Car Won't Hold Alignment
 

OK.

Well, after I installed my springs and shocks, I took the car to get aligned. Since the alignment, I have had nothing but problems. The car will not stay aligned.


I have take it back to the shop three times, finally this last time they said there is a problem and they don't know what it is, but the car won't hold alignment. The alignment adjustments are not moving, but something is. After the car has shifted out of alignment, it drives fine and handles great, but tire wear is bad. It doesn't seem to shift again after that intial movement.

They said that as soon as the re align it and take it off the rack, they can hear/feel it shift and the alignment goes way out of wack. Here are the three different sheets from saturday.

The seem to think that it is my k member shifting. The car is going to be looked at by a body man to see if he can find anything.

Could it be that something has just come loose, or is my k member fubared?

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...rNC24/NTB1.jpg

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...rNC24/NTB2.jpg

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...rNC24/NTB3.jpg

While you're at it, check your lower front control arm bushings and see if they're still in working condition first. I've seen both camber and caster bushings torn on quite a bit of lower control arms. When these bushings get worn, many of the alignment, comfort, handling, and safety issues can arise.

The k-member can't move... it's got locating pins, and even if it could you didn't loosen it to install these parts and you alignment wasn't slipping before.

They aren't getting the nuts tight. Can't be anything else. I way over torque them because they can and do slip. But if wouldn't hurt to loctite them as well (the pinch nuts loose some strength the more you take them on and off. But I hit them with an air gun because they can slip. Or try another shop. An alignment isn't rocket science. Basically four nuts and and two tie-rod ends.

I agree! Most shops, at the beginning of an alignment, will pick the front of the car up with jacks under the LCAs, and wiggle stuff around, looking for anything that's GROSSLY wrong. They then set the front end back down on the rack and "align" the car.

IF, and I emphasize IF, your a-arm bushings, either upper or lower, have any serious wear, the car will take a "set" during the alignment, but as soon as you drive the car, the arms will most likely return to the place where they "wore in" to. Consequently, your alignment is off. As long as you have excesive wear in the bushings, this pattern will become a vicious cycle.

However, as Sam mentioned, it might be as simple as the mechanic not getting the bolts tight. One suggestion I have for that is to put "star" washers on the LCA pivot bolts. When you tighten the bolts and they have the "star" washers, the edges of the washers will "bite" into the frame and help hold the settings.

i vote for not getting the nuts tight, when i was in tech school i was aligning my grand am i would get it perfect, tighten the strut bolts with an impact, take it off the rack and they would move alot, did this twice. I was using a swivel on the impact and it was losing a lot of power through the swivel. Took the swivel off and problem solved.

actually, reading more through it, that's really the ideal area to start. I've seen this screwed up more often. nevertheless though, i still think it doesn't hurt to visually inspect, especially knowing how old our vehicles are.

I told him to go somewhere else. What I also didn't consider was they might not have been jouncing the car, or doing it hard enough. The springs are much stiffer than stock, and when you let a car down it will stay "propped up" and that will effect the numbers. When it settles (which is why I and someone else hang off the radiator support etc.) the numbers will change.

yeah, the car is at another shop at this moment.

I will let you know the results/conclusions as soon as I get them.

My car has been to 3 differant shops over the last 4 years and has only gotten worse each time. The first time the car only had 33K on it. Like stated it's not rocket science and I have no idea why so many shops have such a difficult time with it especially when it's what they do.

Because most "shops", especially chain-type shops, don't hire good people. I would suggest going to the Hunter Engineering website, and look up the "road force" tire balancer. They had/have a search function that would allow you to see if anyone in your area had that high-dollar, high-tech balancer. If you find one near your home, call the place and see if they do alignments. If they spend the $$$ for that kind of equipment, they're probably a good shop....