I have an 08 SS/TC, went in for an alignment yesterday because the car was pulling left.

I get the car back with a printout of the current measurements and the car is still pulling (obvious by the data on the sheet even without driving the car). The sheet shows that the car has quite a bit of positive toe on the RR and a slight amount of negative toe on the LR, so the rear of the car is trying to go to the right. The spec sheet also showed less negative camber on the LF by almost .5*, which pulls left. These two things in combination are making for a pretty ill handling car and something that I have to constantly fight on the highway.

I know front camber is adjustable, so that can be corrected fairly easily.

Rear toe, it seems is not adjustable and the hubs can not be shimmed on a TC because the brake caliper brackets are fixed to the axle. Is there any known fix for excessive thrust angle/unequal rear toe? I really don't like the alignment angles on the back half and hope I'm not stuck with a car that only wants to make left turns...

 

Your car wants to join nascar, that is why it only wants left turns.

 

Tell the alignment tech to stop being lazy take out 1 of the lower strut bolts on each side put inns smaller bolt then lossen the top bolts and push em out a little and make camber equal on each side

 

That will only fix the front camber. Which wouldn't cause a pull anyways.

Rear alignment angles are fixed except for the mentioned shimming of hubs. The only other possible way to fix it is to unbolt the mounts on the body for the rear axle and try to pry it in one direction or the other and bolt it back down while applying that load. You may see results out of this or you may not.

What were the specs on the alignment sheet? Caster has a much bigger effect on your car pulling than rear angles. Especially on FWD cars.

Also, sometimes the steering wheel being off-center is misread as a pull.

 

the only way to fix the rear is to loosen it's mounting points on the rear unibody, and shift it to as close as possible to center.

There really isn't a safe alternative.

 

Caster is not perfect but good enough to make the car go straight; 3.5* left and 3.4* right, I see no issue there.

The front camber isn't bad enough that it alone should cause a severe pull, but with where it is now it's not helping the situation any. -1* left; -1.4* right. This is an easy correction, which I have done myself on other cars when I was doing alignments.

I think a little more rear camber that what the car is currently set to would be beneficial to handling, but again the current rear camber settings are reasonable enough to make the car go straight. -0.3* left, -0.5* right.

Rear toe is the big issue which concerns me. -0.07* left and 0.33* right (-0.20* thrust angle) has the rear of the car adding a steering input.

The frustrating thing is, as expected the service writer is completely clueless. This is the dealership I was previously employed at and his first question was "Are all the numbers green?".

All that said, the sheet does not specify the factory preferred specs, only the acceptable range. Does anybody know the preferred specs, so if necessary, I can present them on my return trip.


Hopefully there is enough movement that this will correct it, I agree this is really the only viable solution. Although It will probably be a fight to get them to do it.

 

I'll attatch the specs from SI.

Your front end specs look fine. You can fiddle with the camber if you'd like but that's your perogative. Good luck getting someone else to do it, unless you pay extra. Yeah Its kind of crap.

The rear is completely jacked up, toe wise. Your total toe is juuust out of spec. 0.26 degrees. Its the fact that its all on one side of the car that's really screwing you. The dealership may not be able to manipulate the frame enough to get you into spec, but a body shop may be able to help you out.

The problem though is even if they manage to even out the rear toe, you're going to be left with .13 degrees on either side. That's enough to scrub tires and cause squirelly handling even if the thrust angle is straight.

 

This is where you run into issues, a normal shop like the dealer, or Firestone won't touch the rear.

I have the time attack beam, so i can safely shim mine, and they still won't do it.

As long as the numbers are "green" and fall within factory ranges, most places won't touch the rear.

The front on the other hand, tell them you want it at -1* of camber and 0 toe. The toe is easy to do, and the camber should be straight forward, especially since you're seeing greater than 1* already.

 

Thanks for the replies gentlemen.

 

Camber isn't going to cause a pull, period. There is no problem in using shims, I do it all the time. The usually charge 1-1.5hrs per wheel to do it, depending on the shop. I just did one yesterday in fact on a Toyota Sienna (I know it's not the same car, but it is the same concept). It worked out fine, perfect camber, and 0 toe in the rear.

 

A big enough camber split side to side can most definitely cause a pull. I've experienced it in my Regal with perfect caster and toe settings all around and have personally corrected it. You can't shim the rear hubs on a TC without adversely effecting the brakes because the caliper mount is welded to the axle and does not move with the hub.