there is no point in messing with it as it won't effect tire wear but may make the car pull to one side. Mine does pull very slightly but not enough to be annoying.




Dave

 

so grabbing the eccentric bolt will help reduce positive camber? and what else you think I should grab? thankss

 

Here is the bolt you will need:

Jaguar LOWER CONTROL ARM ECCENTRIC BOLT - JZB100086

That would be a good time to replace the bushings while its apart anyways.

And it is possible that if the control arm bushings were really bad it could shift the camber some.

Dave

 

awesome, thank you Dave!!!