Am I Boned? Alignment Questions

So what you do here is you put everything straight ahead The steering wheel straight ahead then you get out and you look under the car when the guy has it up in the rack aren't you standing there under the car with him and he's pointing to you see this right here look at it It's bent almost in a u shape so on and so forth You might need to get online and look at the underside of a 2004 Prius front end before you do anything else Do you know what it's supposed to look like when it's more or less correct? If not well you're going to be stuck with the body shop and bending things If you do or you can get this sorted out like go look at someone else's car even if it's in a parking lot it'll be pretty quick to see because what's your showing here is extreme especially on the right side it should be noticeably different from the left Just flipped over twisted around or however you want to look at it The right and the left sides are the same they're just on different sides of the car so they're turned or flopped over however you want to word it or look at it your left side doesn't look too too bad but still something's going on over there are there any dents in the car If you look underneath the car do you see any big dents in frame members those are the box sections we call unit construction It's part of the car building business and it's terminology that people that build automobiles use unit construction is frame members that are welded and glued together versus steel pieces that are bolted together back in the old days. I have vehicles like that here all the time The ones that are 4° out of Camber and front end measurements are usually hit somewhere pretty good are they been dropped on a curb top or a parking lot piece that keeps you from going to the next spot that sort of thing usually it's quite identifiable sometimes there are things hanging I guess nobody saw any of this when you went to buy the car because it was real cheap and you had a little money and they didn't care or whatever the situation is You couldn't see 4° of camber being out and we have a problem Houston I can see 2° very clearly negative camera that's what all the Honda guys have on their cars that make their cars look like Hot Wheels and initial d nonsense You don't know what I'm talking about well there you go pictures from underneath your car will go a long way to start Jack it up a little bit take a picture of the right than the left side with what you can do now with photo management on your phone and door computer You should be able to see very clearly

 

Well you got to take these pictures so you didn't take any pictures when it was up on the rack All we get is a fender and the side of the wheel Great got to help yourself to get help somewhat I mean seriously But yeah he's pretty much screwed up I guess if you're going to just go off of sentence or two looks fixable to me. That little bit of damage to a front fender should not be creating anything to eventful so what's the other side look like it missing the whole front fender or something but this is the side that has all the problem or the bulk of it four degrees out so on and so forth and and your alignment man can't see it when he picks it up other than to say it's so far out there's nothing we could ever do what is this a 22-year-old kid well that's right that's probably what he would say and should say and no they're not going to fix it at a basic alignment shop when it's 4° out generally that's some serious parts replacement or a frame tweak on a frame table That's $150 to mount the car to the frame table and so on It's a 2004 worth it considering I can buy 2004 Priuses in nice condition without that damage for five or $600 maybe a thousand I would say probably not but that's just me

 

Boned, not necessarily.
You mention your DIY skills, so I'd try the string method first.
Get your steering wheel centered and front toe close.

While "in there" visually inspect for component or frame damage.
Good luck, let us know what you find

 

The toe should be redily adjustable by turning the tie rod adjusters. I'm sure your alignment shop could do this in their sleep.

The camber is somewhat adjustable by loosening the two bolts holding the lower strut to the wheel knuckle. A lot of alignment shops skip this part and say it's not adjustable. Some skip it routinely as part of a "toe and go" half-assed alignment. My alignment guy talked about being able to open the holes on the lower strut with a grinder to give him a small amount of camber adjustment.

Of course, you should make sure the suspension parts aren't damaged. Maybe look into changing the front struts first? if it got whacked, the shaft on the strut may be bent, as well as some of the other parts (bearing/hub, knuckle, control arm...)

The caster really isn't that adjustable, and there's a diminishing return for that adjustment. A bent strut (as well as other suspension parts that could get damaged in a collision) will also affect the camber alignment.

 

No opening any holes If you got real serious camber issues and a frame bend does not in order then you order specialty products corporation camber bolts they call them crash bolts they're about $30 for a pair of two you'll need one on each side I think it's the lower hole that gives you the most adjustment but the instructions tell you clearly I'm not sitting in front of the instructions right now but I three is generally the norm of adjustment You're four out on one side You should see something very clearly

 

Definitely has bent things. That's the only explanation for that much negative camber. Plus it looks like the tire is "set back" (to the rear) of the wheel opening.

Can't tell what is bent without some careful measuring and comparing to the other side. If you have a pick a part yard, might get everything for that corner at a decent price.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.