Steel wheel alignment....
Thread Starter
Evolved Member
iTrader: (7)
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 826
Likes: 0
From: Chicago, Illinois
Steel wheel alignment....
Ok I usually got my car aligned about twice a year. I have a lifetime alignment package through my local firestone shop. The shop knows me very well and they set my alignment to my exact specs. I just recently put on my winter wheels and had them realign the car. My front cammber was -2 degrees for summer use so I had them bring it back down to -1 degrees. I also had them set the toe to zero front and rear. The factory manual does not state to have zero toe in the rear but I have it set to zero all around.
When I just recently got my car back the car drives fine and does not pull in one direction or another, however the steering wheel is slightly tilted to the right about 5 degrees when driving straight. I know that when one of the techs showed me the alignment machine about 6 months ago it shows the steering wheel alignment on the machine and how every little adjustment effects the steering alignment. So my question is....can you adjust the steering alignment alone without touching the suspension alignment? The rest of the suspension alingment is in spec except for the rear toe which is zero so i don't know what would put the steering out of whack just so slightly.
When I just recently got my car back the car drives fine and does not pull in one direction or another, however the steering wheel is slightly tilted to the right about 5 degrees when driving straight. I know that when one of the techs showed me the alignment machine about 6 months ago it shows the steering wheel alignment on the machine and how every little adjustment effects the steering alignment. So my question is....can you adjust the steering alignment alone without touching the suspension alignment? The rest of the suspension alingment is in spec except for the rear toe which is zero so i don't know what would put the steering out of whack just so slightly.
Tie-Rod ends need to be adjusted, along with the Steering Wheel at the same time. I had the Firestone lifetime as well, but prefer the Old School mech. method, with Camber gauges and Tooling bars.
If you have a lifetime alignment, take it back to the shop. They can get your toe set correctly in about half an hour. You could do it yourself by taking the same number of turns out of the tie rod on one side as you put into the one on the other side, but there's no guarantee you'll end up with zero toe. Also, if you have any thrust angle in the rear it can lead to a cocked steering wheel, and that's a lot more difficult to check and/or fix yourself.



