Hi Scotty, I drive a 2000 Lincoln Navigator 2 wheel drive with 144K miles. I recently replaced the upper and lower control arms, the stabilizer bar links as well as the inner and outer tie rod ends with Moog ones. I also changed the shocks with OEM Motorcraft ones to refresh my old worn front suspension. When I took it for an alignment they told me I needed Adjustable Caster Bolts to adjust the caster. They only adjusted the camber and toe. Do I really need these bolts or are they just trying to make an extra buck? I installed the control arms with the original bolts that came on the SUV. Thank you for your time and wisdom.
If it did not come with adjustable caster bolts it should not need them unless something has gotten bent in the suspension to throw it out of spec, or the replacement control arms aren't quite right. Did they actually say that the the caster was not within manufacturer's specification, or only that they could not adjust it?
A lot of newer car came without the usual caster and or camber adjusting bolts. Probably a money saving route. My wife's brand new car had severely positive camber on the right front wheel from the factory. I could see the wear pattern in the tire. I found after market camber adjusting bolts and now it's perfect.
They told me they could not adjust the caster without those bolts(which was going to be extra). Nothing has been bent on the suspension, the vehicle has never been on an accident. Just replaced the components since they were worn. The alignment page they gave me even showed that the right front wheel was centered, caster wise, but the left front was off. The control arms looked identical to the original ones I removed. I put them side by side before installing and the only difference was that the bushing were bad on one and new on the other.
Well, if the caster is off on that side the only way to bring it back into spec is with the adjusting bolts. No two parts are really identical, there is always some leeway in the specification. In this case it seems there is enough difference between old and new control arms that the alignment needs fine-tuning.