Fronzizzle

Sorry for the long story, but I want to make sure I know how to proceed...

About 1.5 years ago, I got a "factory spec" alignment after I replaced all of my steering components. A few months ago, I got new tires & wheels and noticed that the alignment felt sloppy. After doing some searching, I found that the factory specs are necessarily the best.

My brother owns a general repair shop & is friends with a guy that owns an alignment shop with a brand new machine. So, based on some posts I've read, I took him the following specs:

Caster: Left +5, Right +5.5
Camber: Left -0.8, right -0.8
Toe: 3/32" total

After I dropped the car off, he called me and told me that my strut mounts didn't have the necessary room to do the adjustments and that I should buy some different mounts (like Founders). He said he would get it as close as possible for now.

When I picked the car up, he told me that I had a massive brake pull to the right, that after driving the car they pulled it in and the right front tire was locked up. When driving it, I had noticed that during braking the car pulled really hard that way so it at least made a little sense to me. He said he got it as close as possible, gave me the print out and away I went. He didn't charge me anything, he said once I got the new mounts he'd re-do the alignment and then charge me so I haven't paid a dime yet. As I drove home, I noticed that the car did in fact pull hard to the right, but it did it pretty much all the time, not just when braking.

Anyway, after talking to my brother I decided to change both front calipers and brake hoses (I did the rotors and pads about a month ago). The parts were cheap and it only took about 1.5 hours. I finished a little while ago, of course it made no difference - the car still pulls really hard to the right. I looked at the print out the alignment shop gave me and I'm having a hard time making heads or tails out of it, but from what I can tell he actually adjusted things the wrong way - he made the alignment further from the numbers I provided, not closer (I think). Please see attached.

If I'm right, I'm not sure the best way to proceed now. Do I still get the adjustable mounts? Or do I take the car someplace else and have them try to align it to my specs? Or am I looking at the printout incorrectly? And finally, based on the numbers, if I get an alignment is my hard pull to the right likely to go away or should I keep looking at brakes or something else? Thanks in advance for any advice.

pete0013

That make zero sense, something in the suspension is bent or ? If it didn't pull before then something happened at the shop. That's my opinion

Alice89

iTrader: (6)

Correct me if I'm wrong, but on the print out the top measurement is caster, the middle one is camber, and the bottom is toe.

So let me get this straight.

You wanted specs like this:

Caster: Left +5, Right +5.5
Camber: Left -0.8, right -0.8
Toe: 3/32" total

Instead you got this:

Caster: Left +2.7, Right +2.1
Camber: Left +2.7, right -3.5
Toe: 3/32" total

Your camber is JACKED UP!

I will give the alighnment guy the benifit of the doubt ONLY because he said "he'd re-do the alignment." But still, that's a really poor alignment. It seems like your car would be very hard to drive.

What's your front fender lip to ground height in inches? Even at stock height you would be able to get better specs than that.

Alice89

iTrader: (6)

Also the caster split is supposed to have .5 more on the right side, not the left. So he did the caster split backwards? But still the camber is just completely nuts. If this guy is trusted by you then I would go back and let him do it right, since he did admit the alignment was crap. If he's not trusted then I would choose another shop.

I just don't see how he could have not gotten more adjustment out of it. Was the car really pulling that bad with the previous alignment? Have you raised / lowered the front of your car? Has your car been in a wreck? Sorry for all the questions but they are relevant.

Oh and to answer the title of your thread, yes this is a terrible alignment.

Fronzizzle

The car didn't pull hard before like this, no. It did pull when you braked, but not driving down the street. For lack of a better term, the car wandered a lot after getting the new tires & wheels. I read a bunch of posts about this, found it's a pretty common issue that can (usually) be fixed by using specs like above.

I don't think the car was ever in an accident - I found no evidence of that though I've only owned it for a couple of years. Everything in the front suspension and steering is new, other than the struts. The car has about 100 miles on since everything has been replaced & I certainly haven't hit anything so I doubt anything is bent.

The car is stock height, no lowered. Nothing special with the suspension or steering components either, just basic stock replacements.

Reid Fleming

iTrader: (2)

Not only that, he has LESS Caster after than he did before. This alignment is wrong, wrong, wrong.

-3.5 camber on the right? LOL Your right tire won't make it past 500 miles before it will be completely bald on the inside. Your left tire will have severe tread wear out on the outer edge too with it's +2.74 camber. With these specs, your car must be hard to keep out of the ditch.

If you put your hands in the air in front of you and point your finger tips towards "10 o'clock," that is what your tires are set for right now.

Everybody complains about the factory alignment leading to outer tire wear. The factory camber is +0.3° This is why you want negative camber.

Take your car somewhere else.

pete0013

what he said!!

Fronzizzle

So, quick update...

On Friday, I replaced my front struts (KYB) & mounting plates (Founders Performance). The driver side strut was 100% shot, and both upper bearings were grinding.

Anyway, when I got done I took the car to a different alignment shop. He got the camber & toe set (the camber, he could only get to -0.6 on each side, not the -0.8 I requested) correctly. He also set the caster to my requirements.

And that's whey things got strange. The caster would be set, everything would be tightened down...and when the steering wheel was turned, the caster would change slightly, on both sides. He tried this a few times and each time it changed. The camber never moved, but the caster did. He brought me into his shop, we both went over everything to make sure nothing was loose or binding; we took turns turning the wheel while the other person watched, neither of us could see anything out of the ordinary.

This guy has been doing alignments for 30+ years; he said this was very uncommon but he has seen it before, it had to do with the way the strut was aligned.

When he was done, I took the car out for a long ride Friday night and then for a 2+ hour ride on Saturday, it handled much better than before and was no longer pulling. Not sure if I should worry about the caster changing or not?

hellz_wings

iTrader: (2)

What were the final specs? It is hard to get it to an exact spec, the steering wheel has trouble centering sometimes, so every time you try to re-center it, it changes, among other things..

Fronzizzle

Turns out, it was my fault...I didn't realize I wasn't supposed to re-use the plastic shaft covers with the Founders mounts. They were each pinned really hard, causing issues. Took them off, used some flexible rubber boots instead & put it back together, he re-did the alignment and nothing is changing now.

The final specs were 3/32" total toe, -0.6 camber on each side and for the caster, one is 4.0 and the other is 3.6, I believe. That was as close to 5/5.5 as he could get.

hellz_wings

iTrader: (2)

Yeah that looks about right.. You have an 85 and like mine (86) our mounting holes are not as long as the later years (not sure when though.. Probably 88 or 89 and up) and they can get more caster out of theirs. The most I can get outta mine is 4.6 on one side.