Recently replaced my front shocks and driver's side upper control arm (had a bad upper ball joint). Brought the car in for an alignment and was told they couldn't get it within specs. The car does have a fairly strong pull to the right, but don't have the readings handy right now. The recommendation was to get an adjustable ball joint to allow the shop to get the alignment into or at least closer to specs.

While I am not aware of any significant damage being done to the front end recently (the car was aligned about a year ago without issue), but I guess it's possible that installing new parts exposed wear and tear on other parts, causing this issue. The car does have over 300k miles on it and this is the first significant front end work being done (I've had the car since it had 30k miles).

Two questions:

1) Has anyone run into an issue like this and does an adjustable ball joint seem like a reasonable approach to resolving this issue?
2) Other than the ball joint, what other component might contribute to the inability to get the alignment within specs, understanding that the ball joint was the only recommended component replacement (tie rods are apparently still good)?

Thanks for any feedback.

 

Depends what they're trying to get into stock. If it's camber, then don't worry about it. negative camber will go over time but it's perfectly fine to have a little negative camber

 

Pretty sure the issue is toe. I'll post the readings this evening. They also said they wanted to get it just a bit negative, but couldn't.

 

Please post the sheet, it will help us determine if it's necessary... I don't think upper ball joints are even adjusted when doing toe.. there are toe arms that the alignment tech adjusts.. He may be pulling your chain.

 

Thanks. I appreciate the input and your insight.

 

OK, so I was mistaken. The problem is primarily with the camber setting. It is -1.0° on the front drivers side, which is out of spec. The other settings on both sides are within spec. Caster is the same on each side (2.7°). Toe is 0.06° on the driver's side and 0.01° on the passenger side, both within spec, but perhaps not ideal.