My mother-in-law asked me to test drive her 2005 Camry to evaluate tires etc. I found that it pulls to the right consistently even after making sure tire pressures are even all around. I did not have time or resources to rotate tires. The right front tire shows saw-tooth wear with sharp edges on inside of ribs, indicating consistent driver correction for pulling to right. The RR tire which had spent many thousands of miles on the RF showed the same wear pattern.

I'm not familiar with Camry's, never having owned one. (I do have a lot of experience aligning Mk-I MR2's.) I downloaded and skimmed a TSB on troubleshooting pulling-to-one-side problems. It indicated that camber can be adjusted at the bolts retaining the lower strut end, but did not mention caster adjustment.

I've adjusted caster on my MR2 at the threaded end of the drag strut bar where it attaches to the frame. Does the Camry have something like this? Is it possible to adjust camber & caster on these Camry's? Does anyone have a pointer to a front suspension diagram for this gen of Camry?

Appreciate any advice or pointers.

Bob

 

There is no caster adjustment possible on the Camry. Have the vehicle aligned and see what the results are. It is likely that the only adjustments needed would be front and rear toe.

JJ

 

>>There is no caster adjustment possible on the Camry. Have the vehicle aligned and see what the results are. It is likely that the only adjustments needed would be front and rear toe.<<

Hi, JJ,

That agrees with the diagrams of the front strut & steering knuckle that I got from a friend on my MR2 DL (he works at a Toyota dealer), which showed a triangular lower arm that doesn't have any apparent caster adjustment. The strut attachment points on the upper part of the knuckle might have slotting for camber adjustment, but the diagram didn't show enough detail to clarify that. I thought I saw some notes referring to camber adjustment.

Naturally we'd like to rule out bent suspension components or frame, and tires as causes. I think the last is unlikely, as the same wear pattern shows on two tires, across a rotation. After checking all these factors, if camber is equal, we could either introduce a little differential camber or if the thrust angle is down the centerline, skew it a little.

Thanks for the feedback.

Bob