Suspension & Brakes - Alignment

I had my car aligned in June and the "Technician" said he adjusted out as far a he could but it was still pulling slightly towards the passenger side. Now my drivers side tire looks like this:
http://img.tapatalk.com/624a9e37-e380-54ae.jpg
http://img.tapatalk.com/624a9e37-e39b-e7e9.jpg

The car is lowered with the Eibach LT1 Pro-Kit, and SLP Bilstein Shocks. The front tires are 245/50r16 all weather Kumho's. And I have the Strano sway Bars on it also.

What can be done to prevent this problem when I get more tires? What can be done as far as the alignment issue?

Too much positive camber. Most say -1.00 Degree camber works well

My driver's side looked exactly like that as well, except mine was on the outside edge. Found out my upper ball joints and outer tie rod ends were SHOT.

I had my car aligned in June and the "Technician" said he adjusted out as far a he could but it was still pulling slightly towards the passenger side. Now my drivers side tire looks like this:

The car is lowered with the Eibach LT1 Pro-Kit, and SLP Bilstein Shocks. The front tires are 245/50r16 all weather Kumho's. And I have the Strano sway Bars on it also.

What can be done to prevent this problem when I get more tires? What can be done as far as the alignment issue?

You installed aftermarket parts on your car to lower the ride height and expect your alignment to be just as good as it was from the factory? Were the alignment angles somewhat close to spec afterwords? The technician was probably right telling you that the adjustments are maxed out and could not get them to factory spec, so he cranked the fuck out of the camber in an attempt to compensate for a pull. I have never aligned an fbody before, but you probably need a camber kit of some variety to correct the issue. Considering this alignment was done nearly 10 months ago, yea your tires would look like that if some of the angles were fucked up. Which also doesn't factor in for you hitting potholes and curbs that don't help with alignments.

Did they give you a printout of the before and after specs on the alignment? Alot can be told by those numbers. What got adjusted as far as possible, Camber, Caster, Toe? The pic of that tire shows wear on the inner edge which is excessive negative camber and will push the car twards the opposite side. It looks like that is the L/F tire and with excessive negative camber that makes sence that it pulls to the pasenger side

Too much positive camber. Most say -1.00 Degree camber works well

positive camber will wear the outside of the tire

Not to thread hijack but how much on average is an alignment?

Your gonna have to put some tires on it and have it aligned again. If it still wont get within spec then something is bent or worn out (most likely front lower control arms/bushings). You may have to get aftermarket lower control arms for the front if the factory ones are running out of adjustment since your lowered.

Dabest your probably looking anywhere from 100-150 bucks for an alignment. That doesnt include replacing any worn or damaged parts (yes, they MUST be replaced before aligning or the shop wont warranty the work). Must also have decent tires before an alignment. Best time to do it is right after replacing tires.

ALSO not rotating your tires will cause wear like that too.

Damn that's more than I thought it would be. Thanks.

Your gonna have to put some tires on it and have it aligned again. If it still wont get within spec then something is bent or worn out (most likely front lower control arms/bushings). You may have to get aftermarket lower control arms for the front if the factory ones are running out of adjustment since your lowered.

Dabest your probably looking anywhere from 100-150 bucks for an alignment. That doesnt include replacing any worn or damaged parts (yes, they MUST be replaced before aligning or the shop wont warranty the work). Must also have decent tires before an alignment. Best time to do it is right after replacing tires.

ALSO not rotating your tires will cause wear like that too.

Just wondering where you get your alingments done at? If you pay more then 100 (outside of a lifetime alignment) then you either live in a high priced area (higher than Vegas :eek: ) or getting screwed.

You installed aftermarket parts on your car to lower the ride height and expect your alignment to be just as good as it was from the factory? Were the alignment angles somewhat close to spec afterwords? The technician was probably right telling you that the adjustments are maxed out and could not get them to factory spec, so he cranked the fuck out of the camber in an attempt to compensate for a pull. I have never aligned an fbody before, but you probably need a camber kit of some variety to correct the issue. Considering this alignment was done nearly 10 months ago, yea your tires would look like that if some of the angles were fucked up. Which also doesn't factor in for you hitting potholes and curbs that don't help with alignments.

the problem with this, is that unless it's WAAYY out, camber won't cause a pull. caster on the other hand........that'll drive ya batty.

that said, that wear looks seriously like the camber was way out. with the car lowered though, the entire geometry could be off, causing abnormal wear too.

I had my car aligned in June and the "Technician" said he adjusted out as far a he could but it was still pulling slightly towards the passenger side. Now my drivers side tire looks like this:
http://img.tapatalk.com/624a9e37-e380-54ae.jpg
http://img.tapatalk.com/624a9e37-e39b-e7e9.jpg

The car is lowered with the Eibach LT1 Pro-Kit, and SLP Bilstein Shocks. The front tires are 245/50r16 all weather Kumho's. And I have the Strano sway Bars on it also.

What can be done to prevent this problem when I get more tires? What can be done as far as the alignment issue?

he should've left camber right in the prefered specs, and lowered drivers side caster. a car will pull to the side with least caster.

Just wondering where you get your alingments done at? If you pay more then 100 (outside of a lifetime alignment) then you either live in a high priced area (higher than Vegas :eek: ) or getting screwed.

yep....i was just thinking perhaps i need to raise my prices.

3 possiblitys

1)you either have tons of camber.. the kind of camber when you see it coming, it looks like your tires gunna fall off
2)toe out on the pasenger or both sides most likely just the pasenger side
3)bad or bend components

go get another alignment but tell them to check everything b4 hand.

do you carve corners alot?

im thinking the passenger side has a 0* camber and a small amount of toe out and the driver side has a negative camber and that makes the driver side have less contact to the road so the driver side tire allows the passenger side tire to pull it to the right because the passenger tire has more contact to the road,so more grip

might have thought to deeply into this haha

yep....i was just thinking perhaps i need to raise my prices.

So what's an average price? My friend said he got his done for around 75.

Mine was $69.99 at Allied Tire in Lafayette, Louisiana. National Discount Tire quoted me $79.99

Price wise, I've seen 60.00-85.00 for a two wheel alignment. That's all our cars are good for. If they insist on a 4 wheel alignment, go elsewhere.

Not to thread hijack but how much on average is an alignment?

I got mine aligned for about $60.00.

Your gonna have to put some tires on it and have it aligned again...
...Must also have decent tires before an alignment. Best time to do it is right after replacing tires.

I'll be ordering 2 Kumho XS's in 265/45r16 size.

ALSO not rotating your tires will cause wear like that too.

I rotated those tires to the front in February of 2011 when I got the XS's on the rear and haven't put but maybe 1500 miles on them in the front.

Did they give you a printout of the before and after specs on the alignment? Alot can be told by those numbers. What got adjusted as far as possible, Camber, Caster, Toe? The pic of that tire shows wear on the inner edge which is excessive negative camber and will push the car twards the opposite side. It looks like that is the L/F tire and with excessive negative camber that makes sence that it pulls to the pasenger side

The car was pulling worse before it was lowered even before the tires were rotated. Once it was lowered it wasn't as noticeable. And there wasn't much difference after alignment.

Did they give you a printout of the before and after specs on the alignment? Alot can be told by those numbers. What got adjusted as far as possible, Camber, Caster, Toe? The pic of that tire shows wear on the inner edge which is excessive negative camber and will push the car twards the opposite side. It looks like that is the L/F tire and with excessive negative camber that makes sence that it pulls to the pasenger side

I had a print out but I'll have to dig through all my records(disorganized) in order to find out if it has the info on it.

The car was pulling worse before it was lowered even before the tires were rotated. Once it was lowered it wasn't as noticeable. And there wasn't much difference after alignment.

Does anyone know about "a tool that inserts into holes in the stock K-member and control arm -- kind of an alignment jig."
It was mention on another forum concerning the factory service manual.

So what's an average price? My friend said he got his done for around 75.

that's about right. i do $69 for cars, and $79 for trucks.

Does anyone know about "a tool that inserts into holes in the stock K-member and control arm -- kind of an alignment jig."
It was mention on another forum concerning the factory service manual.

there is a special tool.......hold on......

found it.....
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7042/6927194257_b3c0b04fb9.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/70148615@N03/6927194257/)
caster camber (http://www.flickr.com/photos/70148615@N03/6927194257/) by 1LtCap (http://www.flickr.com/people/70148615@N03/), on Flickr

the problem with this, is that unless it's WAAYY out, camber won't cause a pull. caster on the other hand........that'll drive ya batty.

that said, that wear looks seriously like the camber was way out. with the car lowered though, the entire geometry could be off, causing abnormal wear too.

In my experience performing alignments, excessive cross camber will most certainly cause a pull. I've had quite a few battles of steering pull with anything over .5 degrees of cross camber. The best part about that is, the camber angle can be in "spec" on both sides, but still cause a pull due to excessive cross camber.

So what's an average price? My friend said he got his done for around 75.

The local shop I use up here does front ends for like 45-60 and whole car for I think like 90, its been a while since I last had one done to remember for sure, also we got one of them old school guys that just does front end toe with the old school tools (no computer rack) and he charges like 35 if I remember right and does a GREAT job.

I had my car aligned in June and the "Technician" said he adjusted out as far a he could but it was still pulling slightly towards the passenger side. Now my drivers side tire looks like this:
http://img.tapatalk.com/624a9e37-e380-54ae.jpg
http://img.tapatalk.com/624a9e37-e39b-e7e9.jpg

The car is lowered with the Eibach LT1 Pro-Kit, and SLP Bilstein Shocks. The front tires are 245/50r16 all weather Kumho's. And I have the Strano sway Bars on it also.

What can be done to prevent this problem when I get more tires? What can be done as far as the alignment issue?

I would say definitely got some negative camber going on there, also possibly some toe in, if you run your hand from the inside of the tire to the outside and can feel sharp "ridges" on the edges of the tread that could indicate toe in on that tire, from my experience of 8-9 years worth of driving lowered hondas.

he should've left camber right in the prefered specs, and lowered drivers side caster. a car will pull to the side with least caster.

^^^ good amswer.
With perfect tires try to set a cross CASTER about .50 lower on the left than right because of crown of road, caster is most likely the pulling problem and not a wear problem, camber will cause a small amout of wear if out a great amount but not much of pulling problem ( ever follow a old VW ? the rear are leaning in a great amount so do a lot of late model small cars, them are set so as to make them stable in turns, as stated camber will cause very small wear) Toe if out of specs even a small amout will cause fast wear and may cause a little pull, I think THAT wear came from "TOE OUT" toe out will cause 2 to 4 times more wear on inside of the left as to the wear on right, toe in will cause 2-4 times more wear on outside of right as to wear on left.
you should ask for a "4 wheel align " as to ckeck the rear thrust line so the front toe is set in referance to thrust line, IF you have rear adjustable L C A the rear thrust line may be set to specs if not nothing you can do but use it to referance the front. price should range 70-100 depends on where you are, Before I retired the shop charged 79.95 for 4 wheel align
with good equment( Hunter Hackeye Eliite) I never did a " life time align" in the 30 years I worked, I explained " 30 ft or 30 seconds " as it is possible to rub the curb leaving the tire store and damange the alignment, I did assure the driver if they had a problem within a reasonsble time I would recheck/realign at NC , If car appeared to have been taken care of, BUT only on a case by case
chk air ever 2-3 wks in winter and about 3-4 weeks in summer run as close to max on side of tire as you can stand ( harsh ride ) rotate if possible 4-6 k miles, check align once a year/8-10 k miles OR ANY time the car drives differant from yesterday
with lowered should still be able to get close/or to OE specs ( I am lowered
1 3/4 to 2" around and get perfect wear up to 40 k miles per set on all my cars )
A good tech can set the caster and camber on the f-body with out needing the
"special tool", just pry the align points around with a screw driver/pry bar
enough of this rambleing,
just my $ 0.02s
Johnny

In my experience performing alignments, excessive cross camber will most certainly cause a pull. I've had quite a few battles of steering pull with anything over .5 degrees of cross camber. The best part about that is, the camber angle can be in "spec" on both sides, but still cause a pull due to excessive cross camber.

i just did a chevy van yesterday.........everything was way the hell out....abnd pretty far off side to side....no pulling though. just bad tire wear.

So 1ltcap, where is a good place to get an alignment?

Actually which places should I avoid? lol

So 1ltcap, where is a good place to get an alignment?

Actually which places should I avoid? lol

places to avoid would be ANY of the "chain" types shops. you know....goodyear, firestone, tires plus, puke boys......those places may get a decent person once in a blue moon.....but not usually.

best place is gonna be a "mom and pop" type of shop. you may be able to find shops like that that specialize in alignments, and/or suspension work, or it may just be a general repair shop.

you can check out iatn.net for shop recommendations, napa's website will give you some recommendations too.

Thanks man that iatn website really helped!

Interesting, SO how is cross camber corrected?

In my experience performing alignments, excessive cross camber will most certainly cause a pull. I've had quite a few battles of steering pull with anything over .5 degrees of cross camber. The best part about that is, the camber angle can be in "spec" on both sides, but still cause a pull due to excessive cross camber.

Interesting, SO how is cross camber corrected?

he'd still have to show me one. i've never seen camber cause a pull, unless it was so horribly out of specs, that the car was barley drivable to begin with. i used to have this very argument way back when i learned alignments with the guy that taught me front ends. i pretty much refused to admit i was wrong, even when it was painfully obvious i was. now, i know better. :D

In my experience performing alignments, excessive cross camber will most certainly cause a pull. I've had quite a few battles of steering pull with anything over .5 degrees of cross camber. The best part about that is, the camber angle can be in "spec" on both sides, but still cause a pull due to excessive cross camber.

I will step back in for a quick statment which is about opposite a statment which I posted above after which I will back out and keep quite

" The best part about that is, the camber angle can be in "spec" on both sides, but still cause a pull due to excessive cross camber.[/QUOTE]
"
I will say that IF one wheel is waayy positive and the other
is wayyy negtive ( " \ \ ") but still within OE specs then car will pull a little to the postive side,
I still think the OP's tire wear is from toe out
I am out of here.....Johnny