Steering problem after wheel and tyres change...[URGENT]

[freakygeek]

Potholed roads shouldn't cause your camber to change by almost a degree on the right hand wheel... Unless it's bad enough to bend suspension arms... !

If it is just camber bolts for the front struts you are looking at getting, Whiteline will be as good as any IMO.

[endymiony2k]

I think i will get whiteline or ingalls front camber kit. how about the rear camber kit? do you think negative 2 degrees on the rear is too much for street driving and will wear out my rear tyres quickly? i use my car for daily driving mainly.

Are the front and the rear stock camber setting should not be adjustable? One weird thing i found about the rear camber setting after the first wheel alignment is the rear camber setting changed.

After the first wheel alignment
front left camber -1.22 -> -1.07
front right camber -0.07 -> -0.23
rear left camber -2.5 -> -2.27 (about the same)
rear right camber -1.58 -> -2.19 (i wonder how did the alignment changed this)

Found that both of my front and the rear right cambers both 1 degree less than the left ones.

Then after the second wheel alignment...
rear left camber -2.34 -> -2.11
rear right camber -1.43 -> -2 (final camber from first wheel alignment should be -2.19. Anyone why it went back to -1.43 again?)

I noticed that my rear right camber changed so much!? i only drove for a day before i redo the second wheel alignment. Is there something seriously wrong with my suspension?

As for normal street street driving, are the toes for each wheel meant to be close to 0?

[freakygeek]

Firstly there are a few things you probably need to understand before questioning the alignment settings.

One thing that I'm not sure you're realising is that the camber is measured in Degrees and minutes. ie. 2'30" is 2 degrees and 30 minutes, which is 2 and a half degrees. So the change in alignment you noticed of 1'58" to 2'19" is only 0'22" - less than half a degree.

The next thing to realise is that the a change in toe on the rear axle of a DC5 (or DC2 for that matter) affects the camber value. This is due to the complex motion of the rear suspension movement - it moves in more than one plane.

If you are noticing significant changes in alignment settings after only just getting an alignment done, you possibly have worn suspension bushes which are allowing play/movement.

Rear camber values of around 2 degrees should not create dramatic tyre wear issues for our FWD cars, since the rear tyres hardly wear in daily driving situations. Toe is the main cause of bad tyre wear, as it is toe angle which causes the tyre to "scrub" even when driving in a straight line.

Normal toe settings for daily driven cars are usually almost zero toe on the front axle, and a small amount of toe-in on the rear axle for directional stability and braking stability.

[endymiony2k]

Freakygeek, you are right about the unit for the camber angle units. I got confused of the units of degree before.

Are these toe settings changed dramatically between the first and the second wheel alignment? I know this is the same question, looking at the toe settings between two alignments, most toe settings have minor changed which i think is reasonable. But do you think the front right suspension bushing is damaged since the front right toe had large changes (ie 2.5mm changes difference between the first and second wheel alignments) which i guess something is not right to the front right suspension.

========================
|TOE setting for both alignments|
========================

First alignment
--------------
Front LEFT +3.4mm -> +0.1mm
Front RIGHT -1.9mm -> +0.0mm

Rear LEFT +5.2mm -> +5.3mm
rear RIGHT +3.2mm -> +3.1mm

Second alignment
----------------
Front LEFT -0.5mm -> +0.4mm
Front RIGHT -2.5mm -> +0.2mm

Rear LEFT +4.9mm -> +0.7mm
Rear RIGHT +3.5mm -> +0.8mm

Would the front and rear camber kits fix all the problems that i have got now other than the non-centered steering wheel problem?

Please forgive my stupidities if i have asked some silly questions.

Thank you very much for your time and effort in helping me

[endymiony2k]

took it back to the tyre shop today the 3rd time...uncentered steering wheel problem still didnt get fixed

this is the position of the car points to straight. The tyre shop bs me saying i have got wider tyres...atm i m running 225/45/R17 tyre. What should i do to get my centered steering back? =(

[freakygeek]

took it back to the tyre shop today the 3rd time...uncentered steering wheel problem still didnt get fixed

this is the position of the car points to straight. The tyre shop bs me saying i have got wider tyres...atm i m running 225/45/R17 tyre. What should i do to get my centered steering back? =(

Take it to another wheel alignment shop. The width of your rubber doesn't have anything to do with the steering wheel being centered...

If the steering wheel is locked in the center position whilst the alignment adjustments are carried out, then it will be centered when driving straight ahead....

[endymiony2k]

Yeah i think i definitely take it to another wheel alignment shop to do it properly. They told me i am running negative camber at the rear hence i need to have toe-in for the rear..Again, i reckon they are lying.

I have decided to get front and rear camber kits and installed prior to the next wheel alignment. hopefully, the problem will be gone after it.

[freakygeek]

Yeah i think i definitely take it to another wheel alignment shop to do it properly. They told me i am running negative camber at the rear hence i need to have toe-in for the rear..Again, i reckon they are lying.

I have decided to get front and rear camber kits and installed prior to the next wheel alignment. hopefully, the problem will be gone after it.

Toe-in for the rear is correct, they had set up your rear axle just fine. The main issue seems to be with the front right wheel's camber, which is obviously something they have no adjustment for until you install camber adjustment bolts/strut tops.

The steering wheel being off-center is just them being lazy IMO.

[endymiony2k]

i have finally got the problem fixed. The uncentered steering problem was fixed by the minor adjustment on the tie rods and the uneven cambers on front axle is addressed by the camber bolts.

The car now drives great. Thank you everyone who contributes this discussion, especailly freakgeek for his advice

[ChargeR]

Good to hear you got it sorted out. Thanks for updating the thread and letting everyone know how you fixed it .

[mugsee]

Awesome to hear Endy

Zac is the man @ techsports. I'd highly reccomend them for any alignment work.