Hello everyone. Before anybody flames me, I have used the search feature and spent many hours trying to find if anybody has the same issue as I'm experiencing to no avail so here goes...

Just had my car aligned to factory specs and my right upper control arm hits the pinch weld in the inner fender but not my left. Left side has plenty of clearance to move.
Camber: -0.25 deg
Caster: 8 deg
Toe-in: 0.04in
SPL Upper Control Arm
Do I have a tweaked chassis or is this pretty common with aftermarket parts? Any help or advice on how to remedy this issue would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

 

The cone washer for your ball joint is installed upside down, that cone should fit down inside the steering knuckle. I circled the cone washer in this picture.

 

Was trying to figure out how to delete this thread or close it but I guess I'm unable to. Thanks for responding though, but the cone is not installed upside down. This is how the SPL upper control arms are designed. Was advised to use camber correction spacers on the wheel hub and the brake caliper to remedy my issue. That way I can bring the camber in on the upper control arms to clear the inner fender pinch weld.

 

Ahh didn't realize you were using a solid joint control arm, if I had read you post more thoroughly I would have seen that

I'm not sure how the hub spacer is going to add that much correction for the top though, looks like you are WELL into the metal, those SPC hub/caliper spacers are a little less than 1/4". I wasn't aware of ever needing those SPC spacers with SPL upper arms.

How low are you? Have you thoroughly inspected your compression rod arm to make sure it's not bent/broken/damaged.

 

Haha no worries.

Currently, in order to clear inner fender pinch weld on the front right I had to run -1deg camber from the -0.25deg that hit. But, now knowing the spacer is close to 1/4" correction, that may be enough to bring me back in the green. I'll prob correct that later as I've already paid for the alignment to set it at -1deg.

I don't think the spacers are required for the SPL arms as the left side of my car is way in the clear when it was set at -0.25deg. It bugged me so much I ran a carfax report on my car to see if it was ever in an accident but nope, no accidents. No evident bends, cracks, bondo, whatso ever. Yes I thoroughly inspected the front end (LCA, Comp-arm, UCA chassis mounting location distance to the fender pinch weld), even measured the front subframe distance on both sides to see if they matched, which they all did. So yeah, this has me scratching my head lol.

I've lowered my car ~1.5" f/r and sitting on the 19" rays.

 

Also, about the camber, -0.5 is nominal spec but you can run up to -1.25 and are STILL within factory spec, that's the most factory recommended negative camber. -1 degree, like where you are right now, feels great on the front.

-0.25 degrees like what you wanted initially is above nominal spec, personally I wouldn't even run the nominal -0.5 because the front starts to feel like it's floating around a little. -0.75 is the closest to nominal I personally would use because I want my sports car to feel sporty and not feel floaty like my daily commuter.

I wouldn't recommend only running the spacer on one side, both or not at all.

It's possible you have a strut going out allowing for more play on one side compared to the other. Same with a sway bar tie rod end link or something that's allowing the car to lean more to one side than the other.

I have a feeling that at the end of the day with a 1.5" drop you're going to end up just clearancing that metal and shaving 1/2" or so off of it. Shouldn't be an issue clearancing it.

 

Good to know! It actually felt floaty at the -0.25 so I know exactly what you are saying.

True, I can understand that. Best to keep both sides even. I'd prefer not to use it at all and would like to somehow figure out why it hit on the right but not the left. The entire suspension was overhauled at the same time. I changed to BC coils, urethane bushings all around, new uppers, lowers, comparm, endlinks, outer tierods, rear components to SPL, the whole shebang. Actually filmed the entire process in 3 parts (front, rear, alignment) for YouTube lol. If you're interested =>
I'll see how the tire wears out with the current settings. I'm liking the way it handles so I might just leave it alone. The last front set of tires only lasted 6000 miles and wore out the insides of the tire due to toe being way off (pothole city). But that time I had front camber set at -1.5 to combat the understeer I was feeling during harder cornering.

 

Yeah as you found out toe is what eats tires, camber just determines what angle it wears across the tire but does not contribute to premature tire wear.

 

Hey pretty entertaining video, I was grinning watching you muscle those compression rod nuts off, for the future that's definitely one you want to go straight to the 1/2" impact wrench with a lot of PB blaster. Personally I hit almost every chassis/suspension bolt with the impact wrench because it's so much easier.

Something else you will likely run into issues with soon, you only replaced the outer tie rod end but there are INNER tie rod ends inside the boot that attaches to the rack/pinion. If the outers are worn the inners are too.

To help with fighting the poly bushings in the future LIBERALLY coat them and the hole they're going in with silicone grease I use more than necessary and wipe off the excess once everything is reinstalled on the car.

After watching the 3rd video I think you answered your own question, you said you left corner harder than right, the "rubbing" was almost definitely the FUCA doing it's own clearancing on the chassis

Also looks like a 2003-2005 G, therefor you have the smaller front sway bar, 2006-2007 is 15% stiffer front to help keep that body roll a little more under control.

I recommend clearancing that metal on both sides, I'm sure if you cornered right as hard as left you're going to impact the other side as well, just draw a nice even line on both sides and remove about a 3 inch wide (edit, 3" horizontally, only about 1/2" deep) strip of metal. A flapper wheel on a side grinder will make quick work of that thin metal and give you the precision you need without any jagged edge.

Also recommend getting the Hotchkis sway bar kit for both front and rear, it's an excellent upgrade and on the softest setting it's 22% stiffer in the front, 80% stiffer in the rear. If you don't want to dump that much into the sway bars right now you can probably find a stock 2006-2007 sway bar which will get you 15% stiffer than you currently are.

You should also look into rolling the front and rear fenders, it's not difficult and fairly cheap, you also need a heat gun and I've had great experiences with the Wagner Furno 750 at work and at home. Selectable heat and fan speed with a cooldown function, rugged and good enough for construction work while still being cheaper than most good heat guns.

 

Hey glad you enjoyed it lol. Yeah those compression rod nuts were so damn tight, my 1/2" impact couldn't break them loose. I sprayed a ton of PB blaster and let it sit for a couple hours before I hit it too. But I agree the impact wrench makes life easy. To tighten, I set it at the lowest setting and got all the bolts on then used the torque wrench to bring them to spec.

Yup! Didn't change the inner tie rods. Was thinking, when that fails or what not, just going to get the whole rack rebuilt.

When I was tackling the poly bushings, I was worried about running out of the small supplied tube of silicone grease. If there is a next time lol, I'll be sure to buy extra.

On the 3rd video, the sound I was hearing was the traction control activating when the front end understeered. I think the tires weren't up to temp as it was around 38degs out that night and damp from the rain. I have pictures of the inner fender on the driver's side and it's all clean and straight as it should be.

I'm trying not to cut into the body as much as possible. Just want to keep it intact but I will keep that in mind.

The Hotchkis sway bar kit is saved on my future to buy list! 👍👍 Just wanted to see how the car felt with the mods I have completed first before fine tuning it. I don't drive fast enough in the canyons to warrant upgrading the sway bars just yet. I really want to track it to learn the thresholds of the heavy G35 lol. I'm coming from years of driving an MR2 which you can really flick around corners. Just love the power of the VQ. Such a great base platform to play with.

Fender rolling will be in order when I can get some nice rims and wider tires. I like to train with the stock tire sizes to learn the cars slip angles better. Makes things interesting. 😁

Anyway, thank you for chiming in with your knowledge and suggestions! Helped me figure out what options I have that I can take.

 

Duplicate post. Deleted.

 

Moderator edit: Banned for botting