Rep Power: 153

Hey so I took my car to an alignment shop, dude said he could not align the front cause there was no gap between my engine cradle bolt and the cradle passenger side, such as the gap between the front driver side cradle bolt.

I have attached a pic of what mine looks like. Front Passenger Side

I was in a accident where I hit the curb recently (rim broke, tire came out of place) had to get new rim and tire. Alignment thrown off, hence why I went in to get a new one.

Can anyone look under their car I tried Googling for images couldnt find anything.

 
Rep Power: 517

I see control arm and bolt in the pic, that's not what I think of when you say "cradle bolt and the cradle".


Maybe ask mechanic for more explanation and have him point out on your car exactly what he's talking about?

 
Rep Power: 153

Haha my bad. The bolt in the pic, for the driver side, there is a gap between the head of the bolt and the control arm. He said the bushing might be bad. I can't really talk to him because it was in another town, and I had to drive home from my college campus like 200miles away. Does yours look like this as well?

 
Rep Power: 517

Got a pic?
Is the bolt not tight?
Did you have it apart?

Might?
Got a pic?


When they go bad, the rubber tears. That eventually can allow the LCA to make contact with the subframe and clunk on bumps once the rubber is torn all the way through.
If torn all the way through you can usually pry the arm up and down and get it to contact the subframe fairly easily.
See pic, this one looks to be in the very early stages of tearing the rubber:



Other extreme, this one looks completely wasted:


Got someone more local you trust?
I have a 12 with about 16,000 miles on it. It's nowhere near worn out yet LOL