Alignment Shop Fail...
07-13-2009, 10:17 AM
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Effective Friday, I had all four corners of the car complete: H&R Touring Cup springs and struts, the Eibach front + rear anti-sway kit, the KJB endlinks, camber adjustment bolts, and of course I'm counting the prior 5-lug swap, rear K-frame setup, new rotors and calipers and pads, and the new Eagle F1 GS-D3 tires on 2003 Tib GT rims.
As expected, camber was visibly off on all four corners; I did my best to pare it down with a magnetic level and some finessing of the camber bolts, but only enough to make sure it wasn't STUPIDLY off so I wouldn't kill the tires driving it to the alignment shop.
Saturday at 7:30am, I drove it 11 miles to a Big O Tires shop that came highly recommended by two folks who have similar setups to mine and did a good job. I show up, talk to the guy a bit, he asks all the right questions, and tells me that I'm second in line so it should be done before 10:00am.
The wife and I hit Bob Evans for breakfast, get some fantastically fattening munchies, and afterwards pop into the Books-a-Million to burn off the time. Around 9:45, we head back and see the Tib in the alignment bay. I walk into the bay, talking to the guy again, and he's pretty happy with the result and shows me what's up.
He showed me the pre-alignment page, and every measurable adjustment was 'in the red' to various degrees -- not that I expected much different. The post-alignment was almost dead-center in the green across the board, except for the front caster which is non-adjustable in this setup, and presumably the GK front knuckles slightly modify how far forward the wheels sit. Nevertheless, caster is not a tire wear issue, and it was out of spec by only about 2/10ths of a degree, so I wasn't worried about it.
He said he needed to recheck everything and then take it for a spin to make sure there's no weird noises or tracking issues, and then I'd be good to go. I already had set the Haltech revlimit to 3K, so I wasn't worried about him tearing anything up during a test drive, and it only took him about a minute and a half to come back. He gave it the all-is-well, I paid the man, and the wife and I left. On the way home, I was doing lane-changes, taking random exists that I knew had varying sweeper turns, punching the throttle through right-turns and left-turns, late-braking on purpose, stuff like that. I love the new setup. smile.gif
Fast forward to Sunday around noon -- the wife and I are meeting her parents at a nearby restaurant for some lunch before going to a baby shower for one of the many cousins she has. The restaurant is about four miles away, almost entirely by highway. So we take the Tib, and again I'm zipping around the corners, doing lane changes, goofy shit like that to see how it all feels (I've yet to really break it loose yet at this point -- but I'm trying not to be an ass either.)
We get to the appropriate exit, stop at a red light, and then turn right -- but I hear the front driver's tire rub while going around the corner. That's odd though, because I've been zipping around all these corners before this point, and never had it rub... Why now? Or is it some other noise that just sounds like it? Maybe it's the front swaybar creaking or something, except that's not the right noise.
I get stopped at the next light, at which I turn right again, and again I get a rub - and can feel it in the steering wheel. Hmm... It's not bad, and it stops as soon as I straighten out, but now it's confusing. I pull up to a parking spot on my left, and when I go to turn into the spot, I find that I have almost zero turning radius to the left... Well shit, something's up. I back it up, take the left again and this time make it (although I'm pretty far to the right in the space) and straighten the wheels. I hop out to look, and discover that my driver's side front tire has about a 15* camber angle, and is now pointing to the right-edge of the driver's headlight instead of straight on. I double-check the passenger side, and find that it's pointing exactly straight and isn't bent inwards like the other side.
You can imagine the next several four-letter utterances that came from my mouth 02.gif
Turns out that the alignment dude didn't tighten the lower strut-to-knuckle bolt, and it fell out. Fortunately for the wife, the Tiburon and I, he did tighten the camber adjustment bolt correctly and it was still holding the strut and knuckle together -- albeit now at a ridiculous angle. The off-center direction came from the knuckle leaning in against the tie-rod, pushing the rear of the tire out (and thus, the front of the tire in towards the center of the car) which also explains my inability to turn left. And of course, turning resulted in the inside edge of the tire rubbing the inside fenderwheel.
Gay.
Fortunately, I have plenty of spare strut-to-knuckle bolts at home from replacing half of them with the camber bolts. The fix was relatively quick -- we zipped home, grabbed the bolt and a 17mm wrench, jacked up the car, wiggled the wheel until the holes lined up in the strut and knuckle, and put the bolt back in the car and tightened it correctly.
My father-in-law is gonna take my car back to them on Wednesday to re-align it, and to make sure the damned strut isn't bent. It doesn't look like it, but I'm gonna have him hang out while they check.
Anyway, that's my gripe. Glad I didn't die when my front wheel came loose from the strut... That would've been an extreme pisser...
As expected, camber was visibly off on all four corners; I did my best to pare it down with a magnetic level and some finessing of the camber bolts, but only enough to make sure it wasn't STUPIDLY off so I wouldn't kill the tires driving it to the alignment shop.
Saturday at 7:30am, I drove it 11 miles to a Big O Tires shop that came highly recommended by two folks who have similar setups to mine and did a good job. I show up, talk to the guy a bit, he asks all the right questions, and tells me that I'm second in line so it should be done before 10:00am.
The wife and I hit Bob Evans for breakfast, get some fantastically fattening munchies, and afterwards pop into the Books-a-Million to burn off the time. Around 9:45, we head back and see the Tib in the alignment bay. I walk into the bay, talking to the guy again, and he's pretty happy with the result and shows me what's up.
He showed me the pre-alignment page, and every measurable adjustment was 'in the red' to various degrees -- not that I expected much different. The post-alignment was almost dead-center in the green across the board, except for the front caster which is non-adjustable in this setup, and presumably the GK front knuckles slightly modify how far forward the wheels sit. Nevertheless, caster is not a tire wear issue, and it was out of spec by only about 2/10ths of a degree, so I wasn't worried about it.
He said he needed to recheck everything and then take it for a spin to make sure there's no weird noises or tracking issues, and then I'd be good to go. I already had set the Haltech revlimit to 3K, so I wasn't worried about him tearing anything up during a test drive, and it only took him about a minute and a half to come back. He gave it the all-is-well, I paid the man, and the wife and I left. On the way home, I was doing lane-changes, taking random exists that I knew had varying sweeper turns, punching the throttle through right-turns and left-turns, late-braking on purpose, stuff like that. I love the new setup. smile.gif
Fast forward to Sunday around noon -- the wife and I are meeting her parents at a nearby restaurant for some lunch before going to a baby shower for one of the many cousins she has. The restaurant is about four miles away, almost entirely by highway. So we take the Tib, and again I'm zipping around the corners, doing lane changes, goofy shit like that to see how it all feels (I've yet to really break it loose yet at this point -- but I'm trying not to be an ass either.)
We get to the appropriate exit, stop at a red light, and then turn right -- but I hear the front driver's tire rub while going around the corner. That's odd though, because I've been zipping around all these corners before this point, and never had it rub... Why now? Or is it some other noise that just sounds like it? Maybe it's the front swaybar creaking or something, except that's not the right noise.
I get stopped at the next light, at which I turn right again, and again I get a rub - and can feel it in the steering wheel. Hmm... It's not bad, and it stops as soon as I straighten out, but now it's confusing. I pull up to a parking spot on my left, and when I go to turn into the spot, I find that I have almost zero turning radius to the left... Well shit, something's up. I back it up, take the left again and this time make it (although I'm pretty far to the right in the space) and straighten the wheels. I hop out to look, and discover that my driver's side front tire has about a 15* camber angle, and is now pointing to the right-edge of the driver's headlight instead of straight on. I double-check the passenger side, and find that it's pointing exactly straight and isn't bent inwards like the other side.
You can imagine the next several four-letter utterances that came from my mouth 02.gif
Turns out that the alignment dude didn't tighten the lower strut-to-knuckle bolt, and it fell out. Fortunately for the wife, the Tiburon and I, he did tighten the camber adjustment bolt correctly and it was still holding the strut and knuckle together -- albeit now at a ridiculous angle. The off-center direction came from the knuckle leaning in against the tie-rod, pushing the rear of the tire out (and thus, the front of the tire in towards the center of the car) which also explains my inability to turn left. And of course, turning resulted in the inside edge of the tire rubbing the inside fenderwheel.
Gay.
Fortunately, I have plenty of spare strut-to-knuckle bolts at home from replacing half of them with the camber bolts. The fix was relatively quick -- we zipped home, grabbed the bolt and a 17mm wrench, jacked up the car, wiggled the wheel until the holes lined up in the strut and knuckle, and put the bolt back in the car and tightened it correctly.
My father-in-law is gonna take my car back to them on Wednesday to re-align it, and to make sure the damned strut isn't bent. It doesn't look like it, but I'm gonna have him hang out while they check.
Anyway, that's my gripe. Glad I didn't die when my front wheel came loose from the strut... That would've been an extreme pisser...
07-13-2009, 10:54 AM
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Vehicle: 2001 Hyundai Tiburon, 2004 Kia Sorento, 2010 Kia Soul
They were probably trying to kill what they saw as a Hyundai Ricer.
LOL
Glad to hear it is all okay now though mang.
LOL
Glad to hear it is all okay now though mang.
07-13-2009, 11:04 AM
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I also noticed that the rear track is slightly off -- as I mentioned in the 5-lug DIY thread, if you don't get the rear K-frame bolt holes elongated perfectly, it can screw up your track. I'm pointed straight, but the centerline of the rear tires are physically shifted to the driver's side by about 3/8" of an inch. This has resulted in the driver's side tire getting the smallest amount of rub under the hardest turning radius.
I'm gonna have to pull the rear K-frame again and fix my mistake, but once it's right, I will not have any rubbing issues even with the bigger, wider tires and the drop. The whole setup looks pretty sharp though, and (when the bolt isn't gone) it drives pretty damned well.
Need to do the Ebay center pan-bar DIY and the upper strut braces, but none of that is very expensive, hard, or time consuming. smile.gif I'll get 'em later at some point...
I'm gonna have to pull the rear K-frame again and fix my mistake, but once it's right, I will not have any rubbing issues even with the bigger, wider tires and the drop. The whole setup looks pretty sharp though, and (when the bolt isn't gone) it drives pretty damned well.
Need to do the Ebay center pan-bar DIY and the upper strut braces, but none of that is very expensive, hard, or time consuming. smile.gif I'll get 'em later at some point...
07-13-2009, 02:58 PM
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Vehicle: 2001 Hyundai Tiburon
hmm today my sister took her car to kost tires to get the front end aligned and they totally messed her car up too, when she drives down the road it like cuts one way for no reason, like they messed up the rack and pinion, or however its spelled. So we'll have to see how that goes, the guy seemed pretty convinced he didnt mess it up cause hes been doin it for 30 years
07-13-2009, 09:41 PM
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Vehicle: 2004 Volkswagen Jetta GLI
good to hear everything is alright and that nothing happen...
couple weeks ago i replaced my front axles due to cv boots ripped off...come to found out that i have been driving with one of the bolts on passenger strut loose (making me think my wheel bearings are shot) and the clip for the driver side axle fell off and the axle could come loose from tranny...
SO IMAGINE HOW SCARED I WAS WHEN I FOUND OUT CUZ I HAVE BEEN DRIVING MY SON AND WIFE AROUND IN MY CAR LIKE THIS...please beleive the wife did not get the entire story or my ass would have been grass!!!
couple weeks ago i replaced my front axles due to cv boots ripped off...come to found out that i have been driving with one of the bolts on passenger strut loose (making me think my wheel bearings are shot) and the clip for the driver side axle fell off and the axle could come loose from tranny...
SO IMAGINE HOW SCARED I WAS WHEN I FOUND OUT CUZ I HAVE BEEN DRIVING MY SON AND WIFE AROUND IN MY CAR LIKE THIS...please beleive the wife did not get the entire story or my ass would have been grass!!!