Ever since I lowered the car (I installed KYB AGX shocks and Tanabe springs) my car has been pulling to the right hand side, even after an alignment. I can scan the sheet with all the alignment figures, but I’ll do that tomorrow, cuz I don’t have it with me right now.
Off top of my head, the toe on the front wheels was 0.05 degress and for the rear ones was 0.1 degrees. Also, camber is -1.5 degrees on the rear wheels and I can’t remember the other figures…
Assuming the alignment was done properly, why would my car pull the the right?
The only thing that comes to my mind are the tension rods… i.e. the caster is a bit off for some reason…
go back to whoever did the alignment and tell them to fix it ASAP. my car pulled to the left after an alignment, and I kept putting it off… in about a month and a half it destroyed one of the front tires (totally bald).
I did go back, but they didn’t fix it properly at all… it still pulls to the right (not as bad though) and the guy said that’s the best they can do… the reasoning was cuz the car is lowered, they can’t fix the alignment issues… heh…
maybe I’ll just take it to a different shop and get it done there.
What I’m affraid of though is that some suspension component is messed up, and that’s why I can’t get it aligned properly.
I used to run an alignment workshop for a few years and I know a lot about the way cars react to various things including alignment, road conditions, tyres, etc.
Please post up the alignment report so I can check it out and advise on what should be done … I really enjoy suspension work on cars like this so I would be very happy to help.
I had my car aligned at woodbridge alignment. They are very good at setting up suspension and my car stills put a tad to the right. With lowered cars it really is a bit of a guessing game and the reason I think the ‘your car is lowered’ excuse is used is because of time. It would take countless test drives, tweaking, etc. to get the car setup properly and when you are only paying 100 bucks, it doesnt work out for them in the end.
is your steering wheel straight? because if the wheel is still a tad crooked you need to continue playing around with the tie rod ends (loosening and tightening to bring them in and out) so that the steering wheel is straight, which means that your front wheels are most likly straight.
It’s almost certainly due to your front camber and/or castor being too far different from the left to right … when you replace struts you can usually get around 0.5 degree of camber either way, so you can actually get a slight adjustment out of it yourself even without adjustable suspension.
You should also keep in mind that when anyone does the alignment it can measure slightly wrong if they aren’t really careful and also make sure their equipment is calibrated well … I know it sounds fussy, but when you are talking about less than 0.5 degree then it can make a difference.
Tyres can also make cars pull a little either way depending on how they are worn - have they been changed recently or rotated around the car at the time of alignment maybe?
yeah, I’m thinking it’s the caster as well… but I’ll just wait till I re-do the alignment once I get my rear upper control arms on so I can correct the negative camber in the back (I’m not too crazy about negative camber since I don’t track my car)
Also, the tires weren’t rotated at all… they have a directional rotation, and they were brand new 3 months ago when I put them on.
The problem is easy to spot with those figures assuming they are accurate … I would expect this car to curve slightly right most of the time.
You have about 0.5 degree more castor on the left which will encourage the car to go to the right slightly if the road conditions allow it (I assume most roads in your area have a slight lean or camber towards the right so rain will flow off) … also around 0.5 degree more negative camber on the left front which will push a little to the right also.
I would suggest that you loosen the lower mounting bolts where the left strut meets the hub, pull outwards on the strut as you tighten them up again … this might get you 0.25 degree more positive … then do the same on the right strut but push it inwards to increase the negative camber on that side.
In a perfect world you might change the camber to be almost even which will reduce the pulling by a fair bit. The next thing to look at would be adjustable castor arms to either decrease the left or increase the right - ideally the right should be up to 0.5 degree more than the left to counter normal road camber.
Let me know if this makes sense or not - I can try to draw a diagram if necessary but it would be fairly rough and probably not much help either
I’m not gonna do anything until I get my rear upper control arms that are adjustable and also adjustable tension rods… hopefully that’ll be enough (and easy enough) to get the alignment done properly…
