Take a look at my alignment spec sheet

[Highlander]

Car was pulling to the right, not terrible but noticeable. I checked it on multiple roads so I knew it wasn’t just groves in the road.
So I got an alignment like I’m supposed to and... it doesn’t appear anything was amiss. What am missing?

[MisterButtercup]

Not sure why the clam sauce pictures are in there, and if I'm reading that right, doesn't seem like anything is too strange...

[CB]

@highlander Is your steering wheel on straight?

[Highlander]

@cb Yes, wheel is straight. I'm wondering if it's the tires.

[Highlander]

@misterbuttercup Who doesn't want a fine clam sauce?

[Italia]

While cento certainly cans a fine tomato I would argue the clam sauce is non buono.

[WhoIsTheLeader]

$3.59? That's exactly reasonable.

[Highlander]

@italia I've always just added canned clams straight to alfredo, have I been doing it wrong?

[ITA97]

A little more toe-in now may make it a little less likely to follow imperfections or respond to the crown in the road. But, my guess might be that there could've been a tire issue. Checking and setting tire pressures are usually the first thing a good alignment tech will do after putting the car on the rack.

[Italia]

Well if it makes you happy I guess it's not "wrong" but it sure isn't authentic. I'm fine with canned clams(living in Utah even freshish is hard to find) but they should be in a white wine sauce. The cento ones pictured have a weird taste to the sauce that would be masked by al fredo sauce but not by a wine sauce. I prefer just a canned clam in juice if I can't get fresh search for a spaghetti vongole recipe on youtube.

[MisterButtercup]

@highlander honestly never had clam sauce(to my knowledge). My mom never cooked with anything resembling seafood growing up. I remember eating popcorn shrimp at a friend's house when I was around 8, and didn't have anything until I was...18 or in my 20s

[beefchips]

@ita97 said in Take a look at my alignment spec sheet:

A little more toe-in now may make it a little less likely to follow imperfections or respond to the crown in the road. But, my guess might be that there could've been a tire issue. Checking and setting tire pressures are usually the first thing a good alignment tech will do after putting the car on the rack.

Interesting, I know little about alignment except that if it's bad you'll steer off the road or maybe f* your tires. If one tire is less inflated, that causes a pull to one side?

[beefchips]

@misterbuttercup said in Take a look at my alignment spec sheet:

@highlander honestly never had clam sauce(to my knowledge). My mom never cooked with anything resembling seafood growing up. I remember eating popcorn shrimp at a friend's house when I was around 8, and didn't have anything until I was...18 or in my 20s

Mmm popcorn shrimp, sooo good. Man I can't wait to travel again when the pandemic is over. I want to go back to SE Asia where everything has multiple kinds of fish in it. Cuttlefish crunchies for the win!

[VincentMalamute]

@beefchips said in Take a look at my alignment spec sheet:

If one tire is less inflated, that causes a pull to one side?

That would make sense. Underflated front tire would have more rolling resistance and pull the car to that side.

@Highlander If what @ITA97 speculates about a tire issue is correct, that may be easily diagnosed by swapping wheels.

[pip bip]

@highlander road camber?

[ITA97]

@beefchips Absolutely, especially if there is a big difference.

[Highlander]

@pip-bip I drove it on several different roads with camber and flat, it was consistently pulling to the right.

[pip bip]

@highlander than it has to be a tyre issue
Get the tyre shop to take them off the rim and flip them
Maybe that will help?
Inner tyre wall to outside and outside tyre wall to inside

[beefchips]

@ita97 said in Take a look at my alignment spec sheet:

@beefchips Absolutely, especially if there is a big difference.

TIL. Thanks!

[dieseldub]

@highlander Speaking as someone who used to do wheel alignments and only wheel alignments all day (over a decade ago now, but still... I haven't forgot the lessons)...

That alignment is infact just fine. Your car pulling is 100% caused by sources outside the alignment. Sometimes a worn suspension bushing can contribute, but the more likely scenario is a tire problem. Tires can wear unevenly, I've even had numerous brand new tires cause pull problems because of imperfect manufacturing. It's frequently referred to as a "radial pull."

Easiest way to verify if it is infact the tires causing the pull, remove the two front tires and swap their positions. If the tires were infact causing the pull, this usually causes the pull to now go to the opposite side or, sometimes it fixes it. If you notice a change, it's almost certainly caused by the tires.

While it's in the air, never a bad idea to give each individual wheel a turn, make sure there's no dragging brakes.

Other odd things I've encountered are steering racks that are actually trying to steer themselves slightly. On hydraulically assisted racks, it can be due to a valve issue internally where it's applying significantly more assist to one side over the other.

I've had electric power steering racks cause such issues as well, though not always due to a failure of the rack, but can be a bad calibration of the steering angle sensor. Electric racks need input from the steering angle sensor to figure out which direction you're intending to turn and thus which direction it tells the motor to apply assist to the rack.

If the steering angle sensor is calibrated incorrectly, it can certainly cause the rack to apply assist in one direction all the time, effectively making it steer itself and making you have to hold the wheel a little the opposite direction to keep the car going straight.

The fix there is to get a scan tool that has the OEM protocols that give you the ability to recalibrate the steering angle sensor to the angle the wheel naturally should center itself at driving down the road.

A good scan tool could also give you live data to show what the current steering angle is reading, that way you have an idea of just how far off the calibration is when you put the wheel dead center and then look at how many degrees the sensor is reporting. +/- 4 degrees is about where you want to see it. Ideally within 1 degree when properly calibrated.

[BritsnSwedes was MINIGTI]

@highlander not impossible- my Jaguar was pulling to the right pretty good and wearing the tires unevenly because there’s no way to really correct the camber. Asked my Jag mechanic if he could do anything about it. He swapped the tires around and now it tracks pretty straight, even with janky bushings and who knows how far off spec it is.

[Highlander]

@dieseldub thanks for the details, I’ll start with switching the tires around.

[Highlander]

@pip-bip they are directional snow tires, so theoretically I’m only supposed to move them front to back and not side to side but I’m guessing they will still work fine if they are set backwards. I’ll do it for science.

[pip bip]

@highlander stupid thought do the have any Markings on them saying inside or outside?

I have seen some tyres with that on the sidewall