I just had my alignment done on my Integra and I notice that now when I let go of the steering wheel, the alignment pulls to the right. WTF!? I checked the alignment before and after spec sheets and they were within the range, except the left caster...was wasn't in range....wonder why he didn't adjust that.

Anyway, what could be wrong????? The toe and camber looks ok according to the spec sheet...

Help?????

 

Just bring it back and tell them about the pull to the right. They should either adjust it for you again or at least explain to you why it's happening.



Modified by LostGsr at 11:14 AM 12/15/2004

 

How bad does it pull?
Cars arnt necessarily supposed to keep straight when you let go of the wheel, its supposed to head to the right 'slightly'. This is done with safety in mind, where if one is to have a heart attack/sleep/spazz heaven forbid... the car doesnt go into the opposing lane.

 

caster is not adjustable. its possible you have a bad suspension component.

lets see the specs.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by SlipAngleX &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">How bad does it pull?
Cars arnt necessarily supposed to keep straight when you let go of the wheel, its supposed to head to the right 'slightly'. This is done with safety in mind, where if one is to have a heart attack/sleep/spazz heaven forbid... the car doesnt go into the opposing lane.</TD></TR></TABLE>

what are you talking about? cars are supposed to go fully straight when letting go of the wheel if the alignment is correct.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by LostGsr &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Just bring it back and tell them about the pull to the right. They should either adjust it for you again and at least explain to you why it's happening. </TD></TR></TABLE>

^ pretty much.

 

http://www.team-integra.net/se...D=555

go there and check the specs on your car and then check the alignment!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by boosted95teg &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">http://www.team-integra.net/se...D=555

go there and check the specs on your car and then check the alignment! </TD></TR></TABLE>

links broken.

also most shops have the specs on the sheet that they give you.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by IVI &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">caster is not adjustable.</TD></TR></TABLE>
don't you mean camber? correct me if I'm wrong, but caster should be adjustable via the strut rod that goes forward from the lower control arm. not sure if other adjustments are involved, though.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by SlipAngleX &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">its supposed to head to the right 'slightly'. This is done with safety in mind...</TD></TR></TABLE>
I have heard this, too. Not sure if it's 100% accurate, but sounds like a good idea. I think there are more crashes from people falling asleep than for being drunk.

 

Caster is not adjustable on Hondas unless you have an aftermarket kit to adjust it.

What were your caster readings?

If you could scan your printout that would help me out a lot too

 

the caster is making your call pull to the right. caster is not adjustable. i had the same problem in my teg and I had to replace the lca

there is probably something bent in your suspension...if u can ask, the shop to find out which component, or post up your specs here, and replace that part

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by IVI &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

what are you talking about? cars are supposed to go fully straight when letting go of the wheel if the alignment is correct.

</TD></TR></TABLE>

I respect you (for helpin' with the CEL problems thanks i remember my good peeps )
SO, I guess put nicely, I wasted my 2 years working at a Toyota dealership (another story in itself) and all the alignments were done in this fashion; to track 'slightly' to the right. This method and the reason for doing so shouldent be hard to understand. If you fell asleep or saw some strobe light and spazzed, wouldent you want to go to the right and hit a ditch than to slamming into opposing traffic, and possibly hurting more than yourself?

In a perfect world, an alignment would be a 'real perfect' alignment
Till that day...

 

A well aligned car with properly inflated tires should go straight on a flat, even, regular surface. However, such a surface would really suck in the rain, since it wouldn't drain. So our road engineers put crowns on the road, so if you drive on the right side of the road, your car should be leaning towards the passenger side. This can often make a properly aligned car "drift" to one side. Bear in mind there is a difference between having the car "drift" (not in initial-d drifting sense) to the right, and having the car "pull" to the right in such a way that you are almost fighting the weel to keep going straight. If your car is trying to do a gentle lane change that would be normal. If your car is trying to do a "turn" as if it were on a cloverleaf, that'd be out of spec. Most shops give you a 2-wheel alignment, but a good shop will give you a four-wheel "thrust" alignment on your car.

Another thing that can change the way your car tracks is your tires. Obviously an under inflate tire will pull, but even tires properly inflated pull in various directions. If you take your car to a shop with a hunter balancer for wheel mounting, they can take this into account when they mount your car, so you end up with a neutral pull. If they are nice to you, they will also bin any tire that pulls too much.

Hunter Tire Balancer: http://www.gsp9700.com

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by SlipAngleX &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

I respect you (for helpin' with the CEL problems thanks i remember my good peeps )
SO, I guess put nicely, I wasted my 2 years working at a Toyota dealership (another story in itself) and all the alignments were done in this fashion; to track 'slightly' to the right. This method and the reason for doing so shouldent be hard to understand. If you fell asleep or saw some strobe light and spazzed, wouldent you want to go to the right and hit a ditch than to slamming into opposing traffic, and possibly hurting more than yourself?

In a perfect world, an alignment would be a 'real perfect' alignment
Till that day...</TD></TR></TABLE>

thanks i have respect for you as well. however, i used to work at sears, and the alignments we did were to be completely on spec and not have the car pull to either side. i understand the theory that you would want a car to pull to the right in case of falling asleep etc.. if that being the case, when the steering wheel is completely straight with no one holding it, the car would go towards the right, so the driver would have to always when driving slightly hold the steering wheel to the left. to me thats defeating the whole purpose of an alignment.

when you begin an alignment, you have to make sure that the steering wheel is pointed 100 % level and centered straight.
the 3 main things looked at during an alignment are toe, camber, and caster.

on our hondas/acuras, also toyotas, the camber and caster is not supposed to be adjustable without various kits and tricks of bolt sizes etc.

so the main thing we would be adjusting is the toe. if the toe is not at the closest to 0 as possible, the wheels would not be pointing straight ahead. which would cause unwanted things to happen.

such as if the rear was misadjusted, the car would ''dogsled''. loss of gas mileage, improper wear of tires.

not to mention the control would be affected since the car would always want to turn slightly right. if you fall asleep there is no real remedy. i dont see how making the car veer off the right side of the road would be any better than rear ending somebody, in my opinion, it would probably be worse hitting a stationary tree or going into a house.

not to bash on your skills of being an alignment tech at toyota, but this is the way i believe it to be, and how i have done it prior.

not meaning to start a feud or a battle here however.

i guess some shops just operate diffrently.

 

like OneDirection said, check your tire pressure. Also...has your car been wrecked before? We aligned a car once, it was perfect, but still pulled to the right because the frame had damage. It was kinked up, which in turn pulled the right side suspension back some and caused the car to pull to the right. If it hasn't been wrecked...then I don't know. Hope that helps.

 

 

Is that a bump, or did you fix things? If so, what did you figure out the issue was?