What does it mean when alignment guy says..

[Timco]

Can't bring in camber on rears (1.8* off) without messing up toe? What has worn out?

Rear tires are wearing bad on inside edges.

[Jager]

Probably Control Arms.

[thstone]

It is generally normal for the tires (front and rear) to wear more on the inside edges. This is due to the negative camber settings (top of the tire is tipped inward a little bit). Negative camber helps cornering performance. So there is a trade off between somewhat accelerated tire wear on the inside edges of the tires in return for better cornering performance.

The alignment can be set with less negative camber (to reduce inside edge tire wear) but the range of adjustment on the stock suspension is limited. At that limit, further adjustment of the camber will change the toe setting (which you don't want to happen).

With all of that being said, the tech is saying that he can't adjust the camber any further without impacting the adjustment of the toe.

This could be a result of worn control arms but at some point it is also simply a reality of the stock suspension geometry - we'd need to know what the camber and toe is now (at the best the tech could achieve) and what he was trying to acheive to be able to diagnose further.

[LAP1DOUG]

Originally Posted by Timco

Can't bring in camber on rears (1.8* off) without messing up toe? What has worn out?

Rear tires are wearing bad on inside edges.

The geometry of this suspension design is such that you cannot change camber without changing toe rather drastically, so there is sometimes a balancing act between desired camber and toe settings, that can also be influenced strongly by ride height. It is always a good idea to start with checking ride height per the shop manual before making any adjustments.

If you are saying that you have -1.8 degrees of rear camber, that is not a whole lot, and looks to be within the factory settings. Toe can make tires wear much faster than camber, so it could be that you had too much toe, rather than too much camber before your technician aligned your car.

[Topless]

Originally Posted by Timco

Can't bring in camber on rears (1.8* off) without messing up toe? What has worn out?

Rear tires are wearing bad on inside edges.

Sounds like the rear suspension is bent. Maybe someone tagged a curb while exploring the limits of oversteer. Sometimes you can put it up in the air and see the problem right away, sometimes it requires careful measurement and process of elimination. Several possible components causing alignment problems.

[winter.k]

Hey Timco, Did you end up finding a solution... what was worn out? I have the same problem now.
I'm thinking about adjustable toe in control arms, but would rather find the root of the problem.