Alignment gurus, please help!

bobombo

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So I had mine aligned at the dealership, twice in one day. My steering wheel is lightly to the left and the car pulls to the right. The tech guy took car for test drive and he couldn't replicate what I was saying. I'm supposed to take it back again where I will be driving and showing him. Here is my results for alignment. If anybody has any idea please let me know. Thanks.

20210609_190314.jpg
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jchadwell

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Looks very good to me. I went for more negative camber for autocross but if I didn't autocross or track the car I would be perfectly happy with that.
 
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bobombo

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Looks very good to me. I went for more negative camber for autocross but if I didn't autocross or track the car I would be perfectly happy with that.
Could you explain why steering is slightly off to the left and car's pulling to right?
 

gcmak

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I am not a technician, although my eye darts to Thrust Angle when a car pulls. Also some techs will do a good job of centering the steering wheel - while some are lazy, but even if the steering wheel is off center, if an alignment (and the tires) are all good, the car should track straight on its own.

A positive thrust angle will try to steer the vehicle to the left, while a negative thrust angle will try to steer the vehicle to the right. This will cause the driver to pull the steering wheel right or left to compensate.

Your 'before' thrust angle was pretty far off, you should have noticed this pretty significantly before the alignment.
 

jchadwell

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I am not a technician, although my eye darts to Thrust Angle when a car pulls. Also some techs will do a good job of centering the steering wheel - while some are lazy, but even if the steering wheel is off center, if an alignment (and the tires) are all good, the car should track straight on its own.

A positive thrust angle will try to steer the vehicle to the left, while a negative thrust angle will try to steer the vehicle to the right. This will cause the driver to pull the steering wheel right or left to compensate.

Your 'before' thrust angle was pretty far off, you should have noticed this pretty significantly before the alignment.
Looks like gmac has a much better grasp of this than I do. I've never even thought about thrust angle before. However, if I'm thinking about this correctly, it makes perfect sense. You'd want the drive wheels to be 100% perpendicular with the car frame in order to push (or pull) the car straight down the road. Being off one way or the other would certainly cause a pull - to which ever side the wheels are pointed.

I obviously don't know for sure but a -.01 angle seems pretty darn close to straight ahead to me. I'm not surprised the tech couldn't replicate a pull. I've only had two cars that ever noticeably pulled to one side or the other. Both times were my fault for making unintended contact with solid immoveable objects (once a curb and once a parking block hidden under snow). The specs were significantly out of range both times.

And I second the tech laziness on not getting the wheel properly centered. My OCD would kick in for that and I'd have them re-do it. Fortunately, the tech that did my alignment was excellent.
 

jchadwell

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Something else I just thought of. Many roads are intentionally crowned (I think that's the correct term?) slightly to induce cars to naturally drift to the right. It helps with water run off as well as helping prevent inattentive drivers from drifting into oncoming traffic. Could that be what you are noticing??
 

ShakaDaKine

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On my previous vehicle, the SAS had to be recalibrated correctly, or not only would the steering wheel be off-center, but the alignment would be off as well. Does anyone know if there's a specific procedure for setting the SAS on our vehicles?
 

Msoupe

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  • Camber front and rear look good & even for street driving.
  • Higher caster on the left front isnā€™t helping your pull to the right but itā€™s not bad at all. I typically I would like to error more caster on the right to combat crown in the road. Not adjustable in stock form anyways.
  • Front toe looks good.
  • For stability, I would prefer more rear toe-in than you have. Unless you are racing, then it may come down to personal preference. For high powered rear wheel drive cars, I would put 1/8ā€ to 3/16ā€ total toe-in (0.3Ā° to 0.4Ā° total toe-in) in the rear.
  • Thrust is good. Itā€™s pretty damn close to zero and if anything, it wasnā€™t any better before.

Iā€™m thinking there was some crown in the road (hard to tell sometimes) and it induced a pull to the right. When correcting for the crown, you may be steering to the left slightly when going straight, displaying a crooked steering wheel. Try to find a super flat road to test again.
 

XtremeMaC

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Tires also have conicity, runout, etc. that may influence a pull. If one front tire have more positive (or negative) pull than the other, then it may pull especially if difference is large...
Some cars are more sensitive, some have better power steering or chassis/suspension that dampens these...
 
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bobombo

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Thanks very much for all the inputs guys.

Right now my steering is crooked to the left. It may well be the road crown in conjuction with the crooked steering wheel.

I'm gonna get the steering wheel centered first and then find some straight road to test it out again.
 

Pej1282

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Thanks very much for all the inputs guys.

Right now my steering is crooked to the left. It may well be the road crown in conjuction with the crooked steering wheel.

I'm gonna get the steering wheel centered first and then find some straight road to test it out again.
Were you able to get your steering wheel centered? And how?
I was told by the alignment tech that the dealership has the right tools to center the steering wheel on these car since itā€™s an electronic module but I havenā€™t been able to take it.
 
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bobombo

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Were you able to get your steering wheel centered? And how?
I was told by the alignment tech that the dealership has the right tools to center the steering wheel on these car since itā€™s an electronic module but I havenā€™t been able to take it.
Yeah, I took it to the dealership. Although it took several attempts. The tech test drove the first time but it was still crooked. Got to come back another time and still the same. Finally the service manager test drove with me sitting beside to verify that it was indeed still crooked and pulling. They got it right in the end though. You just have to be persistent and tell them until it's done right!
 

Pej1282

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Yeah, I took it to the dealership. Although it took several attempts. The tech test drove the first time but it was still crooked. Got to come back another time and still the same. Finally the service manager test drove with me sitting beside to verify that it was indeed still crooked and pulling. They got it right in the end though. You just have to be persistent and tell them until it's done right!
Ah ok, thanks for the info. Iā€™m glad you got yours fixed
 

Msoupe

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Yeah, I took it to the dealership. Although it took several attempts. The tech test drove the first time but it was still crooked. Got to come back another time and still the same. Finally the service manager test drove with me sitting beside to verify that it was indeed still crooked and pulling. They got it right in the end though. You just have to be persistent and tell them until it's done right!
Glad to hear you were able to get everything fixed. Do you have your final alignment numbers? I'm curious to see if they adjusted your thrust angles to counteract the pull to the right.
 

Maztaspawn

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Yeah, I took it to the dealership. Although it took several attempts. The tech test drove the first time but it was still crooked. Got to come back another time and still the same. Finally the service manager test drove with me sitting beside to verify that it was indeed still crooked and pulling. They got it right in the end though. You just have to be persistent and tell them until it's done right!
Hey man i am also having the same problem. I went to a reputable supercar/bmw shop and did 3 alignments and is still the same. So I am going to test my luck this saturday at a dealership. May I know which dealership you went to? Also do you know what they did to fix this?
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