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Car pulls to the right after suspension refresh and alignment.

MrFancypants

Autocross Champion
The nice thing about suspension stuff is that safety problems tend to be pretty easy to see it feel. If nothing is visibly damaged, all the bolts are tight, and everything feels solid when you grab and pull, there's probably nothing to worry about.

You know enough about it and now is as good a time to learn as any. :)

When you drive it again pay attention to how straight it goes down the road. Try to sense if it's pulling one way or the other. Also, has your steering angle sensor been recalibrated after all these parts were installed? That dictates the behavior of the electric power steering and while I have no idea how it would behave if the calibration is seriously off, I do know that when it's right it's a big part of why this car feels as stable as it does on the highway.

Visually the pieces I would personally inspect next are the spindles and ball joints. A better way than a straight edge would be a way to measure the angle of the part of the spindle that the ball joint mounts too. Mine is off by such a small amount that you have to look really close to tell, but even that's enough to add .5 degrees of negative camber to that side.
 

mikejsmith1985

Go Kart Champion
The nice thing about suspension stuff is that safety problems tend to be pretty easy to see it feel. If nothing is visibly damaged, all the bolts are tight, and everything feels solid when you grab and pull, there's probably nothing to worry about.

You know enough about it and now is as good a time to learn as any. :)

When you drive it again pay attention to how straight it goes down the road. Try to sense if it's pulling one way or the other. Also, has your steering angle sensor been recalibrated after all these parts were installed? That dictates the behavior of the electric power steering and while I have no idea how it would behave if the calibration is seriously off, I do know that when it's right it's a big part of why this car feels as stable as it does on the highway.

Visually the pieces I would personally inspect next are the spindles and ball joints. A better way than a straight edge would be a way to measure the angle of the part of the spindle that the ball joint mounts too. Mine is off by such a small amount that you have to look really close to tell, but even that's enough to add .5 degrees of negative camber to that side.



Definitely trying to learn now!

Visual inspection checks out nothing appears to be damaged. I reconfirmed torque on all the subframe/steering rack bolts an they're good. Because I'm having issues though o think it's worth mentioning that I only have 3 steering rack bolts. I noticed it when taking it apart and even dropped the subframe twice to make sure that I couldn't adjust the steering rack in anyway that would allow a 4th mounting point.





Ball joints seem to be sitting at an awkward resting angle to me but I've never looked at them before.





Driving the car it seems to pull to the right due to the grade of the road not due to an issue. If I let go of the wheel it seems to track pretty well although as shown in a previous post the steering wheel isn't even close to centered.


I didn't perform any calibration process via VCDS but the steering wheel light was on when I put the car back together so I turned it lock to lock and it cleared that light. I'll try doing a VCDS calibration and see if it helps anything.


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Last edited:

mikejsmith1985

Go Kart Champion
Went out in the car again and if I go into VCDS and select the steering angle sensor it tells me it can't connect or something along those lines... I have no fault codes, and I did find that measuring from the ground to the center of the fender arch on level ground that the driver front side does in fact sit about 3/8" higher than the passenger side. FrontDriver = 26"
FrontPassenger = 25 5/8"
RearDriver = 26 1/4"
RearPassenger = 26 1/4"

No additional calibration or work has been done at this point.


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mikejsmith1985

Go Kart Champion
I adjusted the ride height of the drivers side to match the passenger side. The test drive didn't yield any improvement but I don't know that it should since I didn't directly change any alignment points. I've located a performance alignment shop and have an appointment to try and get it sorted out next Friday. $90hr and they anticipate 2 hours to fix and or complete an analysis on why it's out of whack. Doesn't seem too steep to me but I could go for a cheaper route :)


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mikejsmith1985

Go Kart Champion
So finally started getting more logical, and figured the best way to determine root cause is to eliminate variables. So ride height is in check and I've put the OEM LCAs with OEM bushings back on. If I can get it aligned now problem is most likely with the AL control arms. If not the issue is likely the subframe. If so I guess I've got to get rid of the locking collars...


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Blaznjoe

Drag Race Newbie
Hey guys just got home with the car. It doesn't seem to be pulling it does drift but I blame that on the grade of the road.

The steering wheel won't center when driving straight.



Here is the current spec sheet any thoughts on what I should be looking at?




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Too much camber on your front left wheel.... -2.2* versus the right front wheel at -0.7*. (I believe the ideal factory front camber is -1.0* Left and Right.) All the other specs seem fine. I would recommend fixing this first before everything else since you have adjustable camber plates. (But seems you've already done a lot of other things.) Also, find a shop that offers alignments with aftermarket camber plates. Yes, it will cost more money but it could be worth it in the long run. :iono:
Also, keep in mind that if you decide to adjust your front left camber yourself it is highly possibly that you will effect the overall front "toe" a little.

Good luck!
 

mikejsmith1985

Go Kart Champion
Too much camber on your front left wheel.... -2.2* versus the right front wheel at -0.7*. (I believe the ideal factory front camber is -1.0* Left and Right.) All the other specs seem fine. I would recommend fixing this first before everything else since you have adjustable camber plates. (But seems you've already done a lot of other things.) Also, find a shop that offers alignments with aftermarket camber plates. Yes, it will cost more money but it could be worth it in the long run. :iono:

Also, keep in mind that if you decide to adjust your front left camber yourself it is highly possibly that you will effect the overall front "toe" a little.



Good luck!



Thanks! I don't mind adjusting the camber plate if I know that im not compensating for a damages part, but I believe that the control arms are to blame here... I've got one of those year long alignment plans so I'm using that to determine if they are a problem. If so I'll replace them then get it over to the performance shop that's equipped to handle this. Thank you all for the feedback. I'm continuing to read and learn. I honestly didn't understand what an impact all of this would have. I felt like so many people on here do this at the end of the day it's just another alignment.


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1ashchuckton

Autocross Champion
I paid $150 to have a custom performance alignment on my Miata. Money well spent it made the cars handling come alive.

FWIW I think you should leave things as they are & have these guys do your troubleshooting. I'm afraid you are just chasing your tail.
 

mikejsmith1985

Go Kart Champion
I paid $150 to have a custom performance alignment on my Miata. Money well spent it made the cars handling come alive.

FWIW I think you should leave things as they are & have these guys do your troubleshooting. I'm afraid you are just chasing your tail.



Thanks! I'm a little OCD, hence the 5 updates today... you may very well be right. I don't typically buy used parts but I did on these control arms so I just have this nagging feeling in the back of my head that the issue is there. Reassurance that the performance shop price is money well spent does make me feel better. Lesson learned that the chain shops aren't where it's at for modified cars though!


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1ashchuckton

Autocross Champion
Don't worry they will get it sorted out. I wasted a fair bit of money using chain shops. Once I found a good shop it became obvious how poor the chains were. Getting it done right is worth the money.
 

mikejsmith1985

Go Kart Champion
Don't worry they will get it sorted out. I wasted a fair bit of money using chain shops. Once I found a good shop it became obvious how poor the chains were. Getting it done right is worth the money.



Thanks again man! I'm definitely looking forward to next Friday.


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mikejsmith1985

Go Kart Champion
So as you all may have expected swapping the control arms back to stock didn't make a difference.

So last question is. Is there a secret to removing the front bolt on the drivers side w/o dropping the subframe? That bolt is long and hits the transmission well before it can be removed all the way.

I'm going to reinstall the AL control arms and poly bushings then the experts can take it from there.


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mikejsmith1985

Go Kart Champion
Got the car home from the performance shop car was corner balanced, aligned, and I had them make sure the FSB endlinks were set right[emoji106]car drives awesome. The steering wheel is centered and it tracks straight. I'm really pumped!!!


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1ashchuckton

Autocross Champion
Got the car home from the performance shop car was corner balanced, aligned, and I had them make sure the FSB endlinks were set right[emoji106]car drives awesome. The steering wheel is centered and it tracks straight. I'm really pumped!!!


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Very happy to hear they got you squared away. Lesson learned go to a good shop. :thumbsup:
 
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