[OldTime]

Here's the background, truck is a 2008 Colorado Z71 4 x 4 with 100,000 miles. I've owned it since new and it's never had a wheel alignment done as it's never shown any adverse tire wear. As a N.E. Ohio truck exposed to harsh winters and road salt its underside is very rusty and has frame issues. After reading tons of negative experiences of owners FEA accounts I'm thinking no shop is going to tackle a full alignment for me any time soon.
Currently the truck needs an inner tie rod boot. I'm not sure how long the boot has been torn but it may have caused problems with that joint. So, if I do an inner and outer tie rod replacement would only the toe adjustment be needed? I'm really trying to avoid the hassle of a shop saying they can't do just a toe correction without the full alignment. I believe my options to be either do it myself or find a shop willing to do just the toe correction. Am I correct that in my situation only the toe adjustment is needed? The truck, unfortunately, doesn't have a lot of miles left in it so I'm looking for the best cheap solution.

 

[OldTime]

Great to hear that WV NATIVE, thanks for the reply.
Taking this one step further, just to learn something today, if camber bolts were frozen in place making a FEA impossible to do would replacing the UAC be an option so camber/caster could be adjusted? Of course, that depends on the pins fitting solidly in place in the bracket so the cam could ride in there. Just saw a video where the bolts seized in the bushing sleeve and had to be cut out. Not a great situation to be in.

 

[OldTime]

YouTube, search toe alignment: Many hits

Thanks, have been watching those quite a bit lately. I like to research a repair thoroughly before diving in.

 

[OldTime]

I had my camber bolts seize up and had to fight to get them out. I was lucky and they finally yielded.

If I was forced to cut the bolts I would probably replace the factory upper control arms just to get better bushings. Of course, I greased up the bolts really good before replacing them.

I installed a set of MMW upper control arms and found their bushings to be far superior to the factory ones. I had a clinking sound that I tracked down to the factory bushings and the MMW fixed that problem.

Perhaps this is one reason service techs aren't fans of doing a FEA on our trucks. Those MMW arms are superior indeed, for a truck like yours, my truck isn't so worthy. Thanks for sharing your insight, I learned something today.