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Hello all... I recently blew out 2 of my tires and then had all 4 of them replaced. I was sent on my merry way and told the alignment was fine, no real damage to the car.

The next day I get a call about the camber being off for the back right tire...and they want to replace my entire rear axel, I have a 02 Jetta. THey said it cannot be "shimmed" on that kind of car... I know nothing about cars...and cannot tell it is off at all. It drives fine yet I worry greatly about the safety of the car...

I want to drive from NY to FL soon and would like to know if I'm safe to do this or not. I did not get the work done as waring out this tire for a new one would cost me less than this whole axel replacement job... which I cannot afford at all. (already spent close to an unexpected 1000 for tires, etc.)

PLEASE HELP! Thank you

c  

You didn't say WHY the tires blew out, but the fact that they sent you on your way implies that the camber was not the CAUSE of the tires blowing out.

However, excessive camber tends to cause excessive wear on one shoulder of the tire, thus wearing it out sooner.  This also causes the vehicle not to perform evenly - and when you'll notice this is when you do an emergency manuever - just when you'd want the vehicle to behave predictably.

Shimming the suspension is a standard way of fixing this.  The result ought to be a vehicle that both behaves predictably under extreme conditions, as well as wearing the tires evenly.

But axle replacemnt is not needed to fix a mis-alignment condition, so perhaps there is damage to one of the suspension components.  Take your car to an independent shop and ask them to do an alignment.  If there are bent or damaged components, they ought to be able to tell you which component it is.  If not, then they should be able to shim the suspension to correct the camber.