I have a 2000 Honda Accord LX, 4 cyl. four door. Stock suspension, the left front fender appears to have been changed.
Put new tires on and went down to get an alignment. Tech informs me that the left front has -2% camber and can be fixed with a camber kit. He quoted $88.00 for camber upper ball joint adjuster and $150.00 labor. I did not go for this fix yet.
Drove car home put it up on jack stands and was not able to find faulty suspension parts.
Now I’m thinking:


I take the left front suspension apart and inspect each part.
Take car to be inspected for bent frame.
Just buy adjustable upper ball joint and adjust -2 camber out.
Since left front fender has been replaced, I go find a good junk Honda Accord and get the complete left side suspension assy. and replace that. Suspecting that something has been bent on mine.[/ol]

Which camber adjuster kit is the best for this fix?
Is there a way to find bent frame on my own?

 

I'd def get a full front end/frame alignment if the fender was replaced and the camber is off on that side. I went through the same thing on mine, except the fender wasnt replaced, but I had to have almost all the suspension replaced on my front pass side.

 

I had thoughts of just changing the upper control arm and the lower ball joint and then take it to Honda for a alignment check.

What is the weak link when these Accords are hit from the side. Should I just replace it all on the left side and then get the Alignment done?

 

Assuming the upper wishbone is undamaged or has been replaced, then damage that results in excessive neg camber could be either because the 'strut tower' has been pushed inward toward the other 'strut tower', or (and?)becausethe upright is bent in the long slender section above the hub and below the upper ball joint. I would also be checking that caster angle is equal side to side.

 

I looked over the left side suspension some more and I think your right about the strut/shock appears to be bent. Is this a common failure for side impact of front-end?
My plan is to disassembly the left front suspension and look for damage, it looks like the strut may need to be replaced. The only piece that would be hard to see damage on would be the knuckle and lower control arm; I'm thinking it should be the hardest piece down there thus the last one to bend.

 

I was assuming that you had a double wishbone front end due to your mention of there being an upper ball joint. In this case there isn't really a 'strut' as such, but a 'coil over' unit that has no affect on geometry (other than an indirect affect associated with ride height). A lot of people talk about fitting "coil-overs" to replace the stock set up, but the stock set up is still actually a 'coil-over'. When I mentioned a "strut tower" I meant it as a shorthand to mean that part of the chassis where the top of the 'coil-over' and the upper wishbone attaches, even though these aren't in the strictest sense actually 'strut towers' since the double wishbone suspension doesn't actually have 'struts'. With double wishbones the damage in your case would have to be in the upper wishbone, the 'upright', or the chassis atthe point where theupper wishbone attaches.

If you have a Mac strut front end then excessive neg camber can be caused most commonly by the damper shaft being bent, which would also impair damper function (causing it to bind to whatever degree). It's also possible(but less likely)that the strut body could also be bent, but I'd be surprised in this case if the shaft wasn't also bent. The chassis at the upper strut mounting could also be pushed toward the other strut tower.

In either case it would be unlikely that the lower section of the upright or strut were damaged since it's very strong at this point compared to the upper parts, but not impossible.

 

Removed the complete left side suspension, after inspecting parts the following components were replaced.

All four shocks, left front shock was bent at point where it connects to fork. Did not replace fork.
Replaced left side knuckle and upper control arm. I replaced both front wheel bearings due to the amount of time car was driven with out of alignment condition.

I purchased the KYB GR-2 shocks and did not by any rubber hardware thinking now I would get the stock Honda SLEEVE, RR. DUST COVER for the rear shocks.
Took the car to get aligned all that was needed was the toe-end adjustment. The -2 degree camber problem was GONE! WooHoo!

At the beginning of this the alignment shop wanted to put an adjustable upper ball joint on this car for $$$.00. I am so glad I did it myself because I would still have a bent shock and knuckle if I would have had them do their fix.

Car drives great, nothing more rewarding than fixing your own car and getting it done correctly.

Have fun and read as much as you can about your car, it saves you allot of money. Thanks for the Accord Forum it is a great way to learn.

 

thats odd, because when i bought my 96 accord, you could tell that it had been hit ( due to sh!tty body work ) and the front left was running roughly 3 degrees positive camber. when i had my rims put on, i got a four wheel alignment, and you can still tell that that one tire is not properly aligned. that and a whole other list of problems