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I have been daily driving my Evo X since 2014 and she is a fun car. The odometer is at 78k miles. Recently my dealer noticed excessive and uneven wear on the 2 rear tires and the inner half of them are bald, so I bought 2 new tires and have a shop to do wheel alignment. The car's suspension is stock. The shop is aware that Evo X's front and rear cambers are adjusted by their respective camber bolts.
The shop, however, told me that the wheels cannot be aligned after trying hard. All 4 wheels have persistent negative camber, even when the camber bolts are rotated to the least negative setting. (I took pictures as shown above) The passenger-side front and rear are at -0.9° and -1.4° for the least negative setting. The driver-side front and rear are especially bad, at -1.6° and -2.0° for the least negative setting.
Should I be worried about the suspension components, as well as more severe issues such as that the subframes may be bent?
Let me know what you think! If there is nothing to worry about, I will get aftermarket H&R front camber bolts (or Cusco strut camber plates? or even Ohlins R&T coilovers which come with camber plates?) and Whiteline rear adjustable control arms, so the wheels can be aligned.
Thanks in advance.
Last edited by Lightsaber; Jul 10, 2019 at 08:16 PM.
Reason: added specifics
Feels like you need to look in your area for a proper AWD alignment shop before you buy anything imo. I have a fantastic one here in town that really know what they are doing. After having my EVO aligned by them I went through tires hallf as fast and the car drove straight as an arrow with even wear on all four corners. I am betting they need to adjust the toe more or something else basic.
Good luck, but before throwing parts at it, get a second opinion imo.
Feels like you need to look in your area for a proper AWD alignment shop before you buy anything imo. I have a fantastic one here in town that really know what they are doing. After having my EVO aligned by them I went through tires hallf as fast and the car drove straight as an arrow with even wear on all four corners. I am betting they need to adjust the toe more or something else basic.
Good luck, but before throwing parts at it, get a second opinion imo.
I agree with getting a second opinion.
Sorry I didn't make it more detailed. One year ago I had this same issue (cambers cannot be aligned) at the Mitsubishi dealer. This year at my annual wheel alignment appointment I ran into it again, so I took the car to a shop that works on Porsches. They have a very good alignment machine, an arsenal of tools, and master techs, and they informed me this the same. They are unable to pinpoint what exactly caused the wheels/suspension/subframe to be out of spec, although we do know that Evo X's stock range of camber adjustment is very narrow to begin with. They recommended me to buy aftermarket rear adjustable control arms and relevant parts for the front (which I interpret as something like strut camber plates).
If you trust the shop that 'would' more than likely fix your issue. What year EVO do you have?
It's 2014 model year. I am concern if this signals more serious problems.
I hope this does not signal anything serious though. Infrequently I do hear this problem on other Evo X's. For example, this review posted on MAPerformance seems to denote the same issue.
Anything is possible, seems like a shop you trust so I'd get the parts and see if they know what they're talking about lol. Good luck with the repair update with results! I had a 2014 myself, however nothing to say that something isn't off on yours that needs to be replaced. Maybe you slightly bent something and never really knew or noticed?
Recently I had the opportunity to chat with a Mitsubishi service manager. Apparently they have a lot more data about the Evo X's wheel alignment. Having persistent negative cambers is a common issue among older Evo X's. Most Evo X owners don't bother. As soon as they realize their old Evo X eats tires, they just switch to tires with a higher treadwear rating.
It seems Evo X's cambers do grow more negative over years. The exact reason might not have been well studied. I was suspecting that strut springs, bearing the weight of the car, have been slowly shortening over the years. He told me that this is indeed true with the Evo X, and it's called "sagging," although the causality from Evo X's sagging strut springs to the negative cambers is not completely certain. Their procedure of fix is first to replace the saggy old struts with coilovers. Most coilovers (such as Ohlins DFV) come with front camber plates which will zero the front camber. Often times the height of the rear coilovers itself, being higher than the sagged rear struts, will zero the rear camber. In the rare instances when it doesn't, they can install rear adjustable control arms to zero the rear camber.
Last edited by Lightsaber; Aug 27, 2019 at 01:05 PM.
Reason: typo
Recently I attended an Evo X meet with friends. One guys has a garage queen with stock Bilstein struts. I measured the distances from the most outer tire line (immediate next to shoulder sipes) to the fender on his car. The stock heights are almost exactly at 3.5 inches front and 3.0 inches rear.
(It's easy to memorize as the stock spring rates are about 3.5 kg/mm front and 3.1 kg/mm rear.)
Meanwhile, mine (81k miles) with stock KYB struts sits at 2.7~2.8 inches front and 2.0~2.2 inches rear.
(2.0 inches is the rear passenger-side where the strut spring sagged the most, at 1.0 inch shorter.)
I also measured the heights of a few other Evo X guys running on stock struts. Taking the mileage into consideration, it seems that the OEM springs sag at a linear rate. Well, I guess I will have to buy some Ohlins.
I would like to replace all the struts in a year or two (+Whileline supporting mods) and set them at stock height. My dealer recommends OEM Bilsteins. A suspension shop recommends Ohlins (I hope custom springs 4.0 and 3.5 kg/mm and +25~35 mm to match stock). However, total parts and labor will cost in the ballpark of C$5,000. Considering we could soon have a tough job market, I'd rather keep the cash to sit back on.
A friend of mine in the Evo club has a pair of OEM Bilstein rear strut assemblies from his Final Edition, which have ~40k miles and are in good conditions according to him. I bought the pair and have them installed at the dealer. The rear shock noise is gone and the comfortable rear wheel gap is back. I hope they last for as long as they can.
I did additional measuring of the stock strut heights on a few Evo X's and I believe the dominant reason might be wheel offset, not mileage.
The previous measures are correct. For new Evo X's with stock Bilsteins, the distance from outer tire line to fender is 89mm and 76mm front and rear (and mine are shorter by 19mm and 23mm front and rear). However, the stock wheels are +38mm offset, while my Gram Lights 57ANA's are +18mm offset. The stance is 20mm wider at every corner. The increased leverage, I believe, actually shortened the springs.
I spoke to the dealership and one solution is to get strut spacers like these. And thoughts?
The long term solution is, of course, get proper coilovers like the Ohlins DFV (may still need strut spacers).
An old photo of my Evo, showing how tall the factory setting was:
Postscript
Great news! So I have 20mm Tema4x4 strut spacers installed and they are working very well. The spacers are reasonably high in quality, and the size is correct. Mechanic spent nearly 4 hours for the installation. Afterwards, the factory-like wheel gaps are back (not sexy, I know). The height gives me a good load of confidence over steep ramps. 2 out of the 3 ramps in my own neighborhood used to scrap the front lip badly. Now the car clears them all like a breeze.
I also hired a wheel alignment specialist shop. The mechanic there is a like guru. He told me it's because the previous mechanics used inappropriate brute force on the adjustment bolts, and turned them beyond range. He replaced all damaged bolts and nuts and the Evo aligned perfectly.
Last edited by Lightsaber; Feb 28, 2020 at 03:36 PM.
Reason: Postscript
Jul 10, 2019, 07:23 PM
Wheels cannot be aligned on an older Evo X?!
