So I get new tires and decide to get an alignment. After its done, its worse then how it came in. When i accelerate i must hold the steering wheel crooked, when i let off the gas it goes straight. According to the aligner, since i don't have a camber kit there isn't much he can do and my car swaying is "normal" (bs). Car is dropped about 2" on Apex'i N1 Pros if that matters.

Can someone tell me whats wrong with this picture. Im going back tomorrow pissed.




Modified by Andres-eh2 at 6:08 PM 7/12/2004

 

looks like he didnt do anything w/ the caster or toe on the front.. and those would be why the steering wheel is crooked like it is.. also looks like he left the toe in the rear off as well..

he is correct about the camber, there is nothing he can do to fix the front of the car cause there is nothing to adjust.. u can make a homemade rear chamber kit using a longer bolt and some washers.. do a search and you find info on this.. i would take it back and make them do it agian and compare the 1st alignment to the 2nd alignment..

 

I know he cant do anything about the front camber but i know of many people out there having dropped cars and having a straight steering wheel. its dangerous when im going 60 mph cuz the car shifts violently.

 

i have ground controls raised all the way up (half-inch drop), and the guy was right about camber adjustment. but he should have been able to put almost everything else within the proper range. my car had gone without an alignment for tens of thousands of miles, and after an alignment, the only thing out of the proper range was the camber.

that toe on the rear right looks really off.

i have a similar print-out from the alignment i had done at sears...did it have a field where it said if the steering wheel was level before, and if it is level after the alignment?

 

The steering wheel being crooked is a crock. Setting the wheel straight should have been one of the first things he did.

I'd just invest in some camber adjustable upper control arms in the front and some ingalls camber adjustments in the rear.

Just remember that trying to adjust camber will throw the toe no matter what.

 

The reason he left caster alone in the front is because there are no OEM adjustments for caster on your car. Get a camber kit and you can adjust caster and camber. Everything looks ok to me except the right rear, looks like he didnt even adjust it. I do alignments all day, remember one thing, frozen bolts make it very difficult and the rear compensator arms where rear toe adjustment is made is commonly frozen. If the steering wheel isnt center when driving straight then that is his fault for not centering it after he was finished. Pm me if you have other questions.

 

tks cory man. When i took the car in it drove fine, stright wheel and everything but i know i needed and alignment because i was going through tires like crazy

 

my car is pretty low....2 degrees camber front, 1.2 rear. Set the toe to stock, and it rides great!

RR toe didn't get adjusted at all

 

regardless im going back tomorrow, pissed!

 

Caster has to do with steering returnability, not steering wheel position. Problem is that he alligned the front to the rear... You cannot do that. See the thrust angle? That car is going to "dog track" like nothing else... This is where your problem is.. You MUST allign the rear FIRST and THEN set the front. If you don't, then you will have the problems you are describing. Obviously they didn't know jack about doing allignments or this wouldn't be an issue.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Emerika &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">my car is pretty low....2 degrees camber front, 1.2 rear. Set the toe to stock, and it rides great!

RR toe didn't get adjusted at all </TD></TR></TABLE>

Bingo!!!I was about to post the exact same thing.

show them that it wasn't touched, and they should realign the vehicle.

Also they might have had the steering wheel locked in a crooked position when they did the alignment - I do alignments and sometimes it is hard to get dead center on the wheel. I've had a few that I religned before giving the car back to the customer because the wheel was slightly off.

 

I forgot to mention that I just got the front done. My car is slightly (by a couple of MM) dropped more to one side, can this influence.

I took the car back to them today and he showed me the screen and the steering wheel is dead on, he believes without a camber kit theres nothing else he can do, regardless of the rear i think

 

why didnt you get all 4 corners done?? its supposed to be done that way.. and was your steering wheel ever taken off for any reason?? that could also cause it to be off the way it is now if he had it lined up..

 

Next time tell them you want to watch them do this, you will find out if you don't they usually won't do **** or actually try to cheat. And here is how they do it, say toe is off, well if you punch the tire it will fix the toe for a second on the screen and then they press print really quick.

 

i did see the car on the machine for a while and they definetly touched something because it wasnt like that when i took it in.

Steering wheel was never taken off in my two years of ownership.

Guess i will have to buy a camber kit now

 

take it to Sears automotive... 4 wheel, 6 month, 6ooo mile warranty!

 

for one you need to get a 4-wheel alignment, otherwise you are wasting your money. tell the shop they are full of crap about not being able to alignthe car with bad camber settigns. I had my car aligned and it was almost dead nuts on WITH about 2.5* of negative camber int eh front and over 1.5* of negative camber in the rear. (I had it adjusted to those settings )

4-wheel alignment is a must when it comes to getting it done correctly, otherwise you are just pissing into the wind