Clemson Sports Car Club

This past weekend I had a little incident. I was going back home to Greer to get some maintenance stuff done on my car (oh the irony ) and I lost the back end of my car on a wet corner. I wasn't going fast, I just put too much throttle going into the corner I guess. Coming out of the corner I lost traction and went rear first into a ditch. I ended up bouncing out of the ditch and rolled to a stop against a street sign. So not to bore you with the details...the car was drivable coming out of it. I didn't feel any weird vibrations or hear any noises from the car as I limped it home. But the steering wheel was comletely out of alignment and was cocked pretty far to the left.

When I got to my house I jacked up the car and checked all the suspension parts as best I could. Couldn't see any breaks or bends in any of the components, but obviously I may have missed something for all I know. So I took the car to Firestone (the only place that was open near my house) to get an alignment and see if anything was broken. The guy aligning my car and I checked the suspension a second time and didn't see anything obvious. He then aligned it and everything seemed to be fine. I drove the car back down here from the alignment place and everything seemed fine except the steering wheel was still slightly cocked to the left and now it pulled to the right slightly. So I delt with it until I got a chance to go back to Firestone in Anderson this week. Got it aligned up again since I thought the previous guy didn't do it right. The steering wheel is still cocked the same amount to the left but it doesn't pull to the right anymore.

So...heres the advice part. Do you guys think that my suspension is f-ed up somewhere (steering rack?) or is Firestone just incompetent and not able to align a steering wheel straight? Anybody have access to a lift I can use to look at the suspension with? Or can somebody who knows what to look for help me check over my suspension?

What would be awesome is if somebody can align my car properly for me so I can know for sure if my car is messed up or if it is just Firestone.

sounds like a crappy alignment place to me, but I haven't been under your car and pulled some of the mounting hardware to check for bends, etc, etc either. Give Boyle a call...

I would go somewhere else but I don't wanna pay for another alignment I have a lifetime alignment through Firestone so free is better

sounds like you Might MIGHT let me say that again, might have bent something.

lol i dont know, but i did have you thinking i knew the answer didnt I

Those idiots just can't do an alignment. Even if you did bend something and they missed it, doing an alignment correctly includes centering the steering wheel. Chance are you did bend something though.

If you want you can bring it to my shop and look it over.

One last thought, did they do a four wheel alignment? Your thrust angle of the rear end may be off from bouncing it out of the ditch.

Ryan, Mike's right. Hypothetically, if your alignment was off and something was bent, most places can get the correct reading on the Hunter machine by adding caster, camber toe-in to account for the bend. Hence, the numbers are right, the car steers right BUT the steering wheel is off center.

IF you want to bring it over to Simpsonville, I can get my Sponsor at Tire Kingdom to put it on the lift and check it over for free. If they see anything, they will tell you. These guys are sharp, one of them races Greenville Pickens Speedway... they take time to do it right and they take good care of people I send them. Service and price. They will let you sit in the car while they dial in your alignment specs you provide... they will give you a print out of before and they will keep giving you printouts until you are happy. They keep it on their computer for next time as well. Many will not set it to anything but factory specs due to liability and many will not let you walk back in their shop. These guys love racing and working on "special projects" and race cars. They do work on all of our cars, Jeremy Cox's miata, Ron Wilcox's Elise, Per Olaf's Mini, Garrett's S2000 and others in SCCA. I understand free is better... especially on a tight budget. Let me know if you have time to drive out Simpsonville way.
Ted

Yes Mike they did a 4 wheel alignment. Both times their machines got the readouts within spec, but there must be a difference in the two machines cause the second time I had it done half of the values were out of spec again...

Ted that would be AMAZING if I could get they to give my car the look over! I'm paranoid I hurt the poor girl and want to make sure I don't make things worse by driving on bent parts

(11-04-2009 11:03 PM)Clemsons2k Wrote: [ -> ]Yes Mike they did a 4 wheel alignment. Both times their machines got the readouts within spec, but there must be a difference in the two machines cause the second time I had it done half of the values were out of spec again...

Ted that would be AMAZING if I could get they to give my car the look over! I'm paranoid I hurt the poor girl and want to make sure I don't make things worse by driving on bent parts

The first place may have not even put the sensors on correctly.

At the first Firestone I stood out in the garage with the guy the whole time and watched. They may have been misaligned for all I know, but he did everything he was supposed to. Even asked me if the steering wheel was straight enough. Guess the machine was off.

Did he do any adjustments to the rear?

I would really expect it to be a trust angle issue, cause it to dog track, which would be why the wheel is off.

Yea he did the rear first and then the fronts. I suppose as long as I can figure out that nothing on the car is broken, then I can deal with a crappy alignment for awhile.

(11-04-2009 11:39 PM)Clemsons2k Wrote: [ -> ]Yea he did the rear first and then the fronts. I suppose as long as I can figure out that nothing on the car is broken, then I can deal with a crappy alignment for awhile.

If something is broken you would notice a big difference in how it handles, if something is bent it will just cause poor tire wear.

I know at some places they don't always tighten the adjustments tight, thus it can change over time. Just something I usually check after a alignment.

Well I don't think its a tightness issue since the wheel was crooked right after it was aligned. If it went crooked after a couple days then I would agree with you.

(11-05-2009 08:19 AM)Clemsons2k Wrote: [ -> ]Well I don't think its a tightness issue since the wheel was crooked right after it was aligned. If it went crooked after a couple days then I would agree with you.

I'll be out that way later tonight after my class. I could stop by and have a look if you want.