Suspension: Chasing Gremlins in the Front Passenger Wheel

[Adeel]

Description: Front Passenger Wheel Pulls Straight when taking left turns, car feels unstable and traction control turns on. Same wheel pulls when changing lanes, left or right. Car feels erratic at high speeds and front end feels like its got its own direction.

At first glance of the images of the coilovers from the camber plats, i noted that the passenger side markings state a LOT of negative camber, whereas the the driver is more near zero. The Alignment sheet is not indicative of this. Thoughts on why?

I had issues with improper endlink height. The front passenger endlink was tight, and compressed where as the driver was normal or not under pressure. The endlinks have been corrected, but car is still driving erratic.

At flat ground, the alignment looks to be inline with the alignment sheet, however, when the front suspension is compressed, such as parking in an incline, the passenger wheel has visible toe out.

After a 10-12 mile drive, i have noted there to be more tire wear (rubber on my hands) on the passenger tire than the driver

Wheels: This has been noted with OEM wheels/Tires, OEM Wheels + Winter Tires, and 18x9.5 Rays 57DR with 255s

Suspension: Fortune Auto V500 + Fortune Auto provided End Links + Cusco Sway Front 20mm

Front Passenger:



Front Driver:



Alignment
TOP = Initial
BOTTOM = Final

[mav1178]

Your alignment is off.

-alex

[fika84]

Originally Posted by mav1178

Your alignment is off.

-alex

^ sounds like the toe is out of wack.

[swarb]

Top is before? Bottom is after?
Doesn't look like they touched the front camber.
Toe and go. Which a lot of lazy alignment places do. Or possibility they didn't know you had camber plates. Which means they were lazy to check.

[wparsons]

How long ago was the alignment? It could be something slipped. If the camber slipped on one side, that would throw the toe way off.

I would find a better shop, there's zero excuse for not matching camber when you have camber plates.

[swarb]

Originally Posted by wparsons

How long ago was the alignment? It could be something slipped. If the camber slipped on one side, that would throw the toe way off.

I would find a better shop, there's zero excuse for not matching camber when you have camber plates.

It says 9/14 on the alignment sheet.
But yeah, Mach V motorsports should fix it. I would talk to them and see what they say. I've seen good reviews and mixed reviews on them, I would give them another shot as I wouldn't want to pay twice.

[Adeel]

Originally Posted by swarb

It says 9/14 on the alignment sheet.
But yeah, Mach V motorsports should fix it. I would talk to them and see what they say. I've seen good reviews and mixed reviews on them, I would give them another shot as I wouldn't want to pay twice.

I went back to Mach V for a realignment, but they said my alignment is in spec, and is aligned.

Additionally, they put the car through the diagnostics of checking the yaw, vehicel speed senor and other sensors, all checked out. They tried to charge me labor for the diagnostics without my approval, while never putting the car back on the aligngment rack.

Im not sure if i would agree with mach V's good reviews - i found them to be a pain in the ass, attempting to charge me for something that should be warrantied. I did not pay as I came there for an realignment

It seems like the toe goes out under compression of the front suspension only. Does the .3 difference in camber between Passenger and Driver front make a huge difference?

Thank you everyone for yalls input. This has been an issue for about a year now... Haven't been able to truly drive the car

[Adeel]

Passenger side:



Driver side:

[strat61caster]

Where's the corner balance numbers?

Find a shop that's experienced in corner balancing and adjusting camber plates, sway bar endlinks etc. This shop does not appear to be able to take the care needed, if my car came back with camber plates that different and an significant difference in camber I would not go back, that would be a red flag for me.

I would assume that the erraticness is due to the crossweights being wrong, a corner balance should work wonders.

Edit: Talk to the guys when you drop your car off, understand what you're paying for and what they will and won't be doing, I would not be surprised if you just dropped the car off for a basic 4-wheel alignment, they left the front camber alone zeroed out the toe and called it a day. (Although you did get a lot more camber in the rear when you picked it up, toe does affect rear camber the way it's interconnected I think)

My money is still on corner balance.

[swarb]

It's not in spec. Show them the paper. It would be all darkened. Sounds like an excuse to get you out. I understand Front camber will never be near .75 "in spec" and the rear camber is not adjustable, but they should match the fronts and be within reasonable .1 difference and not .26. It's not a huge difference, but still a 1/4 degree. A person driving in the street would probably not notice. But for a track oriented person it is huge. Too much for my liking. I wouldn't be happy. My alignment guy got me 2.9 camber all around and .04-.06 toe all around.

Meh... Another mixed review of mach v motorsports. You also need to mention what kind of alignment you want to them. It seems that they didn't even try to get the .75 "in spec" camber in the front. Chances are they got lazy and didn't want to raise the car(to unload the suspension), go up top and adjust the plates, lower the car and do it over and over until it is right. Sounds like a lazy alignment.

Also a possibility your right rear is lower than the rear left, that is why it has more camber.

[JazzleSAURUS]

@Mach V Dan Any idea what's going on here?
Did you guys confirm an alignment without putting a car on an alignment rack, or visually inspecting camber plates?

[EAGLE5]

Nothing bent?

[Adeel]

Originally Posted by jsimon7777

Nothing bent?

Upon inspection, nothing is visually bent, or out of shape.

There is a marking on the Front Lower Control Arms, Passenger and Driver of where the endlink once brushed up against it, but there is no wrinkle, or bending of any arms or frame.

Do you have any suggestion of where i should look and a link to a stock picture?

Thank you

[wparsons]

Originally Posted by Adeel

I went back to Mach V for a realignment, but they said my alignment is in spec, and is aligned.

Additionally, they put the car through the diagnostics of checking the yaw, vehicel speed senor and other sensors, all checked out. They tried to charge me labor for the diagnostics without my approval, while never putting the car back on the aligngment rack.

Im not sure if i would agree with mach V's good reviews - i found them to be a pain in the ass, attempting to charge me for something that should be warrantied. I did not pay as I came there for an realignment

It seems like the toe goes out under compression of the front suspension only. Does the .3 difference in camber between Passenger and Driver front make a huge difference?

Thank you everyone for yalls input. This has been an issue for about a year now... Haven't been able to truly drive the car

Don't go back there then. Any performance shop that tells you an alignment is good enough because it's "in spec" doesn't know what they're doing (IMO).

Find another shop, first question is if they'll align to your specs, second is if you can sit in the drivers seat while they do it. If they answer no to either, find someone else.

As for the difference 0.3* makes, it's not a huge deal on a street car... but I would bet that something slipped and it's no longer aligned like what the sheet shows. With the camber plate maxed out you should have well over 2* of camber.