alignment and front end concerns
I Like Tires
Joined: Aug 2010
Posts: 4,828
Likes: 250
From: Texas
hmmm, maybe I should put some perspective to make sure we are all on the same page. When I say the steering wheel is off to the right, I personally would not call it slight. To go strait the wheel is rotated roughly 20-25* clockwise. I'll take it in tomorrow and if its still not right then i'll make the adjustments myself to get it strait and assume the toe is the correct in relation to each wheel.
Thread Starter
Senior Member
Joined: Jan 2014
Posts: 610
Likes: 171
OK, took it back and got a different tech this time. Guy said he has no idea what could have happened last time, because the toe was so far out. He took a fair bit of time and test drove it before saying it's good to go. But indeed it's perfect now. the wheel is strait now, the ride improved a touch, turning is massively different now as its so much more sure footed and no more traction loss noise on cornering. Honestly it drives better than it ever has. When you jerk the wheel back and forth it still does feel sloppy a bit, but think I can work with air pressure to see if that will do anything.
as a whole though I'm very happy that it was just a really really bad first alignment. They made it right without a single question. so it renewed my faith in the shop. On a plus side the tech really loved my truck, so maybe he gave it a little extra love?
as a whole though I'm very happy that it was just a really really bad first alignment. They made it right without a single question. so it renewed my faith in the shop. On a plus side the tech really loved my truck, so maybe he gave it a little extra love?
Member
Joined: Feb 2013
Posts: 26,680
Likes: 6,253
From: Big Easy
OK, took it back and got a different tech this time. Guy said he has no idea what could have happened last time, because the toe was so far out. He took a fair bit of time and test drove it before saying it's good to go. But indeed it's perfect now. the wheel is strait now, the ride improved a touch, turning is massively different now as its so much more sure footed and no more traction loss noise on cornering. Honestly it drives better than it ever has. When you jerk the wheel back and forth it still does feel sloppy a bit, but think I can work with air pressure to see if that will do anything.
as a whole though I'm very happy that it was just a really really bad first alignment. They made it right without a single question. so it renewed my faith in the shop. On a plus side the tech really loved my truck, so maybe he gave it a little extra love?
as a whole though I'm very happy that it was just a really really bad first alignment. They made it right without a single question. so it renewed my faith in the shop. On a plus side the tech really loved my truck, so maybe he gave it a little extra love?
If he's using a Hunter alignment machine that would explain the why, we had 2 Hunter alignment machines at the dealer I worked at and for some oddball reason about every 10th alignment or so the damned thing would tell me everything was in spec but go for a test drive and the friggen steering wheel would be off just like you describe.
I would hook the machine back up and take readings again and it again told me all was good, so I unplugged the thing to reboot it (computer inside) and recheck and everything would be out of whack so readjusting it after the reboot everything showed normal and drove great, wheel straight etc...
In the end it is ultimately the alignment tech's job to make sure the machine gets calibrated on a regular schedule, twice a year according to Hunter. (Newer machines are self calibrating) but the alignment tech has to initiate it.
.