Hi Everyone, my 91 RS always pulled to the right slightly. 130k+ miles and the suspension, shocks and steering were still original.

I replaced all 4 shocks/struts, Idler arm, center link, tie rods. Got brand new control arms with fresh bushings. Installed everything. Drove it to the shop for an alignment and it felt pretty good, but the trip was short.

After alignment, I've been driving it and it is pulling exactly as it did before I replaced everything. Slightly to the right. Have to correct the steering wheel with a slight nudge to go straight everry 30 feet or so.

Any ideas? Could this be from an uncdisclosed fender bender? Wheels/tires being defective? They're pretty new.

 

Easy enough to test: swap em from side to side and see if it's any different.

What front alignment specs did you use? Not the factory ones, I hope? What was the thrust angle of the rear axle, and the measured toe & camber of the rear wheels?

 

take it back to that shop to let them fix their mistake.
If they cant, maybe they will give you a refund.
From there youll need to find a quality alignment shop.

Post up the specs (print out) they give you from the alignment shop.

 

Damn it. I just read an older post with you and a user named Reid Flemming for suggested specs.



I definitely got the factory specs. Oh well. I guess I could always do it again. Looks like the specs Reid posted for the street take road crown into account.

 

Yeah there's good info in that thread. I remember it, it gets quoted alot.

My usual recommendation for "specs" is sorta somewhere between the "street" and "hard street" settings in that chart, and broadly in agreement with it, as you probably saw. Some cars though won't even go that far before they run out of adjustment range. There's more to it than just handling though; for example, increasing the positive caster, which DRASTICALLY improves the "center" feeling that's so NUMB with the factory settings, moves the wheels rearward in the wheel wells visibly, and also makes them rub the wells just in front of the bottom of the doors. Toe & camber setting interact to affect tire wear significantly: setting up more negative camber without adding some toe-IN, will wear the inner edges like eating them for lunch, just like the factory's STUUUPIDITY eats the outer edges. Some tires make all of that worse than others, butt it's inevitably something that often happens, and people bitch about, regardless. And yes, road crown is DEFINITELY a factor; the way they build roads in some places, like Houston for example, need ALOT more caster and camber split with the right higher on both, because of that. There's really no such thing as "perfect" "one size fits all" alignment, butt carefully matching the settings to the external conditions and the user's preferences, can make a car much more pleasant to drive.

Post up your "before" and "after" settings, including rear measurements (obviously there's no "adjusting" that, only measuring it), and we can help you see what needs to be done. Besides just ignoring the factory's IDIOTIC "specs" and setting it up to something that makes actual common sense instead.

 

Thanks so much for all the help. And yes, center feeling is super numb, I thought it was just the nature of the beast.

 

I too recommend the front tires be switched left to right, then road test. If the pull follows the tires, you have a bad tire. Possible "slipped belt" or other defect.