Ok...I am open to suggestions here. I had to have my cars alignment fixed, after my parking lot incident back in December. The Alignment was fixed, after 1 month, (when I rotated my tires) I discovered my front tire was shot. I mean really really bad! I took it back to the alignment shop, and they told me it no way it was from the 800 miles I put on it that month, and the alignment couldn't be bad that fast. They checked it again, lo and behold the alignment was bad again. So they fixed it again. It drove fine for 3 days, now it feels like the alignment is bad again. I took it back again, the shop checked it, says it is good, still right were they set it. So my problem is this: What will cause the car to drive straight, then start to fade left, then at times fade back to the right. Assuming it is not an alignment problem. (which I am still not certain about, I don't know that I trust this shop is giving me straight answers) Could the tires/rims be out of balance? Or maybe something with the shocks?
No. It's not tires/rims out of balance. Very unlikely it's anything to do with your shocks. Can you describe "start to fade left"? and "at times fade back to the right"? How fast does this happen? and how hard? is it abrupt? or is it pretty constant like it's always slightly pulling one way or the other. Is this on the freeway? same short stretch, lane. It could have to do with with the car tracking in tire "grooves" that form in older roads (especially black top) or how the road is crowned. Normally, when aligned, cars are biased for a slight pull to compensate for normal crowning of roads. Depending on what you ask for, some shops will align a car completely neutral. There's also a tradeoff with how "flat" it tracks (wider tires can have the same effect) -- how strongly the steering wheel returns to center. Reducing this effect can improve performance but has the side effect of the car "wandering" or very distinctly wanting to follow the tire grooves or depressions in the road.
It is more noticeable on the freeway, but it does happen on the road too. It in not a hard pull like torque steer. I'll just be driving along, and then it's like the car does a lane change. The one morning I didn't correct it, it got half way done with a left hand lane change, stopped, and came back right to the middle of my lane...A minute or so later it did it again. I suppose it could just be the tires tracking on the road. But, it just seems like it is happening too frequently, and it never really had the problem before. Had the car for about 3 years with the wider tires for 2 of them. So, I'm just not sure that the road is the right answer. EDIT: One thing the shop said was that the caster on the car was off on the side that got hit.(left) When I asked them about fixing it, they told me not to worry about it. It should have nothing to do with the tire wear, or the wandering that it seems to be doing.
Go back to where it did it before and make a few passes over the exact (precisely) same piece of road. On the other hand, if something is actually coming loose under there to cause that it could be really dangerous if and when it lets loose. I'd expect if that was the case that you'd notice it regularly under some conditions like a turn one way followed by a turn the other way or something like that.
camber is the outside inside movement of the top of the tire. if you pull the top of the tire inwards toward the top of the strut thats negitive camber toe is the movement of the front of the tire inside or outside. if you pull the front of the tire outwards thats toe out caster is the movement of the the angle of the strut best way i can describe it.
becides the caster being off did day say what direction it was off toe in/out camber in/out when you took it back to them after 800 mi. because if it was camber off they probally didnt tighten the top bolt tight enough and it started moving when driving and is it the front or the back?
They did not say...the tire that was worn was left front. (the one that got hit.) Tire wear was really weird also...the worst of it was on the inside, but the outside of the tire was also worn badly. I know that could be tire pressures, but I checked the tires, and even though it was a little low it was still 35 PSI, I usually run about 40 PSI (On a 1-10 scale, 10 being bad I'd say the inside was a 7-8, and the outside a 3-4) I know a couple of local guys who are very familiar with the SRT Neon, so I am going to try to get with them and see what I can figure out. I know there is something not right...but the shop that I took my car too, doesn't seem too inclined to help me figure it out...so whatever, their loss. Now I figure, I'll just get some help, and probably save some money, and do it myself.
kind of like the wheels on a shopping cart or a chair. If you push the cart the wheels will line up because they're offset a bit from the axis they turn (direction wise) around.
hard to say exactly with out looking at it. but id say sorry but go to another place and get another alingment and ask for a print out of before and after or the adjustments they made. they do do print outs. i got one after my alingment of my suspention settings. is that still the same coilover on the car that was on the hit. it may be slightly bent. you may wanna look at that too.
im not gonna try and explain it because i'll end up wording it wrong hahaha http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caster_angle
Yes it is the same one that was on the car...my thoughts originally were leaning towards it being slightly bad. (being that the caster is off) But they swear the caster being off has nothing to do with the car driving funny(so something else, maybe???). All I know is it was fine before the accident, now it is not...so something somewhere is not right, I just needed some ideas on what to check.
im with nevinsrt thst you have a bent part. even with a good alignment. a bent strut/CO can do crazy things. You might also have them try lifting the SRT and loosing the bolts on teh engine sub frame. my wife hit a curb and it was wandering. we loosened the sub frame it moved 1/8" to the right and it did not pull left any more. Tension was bound in the frame of teh car.
How strange... Mine is doing the exact same thing. Driving down the road, it is going straight as an arrow. Then, it drifts to the left, i correct it, and then it will drift to the left again. I decide that i need to go get an alignment, but before i do i am driving and it starts drifting to the right... Weird, and it doesn't do it all the time either. I am getting really weird tire wear on my right rear. Went to have it looked at, I was thinking bad strut. They couldn't find anything wrong...
