Car Aligned 3X still Drifts to Right

gus · Jul 6, 2016

The steering wheel is straight. When I take my hands off the wheel it shortly after begins driving to the right. It doesn't happen abruptly but it's not gradual either. Also I'm correcting the steering more than what's normally required during normal driving.

Boaisy · Jul 6, 2016

do you notice any pull when the gas is applied vs. coasting?

gus · Jul 6, 2016

Seems the same error either way...on gas or coasting.

Lucky_13 · Jul 6, 2016

My vote would be for belts wonked out inside the tires, but you mentioned you swapped brakes as well. Any chance you have a sticking pad/caliper?

gus · Jul 7, 2016

Checked the brakes last night after seeing your post. Nothing appears to be dragging. All 4 wheels spin freely and I don't have one wheel with an excessive accumulation of black dust that usually goes along with dragging brakes.

ddd4114 · Jul 7, 2016

Two very unlikely ideas...

1) Are your ride heights about even left to right? I can't imagine how you could screw up the geometry that much without visually noticing something is wrong, but it's easy to check.

2) Are your bushings in good shape? If they have slop in them, your alignment can change dynamically, and that could cause an intermittent pull. With only 21k miles, I really doubt they've seen that much abuse, but again, it's worth a quick inspection. Related to this, when you've taken in the car to be aligned, do you know if they adjusted anything after the first time?

TGR96 · Jul 7, 2016

gus said:
Running Conti DW

255/45/18 front
285/40/18 rear

The rear axle is shifted 1/4 inch to the drivers side. So an adjustable phb to pull it back 1/8 inch to center?

Unfortunately, I have nothing to offer that hasn't already been mentioned, but I will say that I previously had the Conti DWs in a square 285/40/18 set up on 18X10" wheels, and it tramlined like a sonuvagun!

Marble · Jul 8, 2016

I think eventually you'll have to take the car in and try different front tires. I just had this happen with mine and it was the tires.

gus · Jul 8, 2016

I started out with a car that never had an alignment issue. It was 10 years old so time to replace the tires. The tires had a perfect wear pattern and still had 7/32" While I was at it I wanted to run 18" wheels and swap to Brembos as the originals felt pretty weak for years after adding the E-force. Also wanted it a bit lower so I went with the entry level Roush springs.
Yes, the first time they adjusted the toe and each of the 3 visits they adjusted it again.
The ride height is level side to side.

ddd4114 · Jul 8, 2016

How much did they adjust toe each time?

Sky Render · Jul 8, 2016

You do realize that particular types of tires and tread patterns can CAUSE tramlining, right? I had this exact issue with my previous autocross tires, and it would always go away when I put my street tires back on.

gus · Jul 9, 2016

Would the tramline happen in only one direction? In this case to the right.

Norm Peterson · Jul 9, 2016

Do you know if these tires have asymmetric construction (not just the tread pattern)? If so, do you have any tires where the "OUTSIDE" labelling is on the inside? I would have expected any such reason for the drift to have followed your right vs left swap up front if it was a front tire issue. Have you swapped the rear tires side to side yet?

Do they all have at least roughly the same date? At least the tires on each individual axle to each other if not to the other axle's tires?

Norm

86GT351 · Jul 9, 2016

gus said:
Having trouble getting my car aligned. Been back to the alignment shop 3 times. See alignment specs in pic.

The car is 06 GT with only 21K on it so I doubt any parts are worn. Big heavy E-force SC sitting on top has been on for years. Just changed to Brembos, 2010 GT 500 wheels, staggered 255/285 tires and Roush spring - mild ~3/4" drop front and rear. No alignment issues before this change. The alignment shop is a national chain but I only used them because they are close to home. So they are only going to put it "in-spec" not to a specific spec.

Based on these specs what would cause the car to drift right? Tested on a strip for road that 2 other cars go arrow straight for the full 2/10th mile. I've already tried rotating tires side to side.

Depending on the location of where you live the Caster Angle is a huge factor. Here in South Florida we like to see up to a Half Degree Higher on the Passenger Side. Theoretically that moves the Right Front Wheel slightly forward to keep the car tracking straight. Size of the tire and Air Pressure are contributing factors as well. I would also strongly suggest having the Toe Adjustment equaled out on both sides and centered as best as possible on the graph. I am a stickler for stuff like that because it rules out the alignment as a contributing factor.

Where are you located?

Sky Render · Jul 9, 2016

gus said:
Would the tramline happen in only one direction? In this case to the right.

Roads generally slope that way, so yes.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note 4 using Tapatalk

86GT351 · Jul 9, 2016

Sky Render said:
Roads generally slope that way, so yes.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note 4 using Tapatalk

Correct. Will generally slope to the right for drainage.

dontlifttoshift · Jul 10, 2016

86GT351 said:
Depending on the location of where you live the Caster Angle is a huge factor. Here in South Florida we like to see up to a Half Degree Higher on the Passenger Side. Theoretically that moves the Right Front Wheel slightly forward to keep the car tracking straight. Size of the tire and Air Pressure are contributing factors as well. I would also strongly suggest having the Toe Adjustment equaled out on both sides and centered as best as possible on the graph. I am a stickler for stuff like that because it rules out the alignment as a contributing factor.

Where are you located?

I think you know this, but what I bolded above is backwards. A higher caster number will move the wheel further back.....very, very slightly. The car will pull to the side with the higher caster number or the shorter wheel base side.

86GT351 · Jul 11, 2016

dontlifttoshift said:
I think you know this, but what I bolded above is backwards. A higher caster number will move the wheel further back.....very, very slightly. The car will pull to the side with the higher caster number or the shorter wheel base side.

By making the Passenger Front caster More Positive than the Drivers Side will help eliminate this concern

Norm Peterson · Jul 11, 2016

dontlifttoshift said:
I think you know this, but what I bolded above is backwards. A higher caster number will move the wheel further back.....very, very slightly.

Depends on where you're making the caster adjustments.

As the caster adjustment of caster-camber plates, yes, the wheel would move rearward a tiny bit, guessing by maybe 25% of the amount you moved the plate. But for (outward) adjustments made at the rear bushings of the LCAs, more +caster moves the wheel forward, and by maybe 3 times the above amount for the same caster setting change.

Norm

dontlifttoshift · Jul 11, 2016

86GT351 said:
By making the Passenger Front caster More Positive than the Drivers Side will help eliminate this concern

More positive = higher caster number = pulls to that side. Since you were talking about using caster to compensate for road crown, and since we drive on the right side of the road you would want to add caster (higher number, more positive, however you would like to label it) to the _drivers_ side of the car.

That said, I don't think caster is the problem in this case.

Norm Peterson said:
Depends on where you're making the caster adjustments.

As the caster adjustment of caster-camber plates, yes, the wheel would move rearward a tiny bit, guessing by maybe 25% of the amount you moved the plate. But for (outward) adjustments made at the rear bushings of the LCAs, more +caster moves the wheel forward, and by maybe 3 times the above amount for the same caster setting change.

Am I the only one that thinks the negative camber in the right rear is the culprit? More negative camber on one side, just like more positive caster on one side, will cause a pull to that side. It didn't present as a problem until wider tires installed in the rear......just a theory.

Norm

Yep. I didn't even think you could adjust the control arm there without modification beyond the scope of the average alignment shop and assumed that adjustments were being made at the top if any adjustments were being made at all with regards to caster.

Car Aligned 3X still Drifts to Right

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