Wheel Alignment / Balancing?

thewools

Hi guys

I got my mondeo aligned today however after changing the struts (one was bent from a wee tip) and two new front tires. The results from the alignment were good all well within tolerance however on the way home the car was still pulling to the left.

Is this normal???

paddy2008

what brand of tyres and are they rotational tyres?
cheap, rotational tyres can do this!

sundodger5

Depends on what type of alignment was done.if it was your "basic" alignment it may not have covered all the steering geometry and you may still have a problem elsewhere.
also as stated above it could be tyres.

woody33

Do you mean directional tyres like the Maloya Crono I'm considering?

paddy2008

yes directional tyres CAN have this effect:eek:

mickdw

Do you mean pulling left or just that the steering wheel was alittle off centre when driving straight?
Depending on how old the car is, the new parts might be showing up wear in other parts around them causing this problem.

SK1979

Its more than likely a confusion with the wording, if you simply got your wheels balanced after getting the new tyres fitted there may well be some pulling to the side. Normally getting the 4 wheels properly alligned (tracked) will cost an additional fee on top of the normal fitting of tyres.

thewools

I got the 4 tires aligned by a specialist.

I suffered excessive wear on the two front tires very rapidly last month and found out that one of the suspension struts was bent causing this wear.

After replacing both struts I then changed the two front tires.

All four tires are Dunlops now however the 2 new front ones have a different thread. I didnt get it tracked after I got these tires fitted.

I got the 4 tires aligned today but noticed on a straight when I let go of the steering wheel the car goes to the left. The steering wheel is at centre when holding it on the straight however.

I am slightly confused tbh to why this happens still - as previously before the damaged strut it was perfect!!

thewools

bump

Alanstrainor

thewools wrote: »

bump

Bumping a thread after only a few hours isn't really on.

thewools

Alanstrainor wrote: »

Bumping a thread after only a few hours isn't really on.

Sorry for the bump - Just wanted a response ideally quickly this morning - kind of annoyed that my car still isnt 100% after paying almost €50 yesterday to get a full wheel alignment done.

Was going to ring the mechanic that done the alignments today but not sure.

What I basically need to know before I ring is - Should a full alignment (Half - Toe, Camber, Caster alignment etc) ensure that the car travels straight when releaseing the steering wheel?

cyborg

swap the tires from front to back , fixed the same problem for me on 2 different cars, both pulling to left...

thewools

cyborg wrote: »

swap the tires from front to back , fixed the same problem for me on 2 different cars, both pulling to left...

Might try this but how did swapping tires solve the problem??

My two front tires are brand new where as the rear tires are a few months old. Will see how it goes...

EPM

Dont all cars have a natural tendency to pull slightly left anyway to avoid accidents if you nod off behind the wheel?

OP, does it steer straight ahead when the wheel is straight? Got mine done last week and the wheel must've been out very slightly when they clamped it as i have to have it very slightly right for straight ahead.

Little Mickey

Does this happen on a Regional road, or even on an older National road - don't these roads have a slight fall to the left from the centre?

thewools

EPM wrote: »

Dont all cars have a natural tendency to pull slightly left anyway to avoid accidents if you nod off behind the wheel?

OP, does it steer straight ahead when the wheel is straight? Got mine done last week and the wheel must've been out very slightly when they clamped it as i have to have it very slightly right for straight ahead.

When I hold the steering wheel straight sure it goes straight when I release the wheel no matter what the speed or road - the car almost instantly goes to the left at an angle of maybe 5degrees!!

slimjimmc

Maybe your brakes are binding a little on left side. After a decent drive around (gentle braking, no harsh stuff) does the left wheel feel warm at the hub or warmer than the right side?

Green Hornet

As somebody else mentioned, road camber is the cause of cars drifting to the left on Irish roads. It's gravity. It's natural.

However, I guess a strong pull is most likely the alignment. The problem is that many of the "tyre specialists" do not do it correctly. Getting the steering wheel straight is something else that can take a number of re-visits to get right.

mickdw

Just to be sure that its not road camber causing this drift, drive on the right hand side somewhere safe obviously to see if the car now goes to the right with that camber. It is possible that the car would feel different with the new tyres also. I often found older cars that would have an amount of wear in suspension to be very very giddy to steer until the tyres were bedded in.
The most likely problem though is that the alignment wasnt done right

slimjimmc

Green Hornet wrote: »

As somebody else mentioned, road camber is the cause of cars drifting to the left on Irish roads. It's gravity. It's natural.

However, I guess a strong pull is most likely the alignment. The problem is that many of the "tyre specialists" do not do it correctly. Getting the steering wheel straight is something else that can take a number of re-visits to get right.

Also, isn't alignment supposed to be done with a full tank and somebody in the driver seat. I've read it somewhere but never ever seen it done that way.

mondeo

These guys at tyre fitting places or whatever use lasers to allign the wheels. However I have had such people do laser alignment on my car and the tyres still wore unevenly. Maybe the guy who did the car did not do it 100% as proved with me as on my second visit the wheels were obviously out.

sundodger5

wheel alignment may not make tyres wear evenly but it will put the alignment as recommended by the manufacturer.
a balance between handling and tyre wear usually.

Delta Kilo

Check tyre pressure as well. My car was pulling to the left a while ago and there was a difference of about 4psi in each tyre, with the left tyre more deflated than the right. Topping both up to recommended pressure level had me back on the straight again!

thewools

mondeo wrote: »

These guys at tyre fitting places or whatever use lasers to allign the wheels. However I have had such people do laser alignment on my car and the tyres still wore unevenly. Maybe the guy who did the car did not do it 100% as proved with me as on my second visit the wheels were obviously out.

He used Laser to align sure and printed of the results - the results are clear. I was way off previously and he fixed that. I visited him a few weeks ago and he couldnt align the wheels due to the bent suspension strut. So fair play to him he done it again and said everything should be perfect now. He also has a great reputation so i dont dount his ability.

slimjimmc wrote: »

Maybe your brakes are binding a little on left side. After a decent drive around (gentle braking, no harsh stuff) does the left wheel feel warm at the hub or warmer than the right side?

The brake pads actually need replacing and getting that done in the next week or so. Perhaps I should get me mechanic to have a look to see if there is anything obvious causing this pull.

But if it aligned properly and as some of you guys said then the road will pull the car to the side - i will try driving on the right hand side when safe to see what happens.

AutoQuip

Don't know if you got your car to drive straight yet but here's some help for you :

If someone uses a laser system, this is a fairly basic system and lads usually only align your front toe. Some fellas don't bother doing the back as you have to swap the lasers front to back etc. and it gets time consuming. You end up with 1 out of a number of possible adjustments done. Some laser systems come with a caster / camber gauge but again, because it's time consuming, they usually don't check those either.

Your car could be tracked properly front and back (adjusting the toe) but if for example your camber value differs from side to side by more than half a degree, your car can pull to the side that has the least amount of negative camber (negative camber is tilting in at the top). It's common sense if you think about it.

Assuming again the toe has been adjusted to withing spec, then you need to next look at the camber specs. If the factory spec is lets say from 2 degrees to 3 degrees with a preferred reading of 2.5 degrees (half ways between 2 and 3) then you can do this: Set the left wheel to 2.6 and the right wheel to 2.4 giving approx. 0.2 of a degree more negative on the left. This keeps both wheels within tolerance but gives you that bit more negative on the left to compensate for the fall of the road. You might have to tweek the values but you get the idea, just give more negative on the left.

Obviously, tyre pressure, worn suspension parts, different thread on tyres etc. can all have an impact on the way your car drives.

Slimjimmc made a suggestion about full tanks of fuel etc. This is correct for some cars but not all. I saw a Fiat Bravo (I think) that according to the manufacturer should be aligned with a full tank of fuel and 80kg in each front set. This wasn't done and the tyres were worn to s**t in 4000kms. You wouldn't believe the difference when we sat 2 guys in the front seats ! Mind you, I think this example was maybe not normal, the front suspension was very light and the weight made a huge difference. BMW's for example (which could ask for more weight) might not be affected as badly because of stiffer suspension etc.

I train mechanics and tyre shop fitters how to use all types of alignment systems and came across lots of different things that can influence pull. One good one was on a 1 year old Fiesta that would take you in over the ditch in about 5 seconds if you let the steering wheel go. The problem was different type tyres on the front. Alignment readings for caster, camber and toe on the front and camber and toe on the back were 100%. We swapped wheels front to back and this fixed the problem !

So what would I do if I were you ??? Take your car to someone who uses a computerised alignment system NOT a laser system. People usually associate laser with computerised but it's the other way around. The computerised systems these days use CCD cameras etc. and do a lot more that the laser ones.

When he's finished, make sure and get a printout. It should tell you the readings before and after he made adjustments. It should also show you the tolerances that the car should be set at so if they're not within spec, you're gonna probably have some issues.

Last thing, what year is your Mondeo ? I have a funny feeling that there were issues with alignment specs on the machines compared to what Ford recommended ? I'll have to look into that one for you, think it was a Ford dealer that mentioned that to me...

If you do get a printout, let me know what the values are on it and I will try and help you out.

Richie.

Johnny Utah

^ Great first post. Welcome to boards.

AutoQuip

Thanks Johnny I do my best