The order comes back, P diddy wants an alignment. I chuckle to myself as my co-worker grabs the keys. Up on the lift, he goes through the normal inspection procedure. Its not long before I hear laughing from under the car. Naturally I wander over, expecting tie rods that are falling off, or something similar.
It takes me a few seconds to realize what I am looking at, but finally I see it. Speechlessly I step back and look at my co-worker. I ask, what about the rear? He shakes his head and says, its the same. For the first time, I was truly shocked by someone else's utter automotive stupidity.
Because the wheels were so large, the vehicle was too low at factory ride height. The owner decided he needed to lift the car. The LS has double wishbone suspension both front and rear. This Darwin nominee unbolted all of his shocks, jacked the car up, then re installed the bolts into the control arms. Then he lowered the car until the bottom of the damper rested on the bolt, then he welded them together.
This whole car was custom with a K. With it set up this way, the bolt had to be left loose, so that it could allow rotation during suspension travel. Thats just what you want, a steel bolt carrying all the weight of a heavy car, rocking back and forth in an aluminium control arm. Not only that, but it negated the bushing, making for lots of road noise (as if rubber band tires didnt make it bad enough).
To top all this off, the genius did not tighten the lower ball joints. Because they are loaded joints, this meant they hung a whole inch down the ball joint shaft. A world away from being tight in the control arm. This allowed the knuckle to rock in all directions by an asinine amount. No doubt about it, this car should NOT be on the road.
Dont believe me? I got video.
The first part shows how much the wheel/tire/knuckle can move depending on braking or steering. Then I pointed the cameral (phone, sorry) towards the modified strut. You can see the bolt, and above it the sleeve and bushing where the bolt should go. Sorry about the audio, something got lost in translation.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeZjhpEvJTE[/youtube]
All that stupid, just for an inch of lift. The best part is, if he ever wants to replace the struts, he will need control arms too (already does from the loose ball joint), and everything will have to be cut out of the car. I just dont understand people.
I wish we had safety inspections here in MN. I dont even like getting on the highway because of cars like this.
