fscot

I took my '93 Prelude 4ws to National Tire and Battery, (my local Honda does not do alignments and sends all Honda's to NTB). The car had a slight left pull, and the steering wheel had to be turned slightly to the right position for the car to go straight.

They adjusted the rear wheels saying they were worse than the front, and they adjusted the front wheels also. The measurements were like .30 on the rear and .17 on the front, I think that was how much they had to be adjusted.

Now the problem, the car has a worse pull to the left and the steering wheel has to be held even farther to the right for the car to drive straight.

If I disable 4WS (this can be done a number of ways), the car drives perfectly straight and the steering wheel stays in the center. So it's obvious that the rear wheels are misadjusted with the steering wheel. I know the rear wheels default to neutral when the car is off so this means that the rear wheels are actually aligned straight ahead in the neutral or off position. The problem then means that the steering wheel is not adjusted properly with the rear wheels. So when the wheel is centered, the rear wheels see that as a slight left turn and make their adjustments accordingly.

So how do I explain this to my NTB "specialist" so he can understand how this works?
If the steering wheel is centered, and then the rear wheels are aligned with the wheel centered, would that solve the problem? Or would that just make it worse when the car was started?




Modified by fscot at 5:53 PM 9/9/2005

RHD_BB4T

There is a tool for the 4WS cars. There is a plug in the rear rack assem that you pull out and screw this tool in. It effectively looks the rear rack in the center postition so the toe can be set. You cannot.... should not adjust the rear toe with out it. You can get the tool from honda. I'm not sure if anyone else sells it. Its not a bad idea for you to just buy one and keep it, in case you change aligment shops. Hope this helps.

fscot

Are the rear wheels automatically set by default to be at neutral when the steering wheel is centered?

Should they set the rear neutral alignment with the car running and the steering wheel centered? And of course using this tool you speak of?

Behan

Do you have a copy of the alignment sheet they gave you ? And if so, can you post it up?

fscot

Here's the alignment sheet they gave me.

Question: Is it just possible to disengage the 4WS system without having the 4WS light come on? If I disconnect the wiring at the rear steering unit, is there anyway I can jump that connection to make the 4WS ecu think it's still working?




Modified by fscot at 6:35 AM 9/10/2005