front end alignment.

[supraman508]

yesterday i drove to meineke to get a frontend alignment and afterwards i drove home and i still felt it pull to the Right.It does seem:icon_conf that it turns beter but i have this gut feeling that this fu@##n teenager that was doing the alignment and SPEAD OFF with my soup to check out his progress did'nt know what the FU#$ he was doing.My question is after an alignment is the vehicle supose to still pull to the right.It does'nt do it as much but just have this feeling that he was'nt taking his time and did'nt give me any feedback to let me know what was going on after he did it.

 

[Nick M]

Did you walk up to the service counter and say my car pulls right, diagnose and repair it? Or did you walk up and say you want an alignment done?

Why Meineke? Your car does not get a front end alignment, it gets a 4 wheel.

The most likely cause of a pull is a bad tire. Of course, worn suspension and bad alignment can cause that tire to go bad.

 

[supraman508]

Did you walk up to the service counter and say my car pulls right, diagnose and repair it? Or did you walk up and say you want an alignment done?

Why Meineke? Your car does not get a front end alignment, it gets a 4 wheel.

The most likely cause of a pull is a bad tire. Of course, worn suspension and bad alignment can cause that tire to go bad.

I did exactly that,I told the kid that it does pull to the right and i needed a front end alignment.after he finished he told me that everything was line up to 0,what ever that means.but since it still pull to the right i might need to replace my lower balljoints.

 

[Jeff Lange]

Thread moved. This has nothing to do with the 7M-GE.

Jeff

 

[adampecush]

I did exactly that,I told the kid that it does pull to the right and i needed a front end alignment.after he finished he told me that everything was line up to 0,what ever that means.but since it still pull to the right i might need to replace my lower balljoints.

"everything lined up to zero" means absolutely nothing. What was the camber, toe, and caster settings they used? (hint, zero is only the target for toe-in)

when getting an alignment, you MUST get a printout of the before and after settings. Otherwise, how do you know they actually adjusted anything?

 

[Nick M]

I bet that "kid" at Meineke knows a ton about steering axis inclination. I could be wrong, so you don't have to like the sarcastic comment.

First step, you don't tell the service writer what is wrong. They will sell you the service you ask for, and are in the right to do so. With the age of the car, if the suspsension is original, you may need more than just a lower ball joint. If you are going aftermarket to save money, and there is nothing wrong with that, tire stores that are also front end shops usually have competent ASE front end techs. I think you should go there to have it diagnosed.

Try this at home if you have the means. Rotate your tires and see what happens.

 

[Satan]

Also... If you know you will eventually do some suspension work (ball joints, struts/springs, etc), or anything that affects alignment... Then get a "Lifetime" alignment. I use Firestone and it costs ~$145 for a lifetime alignment. I take the cars in every 6 months and it pays for itself in just a couple of visits.

It sure beats the heck out of spending $$ fixing stuff, and paying again for an alignment each time.

 

[johnsf32]

Check tires and bushings and 0 mean it's on the spot but maybe look at the wrong spec ...did the car get hit from the front maybe but go back my him drive the car

 

[Nick M]

Considering caster is 7 degrees, which is a ton compared to most cars, then 7.5 on the later year, 0 isn't always what you are shooting for.

 

[Poodles]

Also missing the fact that the crown in the road will make it pull right... Good alignment tech will make that go away.

 

[adampecush]

thats what the 7+ degrees caster is for.

More caster = more resistance to off-centre tracking.

The difference between my supra and daily driver (only 3 degrees) is huge. Any slightly crowned road knocks the dd toward the ditch.

 

[dsm_tuner260]

depending on the rack they are using and when the last time its been aligned. will also have an affect i ran into that when i worked at nissan the rack always had cars pulling left it took a little getting use to compestate for the rack. and the supra does need a 4 wheel alignment but they have to check that when they do the alignment but if they didnt say anything it could have been good or it could have been bad and he might not have wanted to mess with it if its never had an alignment before the bushings for the adjustments may be seized so that it cant be adjusted in which case youd have to buy a bushing kit. and also try rotating the right tire to the left and if it still does pull you got a bad tire.