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alignment..

P

protege_chris

CEG'er
Joined
Jun 13, 2007
Messages
103
I've never had the pleasure of taking a vehicle in for an alignment before..

so I have a question.

After my crash, a guy at a local alignment shop said the wheels didn't look that badly out of alignment. My issue was the car veering to the right. After putting on new tires (rather than a donut haha), the car is much better.. though sort of veering to the left a little now o_O

Anyways.. the issue is, when the wheels are STRAIGHT, my steering wheel is turned around 2 inches to the left.

I assume a simple alignment wouldn't fix this.. what is most likely damaged/bent? Another thing is the P/S is quite weak.. if I turn the wheels all the way to the right, they stay in that position until I manually turn the wheel back to the left (unlike in a non-destroyed vehicle that you can just let go of the wheel and have it return to center).
 
the contours are hard to allign! it will never feel the same after you get it done so bring it to a reputable place that know what they are doing
 
It's all to do with alignment. Weak P/S has nothing do do with bringing your wheels back to the center when you take your hands off the wheel. It;s Camber and Caster that do that. And a toe adjustment will get the steering wheel straight when you drive down the road.

Go to a shop that REALLY knows the business and get a FOUR wheel alignment don;t let them convince you a 2 wheel alignment will do it.

Probably cost around $69 depending on where you are in the country.
 
cliff7080 said:
It's all to do with alignment. Weak P/S has nothing do do with bringing your wheels back to the center when you take your hands off the wheel. It;s Camber and Caster that do that. And a toe adjustment will get the steering wheel straight when you drive down the road.

Go to a shop that REALLY knows the business and get a FOUR wheel alignment don;t let them convince you a 2 wheel alignment will do it.

Probably cost around $69 depending on where you are in the country.
Click to expand...

Thanks Cliff. I'll probably go with a well-known shop rather than a little local one for this one. At least a certified one.


And for whomever it was that asked, I crashed into a hole and a mound of dirt at around 40mph.
 
The steering wheel thing is 100% an alignment issue. On front wheels, the toe is split evenly when the car is driven forward, so a difference in tie rod lengths causes the steering wheel to be off center.

He is right, a front end alignment may fix the steering wheel off center problem, but will not bring it into alignment with the thrust angle.

A good tech will put the car on the rack, set all the tire pressures EXACTLY, perform the rolling compensation, and then begin by aligning the rear of the car. Unfortunately the rear uses eccentric cams on the control arms so they are a bit of a PITA. Set them as close to zero as possible as the REAR wheels determine the thrust angle (the direction the car will go). When the rear is done, you move to the front, and with the steering wheel centered, start adjusting the tie rods toward zero. For good straight line stability it is desirable to have slight positive toe (toe-in).

This is all assuming that you have the stock suspension and that there is no need for camber/caster adjustment. If you have or need adjustment there, always perform that before setting the toe.


Beware! Many shops will give you an alignment printout that shows everything within spec, but lazy or ignorant techs will often "cheat" by moving the sensors instead of actually bringing the alignment into spec.
 
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