Camber adjustment bolts frozen

[My2010Ram]

So my truck is from Canada and has some rust underneath, not to terrible. Long story short, I needed an alignment due to the truck pulling to the left after a flat on my front left this last weekend. Took it to Les Schwab and they aligned it as best they could and was pretty darn close to factory spec but they couldn’t do a lot of adjustment because my camber bolts are rusted in place. Les Schwab quoted me $1700 do do my lower control arms as well as replacing the camber bolts but said it wasn’t necessarily needed yet as the alignment was pretty much in spec. I took it for a drive and it still feels like it’s pulling ever so slightly to the left. I was going to lube up those camber bolts and see if I could free them up so they can be adjusted. The thing about the control arms is that I don’t think they’re bad I think they’re still fine, only 100k on the truck. So I’m wondering if I can’t free up those camber bolts why can’t I just replace the camber bolts by leaving everything in place and removing/replacing 1 bolt at a time? Or do the arms absolutely have to come off? If the lower arms have to come off I might as well replace them, they’re only $105 a piece (Moog). I’m just hoping to save a little time and money if I can just get away with replacing the adjusters and not having to disassemble everything else. Any advice is appreciated….

 

[RamInfo]

Three ways to free a rusted bolt: 1)soak 24hrs with Kroil penetrant or 2) soak 24hrs with a 50-50 mix of ATF and acetone, or 3) heat the bolt or but to dull red with acetylene torch and crack it loose. The heat frees the rust and allows disassembly.

Best,
RI

 

[mrack]

Believe me, once those bolts are frozen there is no freeing them up. Save yourself the time, money and frustration of messing with them and just get a carbide tip blade on a sawzall and cut them out. Make sure it’s a carbide blade or else it’ll take you all day.

 

[duckman631]

So my truck is from Canada and has some rust underneath, not to terrible. Long story short, I needed an alignment due to the truck pulling to the left after a flat on my front left this last weekend. Took it to Les Schwab and they aligned it as best they could and was pretty darn close to factory spec but they couldn’t do a lot of adjustment because my camber bolts are rusted in place. Les Schwab quoted me $1700 do do my lower control arms as well as replacing the camber bolts but said it wasn’t necessarily needed yet as the alignment was pretty much in spec. I took it for a drive and it still feels like it’s pulling ever so slightly to the left. I was going to lube up those camber bolts and see if I could free them up so they can be adjusted. The thing about the control arms is that I don’t think they’re bad I think they’re still fine, only 100k on the truck. So I’m wondering if I can’t free up those camber bolts why can’t I just replace the camber bolts by leaving everything in place and removing/replacing 1 bolt at a time? Or do the arms absolutely have to come off? If the lower arms have to come off I might as well replace them, they’re only $105 a piece (Moog). I’m just hoping to save a little time and money if I can just get away with replacing the adjusters and not having to disassemble everything else. Any advice is appreciated….

So… I had my entire suspension replaced on my 2016. I supplied all parts. The camber bolts per the mechanic are notorious for needing to be cut out. He quoted me $200 . I got 4 oem from rock auto for $16 each. I had hit a bit over 100k mi. I purchased all of this and higher end parts like timkin wheel hub assembly’s etc. I like being able to pick out my stuff not off the auto part store shelf or some Chinese crap they will use and charge 3x the price.

New plugs and pcv valve
New rotors and pads
New wheel hub assembly’s
New upper and lower control arms front
New tie rods inner and outer
New sway bar links
New sway bar frame mount bushings front
New struts spring units
New upper and lower rear control arms
New track bar
New sway bar links
New sway bar bushings frame mount rear
New shocks

Most was bought from rock auto. The tie rod kit from parts geek and the wheel hubs from Amazon. All in with shipping, it came to about $1500. The mechanic charged me $1500 including alignment and a few other odds and ends he did. I figured cheaper to get it all done rather than piecemeal over time. Also back in the day I would have done all this myself in my driveway so he couldn’t BS me on time. I gave him a nine hour window to get all that done which anyone worth their salt should be able to do in that timeframe. One thing he did mention was he was surprised with 111000mi the parts were still in decent shape. Plugs were pretty clean as well.

 

[My2010Ram]

Believe me, once those bolts are frozen there is no freeing them up. Save yourself the time, money and frustration of messing with them and just get a carbide tip blade on a sawzall and cut them out. Make sure it’s a carbide blade or else it’ll take you all day.

Thanks for the heads up, I’ll make sure I’m prepared with the right equipment if it comes to that. I’m going to try to soaking them first, luckily this isn’t something I need to take care of right away.

 

[mrack]

Thanks for the heads up, I’ll make sure I’m prepared with the right equipment if it comes to that. I’m going to try to soaking them first, luckily this isn’t something I need to take care of right away.

Save yourself the cost of the breakfree lol. It won’t do anything for them. I’ve been there done that, twice.

 

[My2010Ram]

Save yourself the cost of the breakfree lol. It won’t do anything for them. I’ve been there done that, twice.

Haha fair enough, I will take your advice on that. Good excuse for me to buy a sawzall.

 

[My2010Ram]

Well I found my bitter sweet solution, I bought a good warranty with the truck and I called them up to see if they’d cover any of this. Surprisingly they will cover more than half the repairs. Although I could still do it myself for less than what I’d even pay with the warranty paying half I’m just going to let them do it. Les Schwab just called me back trying to add on brakes, rear axle seals, parking brake shoes, struts/shocks for quite the exorbitant amount. I declined and will prob do that stuff this summer. Everything can pretty much wait except the brakes but no way were they going to do them for what they charge. Les Schwab charges a reasonable hourly rate but the markup on their parts is insane. Les Schwab is part of the reason I got into working on my own vehicles in the first place. Since Les Schwab was already doing the front it was only another $60 in labor to install the struts…. BUT… they wanted $570 for a pair of front struts! I can get the Ranchos that’ll give you a 2 inch lift for $177 ea on rockauto and if I really wanted to be frugal I could go with FCS struts for $70ea which I’d probably what Les Schwab was going to use. Anyway, at least I can get the control arms done now and deal with the rest on my time as it comes up.

 

[My2010Ram]

Got the truck taken care of yesterday, warranty paid $1000 so I only ended up being out $650 which I’m not complaining about, the guy at Les Schwab hooked me up too so I really can’t say anything bad about them. They did try to talk me into struts/shocks, brakes as well as rear axel seals but again the price of the parts is insane but if you’re looking for someday repair that’s what you get. So I declined the other repairs and then immediately ordered a full set of brakes from rock auto. I’m not all that concerned about the axel seals but I’ll see how much they’re leaking when I do the rear brakes. The shocks and struts are on their way out but still good for now. The only thing I was unclear on from Les Schwab was that they described my front end as “tight”. I’m not exactly sure what they’re referring to. When I swapped out my tires/rims the new rims/tires are heavier than the originals and actually made turning left and right feel smoother. Before switching the rims/tires out I could feel the steering wheel almost like rocking back and forth in my hand by like 1/4 inch when I would take a turn onto another street. Would worn front struts cause a “tight front end”? Is this because there’s less flex on the front of the truck?