as i got two new tyres fitted on the rear,and it has been 10.000ks since I last had it done.Now the steering wheel is sitting at 5-past-1 and she runs off to the left after 5 seconds if i let go of the wheel.Wheel was dead straight BEFORE the alignment.Not happy.Service centre was Firestone,vehicle 95 Accord.Any alignment experts know what's happened!Am I in my rights to take it back tomorrow and demand they sort it!
mugenb20b,
Mar 28, 9:02am
Yep, take it back! The same thing happened to me (yes, Firestone). By the sounds of it, they've done ALL the toe in/out adjustments on one tie rod, instead of both.
kazbanz,
Mar 28, 9:13am
hang on a mo OP. You may be right -they made an error OR The car may NOW be propperly alighned and the pull to the left is the normal slow drift left caused by the camber of the road. Unfortunately a lot of wheel alighnment places don't reset the steeering wheel because they are scared of the clock spring in the airbag
mileyfan73,
Mar 28, 9:20am
I tested the 'tracking' on a dead flat piece of road.And mine doesn't have an airbag.Looking it up on other sites they say steering wheel should be 'locked' into straight ahead position before they start adjusting the 'toe' positions.And the rear 'thrust' should be done first,so the rear wheels are most in-line with the cars centreline.
nzeva,
Mar 28, 10:59am
Wheel alignment is such a rip-off.most modern cars only have adjustable toe-in which you can DIY. Wrap a piece of string around the car through the centre of all 4 wheels (you may have to remove the front mud flaps first) Set the r/h wheel straight ahead with the string just touching the front and rear of the tyres sidewalls. Then adjust the l/h wheel the same. The steering wheel will probably be in the centre now, as the l/h wheel is the one that gets knocked out of alignment from hitting curbs while angle parking, causing the car to pull left. The rear wheels never need aligning unless the cars been pranged!
r15,
Mar 28, 11:43am
that's an excellent way of doing a crude wheel alignment.
bitsy_boffin,
Mar 28, 11:43am
I always thought that a slight leftward drift in alignment was if not required, then recommended, for left-side-of-road vehicles.So that if you become incapacitated at the wheel, you don't drift across anoncoming lane.
Perhaps it's just an old wives tale though.
pollymay,
Mar 28, 11:50am
Bull
jason18,
Mar 28, 6:48pm
Man I must say I have never done an alignment till the other day when I got a grabone voucher. Boy the valiant drives so much better and the wear on the very new tyres is already bad
carmedic,
Mar 28, 7:00pm
LOL You think all front wheels should be set parallel do you!
twink19,
Mar 28, 8:07pm
I would have put the new tyre on the front, then had the alingment done
kazbanz,
Mar 28, 8:23pm
heres the kicker with wheel alighnment. on a normal road in NZ a propperly alighned car WILL drift slowly to the left due to the camber of the road. But you watch mr expert scream and shout because on said cambered road the car drifts left.
curlcrown,
Mar 28, 9:01pm
No you are not within your rights to go in there and demand they sort it out. You are within you rights to calmly go in there and talk to them about it and if there is something they have done wrong they will happily fix it. If you go in there making demands they will probably still do it but you will be told to F off afterwoods.
kazbanz,
Mar 28, 9:17pm
CCyep go on in there and yell nscream and carry on. THATS gonna get a good result. Go in calmly. Ask for the manager. Explain what has happened and ask what they intend to do. Then SHUT UP! The time for yelling and screaming is if the manager refuses to do anything.
pico42,
Mar 28, 10:07pm
Where did you find a dead flat piece of road!
peternz,
Mar 28, 11:06pm
Grave yard rood !
peternz,
Mar 28, 11:06pm
. road .
mileyfan73,
Mar 29, 5:46am
There is a secondary sealed road that leads to a group of Dairy farms near where I live.It isn't cambered.It's flat.Anyway went back to them today and CALMLY explained the problem.They had another look,but couldn't adjust it to resolve the issue.Something to do with castor angle and my top bushes seem to be worn,so will get them replaced.Am not gonna stress about it,just annoying how it drives worse now than it did before!
mugenb20b,
Mar 29, 7:07am
On most cars, they need to toe in 1/8 of an inch.
gunhand,
Mar 29, 7:16am
Yea they say that it should be set up for the camber for sure, but this is NZ where they cant fix a pothole so it stays in tact for at least a week and they do a reseal or major repairs to a length of road that takes them months to do only to rip it up a month later because it failed. Even after the 2nd atempt in 6 months its more potholes and new repairs than "new"road. And you excpect them to get the camber correct!
lyonruge,
Mar 29, 7:29am
Yep, there's wheel aligners, and there's wheel aligners, seems to be the hardest thing to get done properly, anywhere!, had to laugh at the string guy, good lord! toe in, toe out on turns, camber, kpi, castor.perhaps he works at.
bella-boo,
Mar 29, 7:52am
I had an allignment done 500km ago, and now pulling very sharply left - turns out one of my tyres had started to bulge on one side - got new tyre, problem gone.Might pay to check your tyres too.
pebbles61,
Mar 29, 7:55am
How does one remove surface water on a dead flat road! ignoring the sun of course lol
bella-boo,
Mar 29, 7:56am
Hairdryer.!
tussocknut,
Mar 29, 8:26am
i am not going to bother getting it done any more unless it is really obviously no good. i have 2 cars,one good, one shitter. the good one gets the expensive tyres and alignments and stuff done frequently. the shitter gets budget tyres and never gets alignments, shit car seems to do way more kms before tyres need replacing. has been like this for the last five years.
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