Shocks and Alignment

[KurtFranz]

FWIW - I recently purchased a set of front and rear Bilstein shocks with the intent of installing them myself. Changed my mind and took the van to a shop in Bradenton, FL. They installed the shocks nicely for me in addition to performing a front wheel alignment as best they could. I had a bad case of negative camber on the driver side and a bit on the passenger side. The tech told me that was not able to get this adjusted correctly unless he removed the knock outs, which would take more time than I had available as I did not have the opportunity to drop the van off and had to wait while the work was done. He told me that he had to remove the upper control arms to get the knock outs removed and also suggested that I might want to replace both of the upper control arms as the new ones include the ball joint and fresh bushings - mine are original as were the shocks. Also, if this logic holds true, my van has not had a complete alignment in 21 years! The shop has no issue installing pre purchased components and charges reasonable rates for their work. He told me that until I get the negative camber corrected I should make certain to regularly rotate the tires. Otherwise perfectly safe to drive. It drives straight as an arrow -just has front tires that point slightly outward at the bottom.

Also, I mentioned that my van was burning about 1/2 quart of oil per 1000 miles. When I told him I was using synthetic he told me that I should switch to dino and see what happens. He was pretty confident that the oil loss would be significantly be reduced.

Any thoughts?

[booster]

Originally Posted by KurtFranz

FWIW - I recently purchased a set of front and rear Bilstein shocks with the intent of installing them myself. Changed my mind and took the van to a shop in Bradenton, FL. They installed the shocks nicely for me in addition to performing a front wheel alignment as best they could. I had a bad case of negative camber on the driver side and a bit on the passenger side. The tech told me that was not able to get this adjusted correctly unless he removed the knock outs, which would take more time than I had available as I did not have the opportunity to drop the van off and had to wait while the work was done. He told me that he had to remove the upper control arms to get the knock outs removed and also suggested that I might want to replace both of the upper control arms as the new ones include the ball joint and fresh bushings - mine are original as were the shocks. Also, if this logic holds true, my van has not had a complete alignment in 21 years! The shop has no issue installing pre purchased components and charges reasonable rates for their work. He told me that until I get the negative camber corrected I should make certain to regularly rotate the tires. Otherwise perfectly safe to drive. It drives straight as an arrow -just has front tires that point slightly outward at the bottom.

Also, I mentioned that my van was burning about 1/2 quart of oil per 1000 miles. When I told him I was using synthetic he told me that I should switch to dino and see what happens. He was pretty confident that the oil loss would be significantly be reduced.

Any thoughts?

Can't comment on the knockouts as the 2002 is a different control arm than the later ones, but could be correct. 2003 up there is just an easy to remove limiter, presetter for the factory.


I think that the synthetic oil to dino oil might help the oil burning, but also may not depending on the miles on the engine and on how well in has been cared for over the years. That was the last year for the 5.7L in the vans and, in general, they didn't last quite a long as the 6.0 that replaced them. Not a bad engine though. I have a very similar engine in my 96 Roadmaster wagon except it is a gen II LT1 reverse cooling flow version. Most of the main components in the areas other than cooling were the same as the Gen I engines, though. A Gen I 5.7 with good car can last 200K or more, but the heavy vans do take a toll on them and good maintenance is needed. If you are using 5W30 oil you could go to 10-40 and probably also reduce the oil use, if is burning it and not leaking it either to the outside of the engine or through the valve guide seals which then gets burned so you don't see it. Sometimes you can get very good benefit on older cars by replacing the valve guide seals with more modern design ones.

[KurtFranz]

Originally Posted by KurtFranz

I had a bad case of negative camber on the driver side and a bit on the passenger side. The tech told me that was not able to get this adjusted correctly unless he removed the knock outs, which would take more time than I had available as I did not have the opportunity to drop the van off and had to wait while the work was done. He told me that he had to remove the upper control arms to get the knock outs removed

Further research confirms the above.

[booster]

Originally Posted by KurtFranz

Further research confirms the above.

So did I, and it appears you might also need to have a "camber kit" put in as it appears that they may have come without the cams also. Under $15 part, though.