Camber/Concentric/Ecentric Bolts?? Help please :)

Okay, so my mechanic was trying to align all four of my tires last Friday, but was unable to because he said the Ecentric bolts were frozen, and he didnt want to break off the bolts without having the replacement ones. I think Ive got what I need, but had some trouble finding the rear bolts. O'Rilley has what they called a kit, which includes the bolt for the left side, and the other kit has the right side (front and rear). He gave me a price of 17.50/kit, but I am curious if this is what I am needing, because I was having such a hard time finding the rear bolts. Hell, AutoZone doesnt even sell Camber bolts, period, without having anything in their system lol.

Is camber/concentric/ecentric bolts all the same thing???

Hopefully this is what I need, this way it will stop wearing down my tires like crazy, and I can get my wheels aligned.

Thanks everyone

That doesn't sound right. If he hits it with some pb-blaster and then an impact, it should come lose. He can also take the nut off the other side of the strut and tap the bolt with a hammer (if it's the front). That should free it. It's just a bolt with a nut on the other side. If the bolts has an odd off-center shaped head, it's probably right, if not, they should take it back. It's not really a complicated part, so what you got is probably correct.

Camber is one of the three main alignment angles. There's camber, caster, and toe. There are 2 bolts that hold your steering knuckle to your strut, the top one is an eccentric (oblong) bolt. This provides camber adjustment. In the rear, eccentric bolts hold one end of the lateral arms (through a bushing) to provide camber and toe adjustments (on NA's).

School lesson aside, your mechanic sounds like he knows what he is talking about. These bolts can break if they become seized/rusted. Without a replacement bolt on hand, your car would be stuck there. I would imagine the O'Reiley kit is just a universal eccentric bolt, which should work in the front. If he was unable to get the rear bolts free, you may need a new bushing as well as the eccentric bolt, since they would be seized together.

But usually with some heat on the nut (though I hear shops in the south don't even own torches due to the lack of rust), the fronts should come free without breaking. The rears you can't put heat to without significant risk of melting the bushing, so if they're seized, they're seized (the bolt that is, the nut can be briefly heated safely).

Being a NC car, I think everything should come apart nicely if your mechanic puts some ass into it.

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Originally Posted by RL7

That doesn't sound right. If he hits it with some pb-blaster and then an impact, it should come lose. He can also take the nut off the other side of the strut and tap the bolt with a hammer (if it's the front). That should free it. It's just a bolt with a nut on the other side. If the bolts has an odd off-center shaped head, it's probably right, if not, they should take it back. It's not really a complicated part, so what you got is probably correct.

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Oh god. PLEASE DO NOT IMPACT YOUR CONCENTRIC BOLTS!!! Or even wrench on that side of the head for that fact. Put the concentric bolt in at 0, meaning the side that is sticking out the least, then you should slowly turn it with a wrench to the position you need, then HOLD the bolt and keep it from turning while you tighten the nut down. If you impact the concentric bolt, 90% you are either going to damage the strut. When you damage the strut, you can never get the camber set correctly. There is also a 10% chance you will damage the head of the bolt, which is designed the way it is so that it has the shape that it has.

LASTLY, never buy any concentric bolts that aren't OEM. I have made this mistake buying those kits you talk about, and have had them snap when running the car around a turn hard.

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Originally Posted by blindmist

Oh god. PLEASE DO NOT IMPACT YOUR CONCENTRIC BOLTS!!! Or even wrench on that side of the head for that fact. Put the concentric bolt in at 0, meaning the side that is sticking out the least, then you should slowly turn it with a wrench to the position you need, then HOLD the bolt and keep it from turning while you tighten the nut down. If you impact the concentric bolt, 90% you are either going to damage the strut. When you damage the strut, you can never get the camber set correctly. There is also a 10% chance you will damage the head of the bolt, which is designed the way it is so that it has the shape that it has.

LASTLY, never buy any concentric bolts that aren't OEM. I have made this mistake buying those kits you talk about, and have had them snap when running the car around a turn hard.

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I was talking more about the nuts with the impact, and just to kind of knock them loose if they are seized. I probably could word that better. I usually break bolts when turning a large tool rather than with an impact because the amount of torque the impact delivers is limited by the tool or setting. But, yeah, it's probably not the smartest thing to do.

The aftermarket bolts breaking is downright dangerous though. Thank you China.

I broke my stock concentric bolts when attempting to remove my rear control arms to put the Maximal's on. Even stockers can break,.

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Originally Posted by stealthee

I broke my stock concentric bolts when attempting to remove my rear control arms to put the Maximal's on. Even stockers can break,.

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Ive only seen OEM ones break when trying to remove them, never when driving the car.

Oh, yeah. I missed your last sentance about them breaking while driving.

Those bolts are notorious for rusting in the sleeves. I've installed my control arms on a few cars up here (NY) and every one of them would not budge, I had to cut them off with a saws-all in between the bushing and the bracket. Even then I couldn't get what was left of the bolt out of the bushing so I'm more worried about you running into that issue. Of course NY loves it's salt and I'm sure you see a lot less in NC so hopefully once he does get that off you won't have any issues.

This was a NYC car before I got it, so I can understand if its rusted.

However, I have had a helluva time finding the rear bolts. Do they even exist??? The only thing I can find for the rear to do with anything is the control arms. The front is extremely easy to find all over the internet.

Can someone please send me a link to where I can just buy the SOB's? Im considering just going to the dealership tomorrow, and seeing how much they want to charge me.