Thread: WTF!? alignment issues

I've always had a pull to the left, which turned in to swerving to the left when ever i let go of the wheel. No shops could tell me what was wrong, I was told from the old forum that all i needed to do was replace the axles and wheel bearings. I did so this past weekend, $300 and an alignment from the best shop around and it still fu*king pulling this has me SOOO pissed off. At first i thought maby it was just the tires making it drift a little because of the uneven wear but its gettong worse fast and will soon be back to where it was. What the fu*k do i do now?

Well, the only thing i can think of that would cause a pulling to one side or another would be;
1) too much negative caster on one side, the car will pull to the side with the LEAST amount of caster.

2) One tire that has less air than the other?

I can't see how axles & wheel bearings would cause a pull. Maybe a vibration but i doubt a pull.

Do you know what your alignment specs are? Maybe a bent strut? Bent control arm?

I'm also battling alignment issues, but i haven't really had time to spend on fixing my problem.

I'm no alignment guru though so maybe someone else can chime in.

See... I'm haveing the same issues but to the right... Everything is good and pulling like I'm switching lanes really bad.

I started a few threads about my issues awhile ago. This is a list of the things I have done. And still having the issues... My next step is a compete rack and pinion swap.

New wheel bearings.
New hub and wheel bearing on passenger side
New ball joints
Top whole on struts bored out for camber.

NOTE: Last time I went in for an alignment everything was fine and this was 3 weeks ago. Now its pulling like it did before.

Hope this help you out with any info

Wouldn't the alignment shop see that and fix it?
How do i check this? Also the shop told me they have the camber maxed out, why would that be. Shouldn't it have a bunch to both sides?

The inner tie rod could be loose and getting looser by the day. Happened to a friend of mine on his Honda Accord. This was after he had them replaced and the car aligned. The shop ****ed it up good.

This belongs in the suspension section.

Ideally yes , they should catch it. If the caster is way out on one side & they ddnt see it , it might be because they aren't seasoned pros ( like myself ) , or something else is causing your pull.

Camber maxed out to what? Positive or Negative? See camber is the " in & out " of your strut. Caster is the forward or backward of the strut in relationship to the vehicle, & toe is the angle of the tire , positive , the tire points out, negative the tire points in.

Camber wouldn't cause a pull, a bad tire will. Excessive negative caster on one side will cause a pull.

Camber IIRC is for handling/tire wear.

Did they give you the alignment specs?

Normally on B13's/B14's/B15's caster & camber are non adustable, you may be able to "tweak" it without caster bushings or camber bolts , but the adjustment is very minimal. Toe is very adjustable at the outer tie rod ends.
Have you tried to cross rotate your tires from side to side?

Try it & if it pulls to the other side you have a bad tire, if not , then there is some other issue with that left side . Hope that helps at least a little bit.

I put new camber bolts in while i did axles because one side had a camber bolt and the other was straight. They didn't say positive or negative, and i didn't get a print out. I have directional tires so they haven't been cross rotated ever.

First off I would get rid of any camber bolts. Just for the fact that they can break. Atleast thats what I have heard. What I did was get a 1/2" drill bit and pretty much bore out your top hole of the strut. Works really well and very simply. And you basically want to make it oval so it can easily be adjusted.

But any time an alignment is done on your car you should ask for a record sheet of it. Just for record or even if you have it...and sometime isn't right or if it goes out of alignment again in a few days or something you can take it back and they can "hopefully" re adjust it for you at no cost.

Ok so try and rotate front to back on the left side. This should at the least rule out radial pull. That's strange, one side had a camber bolt and the other ddnt.

your rack can also be shifting around as well. Have you tried putting in new ES bushings?