I've been having hell with the alignment on my 97 Legacy GT. I was hoping that someone out there could point me in the right direction. Let me start off by saying that I work on cars for a living. Most of what I do is front end repairs, alignments, etc.....but this problem has me baffled. When I first bought my car (back in Feb 2010) It drove pretty straight. The steering wheel sat centered and nothing seemed wrong. About a month after I bought the car, I noticed that the outside edges of my rear tires where wearing extremely fast, while the inside edges were still brand new (the car came with new tires on it). I threw it up on the alignment machine at work and found my rear toe was out .93 on one side and .86 on the other side. This explained my tire wear, and with both wheels being toed in so far but almost identical each side, that would explain why the car didn't pull. I aligned it to the specs that were in the alignment machine (it was a brand new Hunter machine as of late 2009). Since then my car has consistently pulled to the right. I hooked it up on this same alignment machine twice afterwards and everything showed within specs. Fast forward to about a month and a half ago. I switched shops, and I've had my car on both alignment racks at my new shop. (the two alignment machines in my new shop are about 10 year old Hunter machines). These machines both show me within specs on my alignments. Since I've originally aligned the car, I have not noticed any more unusual tire wear that would indicate my car being out of alignment. My front end checks out ok (bearings, tie rods, ball joins, rack, etc....), my tire pressure is set at 32 in the front and 30 in the rear per OE recommendations, none of my brakes are dragging, suspension is in good working order....blah blah blah. Basically, from a mechanics standpoint I see absolutely NOTHING wrong that would cause my car to pull...but its still pulling. If I had only hooked it up to one alignment machine, I would guess that the one machine was out of calibration....but three different machines and all of them have had the calibration checked by Hunter. I'm hoping that someone can help me out on this. Any advise would be great. Thanks in advance. note - camber, caster, and toe are all in spec on each wheel. i have aftermarket camber kits installed on the front (car came with the camed bolts), and my car is NOT lowered.
My 2004 WRX has this same issue. Two different shops have shown the alignment is in spec. Rotated the tires and replaced steering bushings with Whitelines. Still pulls to the right. Brakes don't seem to be dragging or anything either.
Well like I said I do these kind of repairs for a living and I've never come across something like this. I'm beyond baffled...and I'm getting really irritated that I can't get my car to stop pulling. Sure, I can play around with my alignment numbers and throw something out of spec to compensate.......but then I will eat through tires.
are you sure its not a tire pull? have you rotated them to see if it still pulls in the same direction?
No its not a radial pull. I've swaped around tires on both the front and the back, taken the rubber off the rim and turned it over too.
I drive with my left hand because I have to shift with my right hand. This has nothing to do with what way a car pulls. And the front toe goes off of the rear toe, so in order to check front toe you have to have your rear toe in spec...so yes my rear is in alignment. I'm centered on my toe on all 4 wheels + or - .01
sounds baffling... if your willing to have someone else check your car then i can suggest someone that i used to work for... he has done alot of work in the suspension field and knows his shit...
I'm more then willing to let another person look at it. I've had 4 other guys look at it over the past several months and all of them threw up their hands lol.... Who is this that you know?
his name is don bridson... he has been around for years did developing for ntb along time ago, he now has his own shop here in canton which is a little ways from you but he has found many things that most people have missed numerous times.... i will give him a call and chat with him tom to see if he has any ideas
Struts are in good shape, along with the rest of the suspension. As far as the sub frame goes, I can't see any bends anywhere - not to say that it isn't slightly bent. How can I check for a bent sub frame besides just looking at it? I've taken physical measurements of the entire front end and they match up from side to side.
I don't see how that would cause a pull....I know it would cause vibration...but last time I had them on a balancer they didn't appear to be bent or warped in any way.
i talked to my old boss and that is what he came up with without seeing the car... he had said he had seen it before
Bent wheels can cause a pull but you can usually diagnose it like a tire pull.Swap around to see if pull changes,side to side, front to back..Have heard of cars have a pull do to rack and pinion issues,
I'm thinkin mine is the steering rack also. It feels too loose when driving and pulls when I accelerate from 60mph+. Same here with the alignments, it's been aligned several times at the collision shop and several times at the subby dealership. Everything is within spec.
Im sure youve checked for brake drag/sticky piston. Possible wheel bearing but that should be readily noticeable. Other then those 2 only thing that pops in my head is bend frame.
Without seeing the spec sheet from an alignment it will be a shot in the dark to figure out. My guess is the front diff is of the open persuasion so it may just be torque steer or another possibility is one tire is smaller in circumference which will also feel like a pull. I think the cure all for this problem is to sell the car to me for 50 bucks and call it day. You can PM me a counter offer if you wish, good luck regardless.
A little update on this problem. Still isn't solved. I ran a carfax on the car to find out its been in 3 accidents over its lifetime....So God only knows what has been done to it haha