Alignment
#1
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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:
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?
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?
Last edited by BS; 04-12-2012 at 05:20 AM. Reason: Highlighting main question.
#4
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?
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?
Last edited by Bjorn20; 04-11-2012 at 10:38 PM.
#5
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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
positive camber will wear the outside of the tire
positive camber will wear the outside of the tire
#7
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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.
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.
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#9
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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.
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.
#10
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 **** 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.
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?
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?
yep....i was just thinking perhaps i need to raise my prices.
#11
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
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
Last edited by bwkmaro; 04-12-2012 at 06:21 PM.
#15
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I got mine aligned for about $60.00.
I'll be ordering 2 Kumho XS's in 265/45r16 size.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
#16
found it.....
http://www.flickr.com/photos/70148615@N03/6927194257/http://www.flickr.com/photos/70148615@N03/6927194257/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/70148615@N03/, on Flickr
#17
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.
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.
Last edited by Bjorn20; 04-12-2012 at 10:32 PM.
#18
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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?
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?
#19
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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
Last edited by SS SLP2; 04-15-2012 at 09:25 AM.
#20
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.