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  #1  
Old 10-24-2020, 06:36 AM
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2005 4.8is Suspension - What now?

Hey all

A few months ago I bought a 2005 4.8is purely as a passion project, it’s not my everyday motor (that has 2 wheels) I just saw something that needed some love and wanted to rescue it, like a puppy at the shelter right!

Anyway I’m a few months in and have fixed most of the textbook issues it had them all, valve stem seals, coolant transfer pipe and alternator bracket gasket leaks all fixed as well as a number of other bits of work with a tonne of help from you guys! The last piece of work I did was to replace the suspension control arms all around - mainly as it was making a horrible clunk under braking and could be rolled 3inches whilst parked since the caster bushes were shot and the tyre wear was so uneven all around.

Anyway after swapping all of these out and taking it to get some new shoes and wheel alignment today the tech tells me he can’t correctly align the rear wheels, they will always have camber and wear on the inside edge since the springs (previous owner removed air suspension and replaced it with cheap strut master spring set) aren’t a good fit for the car and it’s lowering the ride height too much, he has adjusted everything to the limit of adjustment and it’s it’s still out.

Now - since the rear tyres are $350 each I don’t want to just accept I and keep it like this so wondering what I should do next. Given a set of BC Coilovers is $1500 AUD I’m wondering if that will even solve my problem or if I am looking to spend that kind of money is there a better solution? Wildly, a part of me kinda wants to put the air system back in and looking at it the previous owner left everything in except the air shocks/bags.

What would you fine folks recommend?
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Old 10-24-2020, 07:11 AM
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The rose joint in the rear is an issue that causes that and may need replacing now with a coil-over conversion you can (technical term) wobble out the mounting/alignment pin a little bit to allow more adjustment.

I'm stuck in Saudi Arabia and creativity is key on fixing some of these problems. Just don't go crazy on the hole as it doesn't take much to give you the little extra you need.

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Old 10-24-2020, 10:54 AM
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First, check if the rose bushing was replaced. That's the #1 reason for camber can't be apec'd

Second up to 2° is spec it literally looks broken use app on phone to confirm what is your loaded camber.

Third, look into camber bolts. I know they exist for front axle maybe can get for rear.

Forth, adjustable rear control arms is the best camber rear fix they just aren't cheap. You can dial in any camber with them though.

I have to do some suspension work on my car soon and may include a rose bushing and rear alignment. If I have to get creative I will share with xo.

I didn't notice chain guides in your list; if your guides are good make sure you have OEM grade chain tensioners that are not original. Somebody not long ago posted the damage N62 can do when the guides wear out it was pretty crazy the chain worked like a chain saw and was slowly cutting through the engine sideways.
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Old 10-24-2020, 04:50 PM
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Thanks guys - should have mentioned on the rear I replaced the two wishbones, rose bushing and integral link (to date the biggest PITA of all the work I’ve done)

Just checking my results and the rear axle is at 2.6 on the left and 3 in the right which is pretty much identical to the reads pre-alignment so safe to say my inside tread wear won’t change.

I will take a look at camber bolts or adjustable control arms

Just to clarify though are we saying that changing to a coil over kit (like the bc racing br I-76) won’t help? If the goal is to get the camber to spec to even out my tyre wear then adjustable control arms look to be a cheaper fix than a coil over kit so just weighing up options

Also thanks for the note on chain guides - I somewhat regret not doing the guides and tensioner whilst I had the motor apart. I did inspect the chain guides and they looked ok should I be hugely concerned about this given this N62 has only covered 87k miles?
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Old 10-25-2020, 12:08 AM
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2005 4.8is Suspension - What now?

That motor way too young to have chain guide problem. The N62 has two chains and much more robust guides.

Chain tensioner should be good for 100k first one and 60-80@ after.

The spring should have not much bearing on the camber, you can verify by lifting at the pumpkin until the car sits at normal height. If the camber comes into alignment, springs are too firm or soft.

Camber doesn't chew up tires at much as toe. If you don't have enough inward toe you'll chew up the inside edge of your tire apparently during turns the tire steers outwards
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Old 10-28-2020, 05:06 PM
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Thanks for the help here, I’m going to go ahead and replace the arms for adjustable and see if that gets me in line. Anyone done this before and could recommend a kit?
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Old 10-28-2020, 06:02 PM
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Search xo. There are a couple threads the arms look amazing if I had the budget I would have them.
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Old 11-14-2020, 08:50 PM
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When I did mine, I didn't need a kit....


I used Bilsteins and Eibach (from memory) springs and they were pretty much spot on to standard ride height. It meant no issues with resetting ride height or errors at all....


Alignment was no issue at the local tyre shop...
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