Not sure if this is the right forum to ask this question but here goes.

I installed my shims yesterday and I am just noticing that something seems off.
I mean the installation was simple enough. I'm not usually a diy'er, but the instructions were easy to follow and the only thing I had trouble with was separating the hub assembly. I ended up giving the rear drums a good wacking to get them loose enough to pull away and place the shims before reinstalling everything.

Now I am noticing that the passenger side seems to be spaced out more then the drivers side. Almost like there is a little camber on that passenger side...??
I noticed a little sqeak now and again when breaking, not sure if thats relevant or not. Any ideas on what I could have done wrong or what to check?

The first pic is the one side that seems ok to me, the second is the one that seems off.....sort of camberish.. if these come out sidways then I am sorry.........just tilt the old squash....





The next 2 are in the same order just diff angles.





Not sure if these pics capture what I am trying to describe.........
Anyway, thanks to everyone trying to help me out.

M att[/img]

 

Well, first, congrats on doing it yourself! Awesome.

Now... the passenger side will be closer to the fender just because the whole rear axle assembly is off by a couple of millimeters. Some reason, it is shifted towards the right side. No issue there.

Should be any camber as the plates & hub assembly mount flat. You may want to jack up the car and check to make sure all the nuts didn't loosen up a bit. If everything is tight, you may just want to back out the bolts and try again. Only an alignment will tell you if the rear has any camber. It could be an optical illusion??

HTH & Good luck.

 

Thanks for the quick reply.
Ok so your telling me that its perfectly normal that the passenger side appears to be spaced out further then the drivers side? Thats a relief. The camber thing I mentioned could very well be an optical illusion I suppose. I will have to study further or possibly get an allignment.

As far as the intermitent squeak........I have about 42,000 miles on my box and have yet to change the front pads. Could it just be the indicators telling me its time and not at all related to my above mentioned issue?

 

did mine last week..... havent noticed any problems but i havent paid too much attn..... i put the tokico 15 adjustable shocks and struts on at the same time.... i will look at the spacing when i go back out to the car

 

I installed some 25mm wheel spacers, and had the same squeak in the rear under braking. Can somebody explain this???

 

I just went out to look again and something is definetly off.
Is it possible I threw something out of wack when I took the hub assembly off.
I did hit more then a few times pretty good to loosen it up.
CRAP!

 

mine are the same on both sides..... no problems at all

 

I found it much easier installing the shims when I removed the rear drums. You can see better what you are doing. It is hard to line everything up once you have all of the bolts out. You may have bolted it up with something out of position.

I would remove the rear drum and take a look - it should be obvious what the problem is. One other thing - my rear drum easily slid off on both sides after I removed the bolts.

This is what mine looked like after I reinstalled the drum. Everything should bolt up without any gaps:




Tom

 

bump, pics added.

 

The rear axle on my xB is shifted towards the pasenger side also. For some reason, most xBs are like this. I don't know why some have it and some don't, but most of us usually just run a 3mm or 5mm spacer ring on the driver side to compensate for it.

I also usually go back and re-torque all of the bolts on any suspension mod after a road test and around 50 miles or so, just to make sure everything is tight.

 

HOLY CAMBER BATMAN!

 

After seeing this I had to wait until I got home to double check our's, but after
taking a tape maesure to check one side against the other, our's seems to be centered
equal distance from edge of tire to fender lip. We also used loctite and torqued
the bolts to specs just to be on the safe side. Haven't heard anything strange
since the install.

 

Ok so I am not crazy then...... you obviously see what I am talking about.
Sometimes it seems off to me, then other times its seems normal. I should just have it looked at. Like I said I back tracked and reinstalled and could not find anything fishy.

The second time I try to do it myself and end up screwing something up...

 

I've had a pair of those sitting in my garage for about 6 months because i was scared i'd mess up something. I really wanna stick em on now but let me ask: Do these void warranties, how do you know your allignment is good after installing them, and did anyone ever figure out what the sqeaking was? And just so i'm straight, Is it a 50/50 chance that i will have a camber problem or did someone just not install them right?

 

were these pics taken before you drove it around? sitting on the jack stands etc and then lowering the car back down sometimes throws off the way it looks until you drive around a little bit.

 

Gotta love camber!

 

I installed, drove around for 2 days, took the pics, put the box back up to check everything and thats it. The install looked clean so thats it. I have been told that most cars have some degree of camber and that when you space the wheels out in conjunction with lowering the car it becomes more obvious to the eye and is perfectly normal.

 

Did you double check if both are spacer shims? Perhaps one is a camber shim that was shipped mistakenly.

 

I have installed the OTG shims on my wife's xB with ZERO problems. No squeaking, no camber, no issues whatsoever.

If you have camber, something is wrong. If you have a squeek, something is probably wrong.

If you have basic mechanical skills, there is no need to have any type of apprehension toward this product. And no, it will not void your warranty. The only way it could is if a rear hub assembly fell off due to a bad installation. A dealer must prove in writing that any aftermarket part you install has led to failure of some sort. Or has caused the issue that you are bringing your vehicle in for a claim on.

Be wary though. If you have any issue related to rear suspension, or brakes that you plan to see the dealer about, remove the shims. Trust me on this. The last thing you want is for the dealership to have anything to point at and lay blame. Even if your aftermarket parts are unrelated, you will likely have to go rounds with the dealership on the issue.

With any customization I do to a vehicle, I have the same position. If I modify or customize something, I count on the fact that it will never be covered under warranty again. Be comfortable in that fact, and any time a dealership is willing to work with you it becomes a bonus.

 

I agree with 1epo, maybe they sent you a camber shi, by mistake. chk that. then, remove the shims and check the camber with them off, spacing too.