Ok,here is my question.The car pulls a little to the right.it did it with the old 16 inch tires,and now with my new 18 inch toyos and a new street pettit alignment.The tech gives me a rash of **** saying 1st,its not original specs so its not his fault,2nd,its called tire pull and i should swap front tires.I swear that the steering wheel looks like its off center to the right.Could adustment to the front brake help,any feedback on this?

 

Go to a REAL performance shop for an alignment. The typical tire place will adjust for road crown and just, in general, not do as precise a job. It's entirely possible that the steering wheel isn't straight. The tech blaming the problem on the alignment settings shows that you got ripped off, IMO.

What are the final settings per your printout? (If you don't have a printout, that's another sign that you went to the wrong place....)

 

here is my printout,i supplied pettit street specs for 18 inch wheels.caster front right 6.1 left 6.1 camber right -1.0 left -0.7 toe Right 0.05 Left 0.00 rear camber right-0.1 left 0.1 toe 0.05 thrust angle 0 my car dosnt pull badly,just a tiny bit. It did pull a little more to the right before the alignment.

 

Man, that's a shitty alignment. There is simply no excuse for not matching the settings L and R, certainly closer than that!). And that's the weakness with Pettit's alignment specs -- rear camber. You can run a lot more camber than that! My 18" specs are 1.1/0.5 camber, these have worked great on my car with very even wear, with 400/290 lb/in springs.

In any case, are you sure your car is truly pulling to the right and that it's not following road crown, etc.? Is your steering wheel straight? I would still go to a performance shop for your next alignment. They should do a much better job.

 

which specs are off the front l and r camber?There are no tuners or speciality alignment shops here.I will take it back and get some more rear camber adjustments.Yes the steering wheel maybe slightly off center to the right,i asked about that and the tech said that would not make it pull to the right.

 

Just because the steering wheel is not center doesn't mean the alignment is off. It simply shows that the tech made the adjustments without centering the steering wheel first. However when you are driving you may be unconsciously centering the steering wheel causing the car to go to the right slightly. It sounds ridiculous but i have seen it happen before in some of the shops i have worked in. When you Are getting an alignment done you should always make sure the tech centers the steering wheel after it is on the rack. Then start making adjustments.

It is also possile that with the added adjustments that the tech made you r ariding on a differant area of tread. Most likely you are runnign a directional tire and now the tire is pulling differnetly than what you were used to.

 

thanks for the imput connor,i think the steering wheel is slightly off to the right.I know the tech did not center the wheel at all.I will have this fixed asap.

 

Can someone tell me how less camber in the rear affect the way the car drives? I have my front camber set at about -1.2 and the rear set at -1.5. And the car drives at lot better than with the stock settings, but then i also put in a set of coil overs at the same time. This is with the stock rims.

 

less camber at the rear = more oversteer, greater straightline stability

 

I dont see how anyone would do an alignment without centering the steering wheel. You would actually have to start the car and then center the steering wheel, since the car has power steering. The best alignment would be with the driver in the car. When you get out of you car the alignment settings will change. When i was aligning my car by myself, it took me about 45 mins. I got everything perfect. I had to set the alignment off with me out of the car just so that it would be perfect with me in the car. It took a few times to get it perfect. I have seen brand new tires cause a tire pull, not just the cheap tires but brand name tires also. It does happen. Check your tire pressure make sure the fronts are the same and the rears are the same. You can try rotating your tires if you can to see if the problem goes away. If you cant rotate it front to back, just rotate the front left to right. If the car pulls the other way then its a tire problem. If it pulls the same way, its not a tire problem. Just hold the steering wheels straight and see which way the car pulls. Remember when you have to hold the steering wheel to the right to go straight, the car is actually pulling to the left. Your are counter steering to the right to comphensate the pull to the left.

 

Any tech that would align your car without centering the wheel, is a bonehead. Take it back and make them give you a refund. Take it to someone that knows what they are doing.