RSVampire

Hey guys got a little problem with my wheel alignment. I got some new rear tires and a 4 wheel alignment. Car still pulls to the right kind of a lot. Any suggestions? Should I go back and yell at em? Any alignment guru's want me to scan the adjustment paper?

dajusta

i hit a curb and now my car pulls to the left alot

i hear just get a front wheel alignment for 50 bucks and it'll solve all your problems.

diagoro

like right after you alignment? something bent?

Bigretardhead

well take it back to whoever did your alignment. if it pulls, there is something wrong. and even if they couldn't fix it with an alignment, they should have told you there was something wrong.

RETed

You sure you're not driving on crowned roads?
Does it do this on the freeway?


-Ted

RotaryEvolution

iTrader: (30)

post up a scan, i'll tell you if your readings would cause a pull or not.

in the meantime try rotating your tires side to side if they are non directional, if they are directional rotate them front to rear and see if the pull goes away. also be sure the assnuggets put the proper air pressure in the tires, if one side has more/less than the others it will cause wanders/pulls.

alot of pulls are cause by radial tires, even brand new ones i have had cause radial pulls.

Kenteth

If you bent somthing,its more than just a "alignment to fix" type of thing. Anyone remember when I swerved to miss a dear and went latterraly off the road. Car was fine, other than the drainage speed dip thing latterly and it bent the spindle several degrees, and pushed the tire off its bead. Not much you say,--?try driving like that, lol. Coincidentaly, the same side balljoint got jerked pretty hard. I went to get the 4 corner alignment and balance after I replaced the spindle, they said they couldn't align the front due to the bad ball joint.


Point of story: "alignment will fix it" is an incorrect and naive statement based only upon certain conditions. For example, if you hit a curb, and the only thing you did was push the camber in because your camber plates weren't torqued right, it could be fixed with alignment... otherwise you need to fix your broken ****.

NOT fixable with alignment:

RSVampire

dajusta is an idiot because he aparently didn't read my post. Heh, I got the alignment already dork and it still pulls! I'm sure Kenteth is correct in saying something is broken, when I bought the car the rear-right tie rod bolt came off and I had to reattach it. I'm sure when that happened something got pinched/bent/broken in the process. It does it more on the freeways than it does in the city roads yes. As far as my alignment paper goes, I'll scan it tomarrow at my friend's house and post it up. I'll poke my dead-head under the car and check some **** out. Could just be my suspension too, my whole suspension is stock and all the shocks are completely wasted. I still got a lot of work left to do on this car. Which sucks *** considering I bought this car to keep my job and as soon as I bought it I got fired . So I dumped money into buying the car, getting a tune up, getting fired, and just used my last pay check to pay for some tires. So now I'm broke! again! bllllllllllaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!!!

Kenteth

wait rear tie rod...


by the way... you know what a dragging brake does right? There really are alot of things that can cause this symptom, you just have to check everythign, brakes, alignment, suspension,...

Heh.. I would laughif you have directional tires that are mounted backwards though :P

RotaryEvolution

iTrader: (30)

yep but an alignment sheet can tell you how the tires are sitting and whether or not anything is bent like your pic of the bent spindle, it would be easy to see on the scan.

most guys do half assed alignments, it could be within spec but still be out enough to cause a problem that or they are jerking you around and say there is no problem when in fact there is. who knows if they know what they are talking about but the sheet could give me an idea.

Kenteth

actually the bend in the above spindle ws causing the caliper to gouge into the rotor... I was well aware of the problem without an alignment check.

fstrnyou

i got run over by a tandem axle trailer carrying a bull dozer. i have + camber in the left front now, i replaced the 100k mile struts and still messed up. i have a spindle to put on and if that's not it, then i guess i'll have to replace the ball joint and if that's not it, then i guess the frame is bent. I had the A-arm off when i swapped bushings, but the mount didn't look all that out of shape. by looking at the camber, the mount would have to be nearly a 1/2" farther in. it is bent, but not more than a 1/8 prolly.

i'll just replace the ball joint when i swap spindles out. and see what that does...

RSVampire

ok here is my sheet with my alignment crap on it. I haven't rotated my front tires yet (no I don't have any uni-rotational tires) because it's been pouring freakin rain lately. Anyways, here it is.

Kai

That reminds me, I still have to check my LR spindle. I curbed that corner hard and have had an incurable +1 degree camber ever since (I already replaced the lateral link, which was bent like a banana.)

RotaryEvolution

iTrader: (30)

they did a 4 wheel alignment? how much did they charge you? they didn't do anything with the rear wheels and your right rear is near twice out of spec.. do you have a lowering kit on the car? the front looks good but i don't like to set up a car with that much toe since toe goes out on cruise it would be borderline within spec.

did they even bother to tell you the rear camber is off? usually rear camber will not cause a car to pull but it can cause your car to act wierd while turning or cause the car to track sideways down the road which can cause all types of other problems with steering and handling.

i would still suggest starting by checking your tire pressures and rotating the tires side to side. then i would go back to goodyear and ask them why the **** they didn't mention anything about the rear end being out of spec..

with it that far out of spec you either have a bushing gone completely or something got hit and possibly bent a suspension component? have you ever hit a curb or anything at the RR?

cmjaure

I see your caster is a little off the left side should be a little lower than to make up for the right. this is what I do for a living. when I did my car it was a pain and I can see why some half *** people would do that they have to drop the strut and turn it then bolt it back up and re-masure caster or they will not get a good reading. take it back.

fstrnyou

i thought i already made a post explaining this, but apparently, i forgot to hit the submit, hahah, i'm such a dumbass.

with your caster being higher on the left side than the right, it's no wonder your car pulls to the right.
yeah, caster is usually higher on the right side to offset the effects of crowned roads so your car drives straight. personally, i prefer both fronts to be set identical.

RSVampire

yes they did a four wheel alignment on the car. They did mention the rear being totally fucked up (alignment wise) but quickly pulled out a paper saying "Manufactor Does Not Recomend Rear Camber Adjustment". So they basiclly didn't touch the back. They charged be $69 for the alignment. So should I go back and tell them what exactly?

cmjaure

it really looks like they did the right side but didne re-measure caster I wouldent be suprised if the right caster is closer to 1 deg. off. your right rear camber is way off i think the rear is more like 1.2 deg min. at the most or least i should say. Take it back tell them it pulls to the right and you think caster is really off I would almost bet money it is really bad.

RotaryEvolution

iTrader: (30)

sorry but where did you guys learn to do alignments? caster does not cause a car to pull, caster helps the wheels to center themselves while going down the road, too much caster causes excessive steering effort and more stress on suspension components and a stiff ride, too little causes the steering to wander. caster can only enhance a pull caused by the camber being out of adjustment or a tire pull.



RSvampire, did they look to see if anything was worn or bent? that is part of an alignment. before telling a customer their car is fubared they should have done a visual inspection to see if they could see what the cause of the problem was. possibly you have a bent strut, spindle or control arm.

fstrnyou

It's wierd how you say that differing casters doesn't effect how the car pulls, but later say that more caster helps center the wheels. Well, the force that centers the wheels is the same force that can cause a car to pull one way or the other. On the left side, caster causes the tire to want to turn to the right. On the right side, caster causes the tire to turn to the left. When set the same, these forces cancel each other out and the car drives straight. But when the right side has more caster, the force turning the wheels to the left is greater than the force trying to turn the wheels to the right. Therefore, this will induce a pull to the left. Just so happens that on crowned roads, the car will want to go down the slope to the right. To counteract this condition, alignment shops will set the car to have a larger caster on the right side to give it a slight left pull. So now this left pulling car will actually drive straight on a crowned road.
I'm right, you're wrong, get over it.

Steel

RSVampire

alright so I finally call the place today to try and figure out what the f*** I need to do to get my car.... well WORKING! I talked to the guy that did the alignment and he said I need to buy some alignment kits for the rear end of my car which will run me about $30 for parts and then about $60 to install. Then they can alignment the rear end of the car. Now I ask, what the freakin hell!!! Am I supposed to do this crap!??!

jhammons01

That's Goodyear!!! Biggest ripoff place I've ever been to. Buy the tires and walk away!!

RSVampire

so what do I do? just go somewhere else?