wheel alignment
 

I'm having troubles getting a place to do a wheel alignment that has my steering wheel PERFECTLY center. They do the alignment right, but when I'm on a straight flat road the steering wheel will be 1/8th-1/16 out in the outer diameter. My car is new and has had no accidents. Am I being to picky or should I persue this?

I have found it a little odd. I've had my protege for a couple of years now. I've noticed that no matter what the alignment shop does, the steering wheel would always be off to the right. Ive also noticed, that due to the weird alignment settings, the car would slightly veer to the right also. I think that this is commonplace with the 3rd gen protege's.

odd, mines a weeee bit off to the left...

mine has always been a little off to the right

Mine WAS off to the right, and it drove me completely crazy. The last alignment I had I requested they center the steering wheel and it's been fine since...

TELL the shop that is aligning the car that the wheel needs to be centered...and they can easily do it...but they have to know you want that done...or they won't even bother checking.

Anytime an alignment is performed, the steering wheel should be centered as part of the job. If the steering wheel is off center, you should bring it to the attention of the shop immediately. Also you should find out what type of alignment machine is being used. We use Hunter alignment equipment. When properly cleaned and maintained, centering the steering wheel shouldn't be a problem at all.

THIS IS NOT A PROTEGE PROBLEM but a front wheel drive car problem. I was car new car salesman and drove many cars that are front wheel drive that pull to the right. Nissan did this more then any other car I drove. Some manufactures are better then others. It's not an alignment problem.

^^we're not talking about the call pulling to the right under acceleration, my little FWD cars have always done this in varying degrees. We're talking about the steering wheel being centered - or not - different problem!

My car always had the steering wheel off to the right, even when the alignment was done at the dealer...almost to 1:00 the last time, but the car never pulled to the right or the left, even on acceleration. Recently, I had a reputable, independent alignment shop do my alignment and my steering wheel is straight up and down and the car also is pointing straight and does not pull either direction....

Don't we guys almost always hang to the left anyway?

Uh, mine goes right!

The steering wheel being centered is on the alignment technician. Alot of people come in and request a "front end alignment". What the vehicle requires is a "4 wheel alignment". The only thing that gets adjusted during a front end alignment is the front tires toe setting, which is how the tires are pointing. This is known in the industry as a "toe and go". A 4 wheel alignment corrects all 3 adjustment, camber, caster, and toe. The rear is aligned (all 3 setting corrected) and then the front (all 3 settings corrected) is aligned to the rear so all 4 tires are hitting the ground flat and straight. A front end alignment is useless and it's a waste of time and money.

So, bwhite...how often do you get a 4 wheel alignment? We're talking about an expensive ordeal compared to a 2 wheel alignment. I disagree with you in that I wore my last set of tires out because the front was out of alignment. Once corrected and new tires placed on the car, I've had absolutely no problems with steering and the tires are wearing great.

actually no car should pull anywhere but straight, if you are accelerating hard and it pulls that is different, thats just torque steer and IS only related to FWD cars, but just regular driving around town your car should not pull to the right or the left if it has been aligned properly...

and yes, part of doing the alignment is making sure the steering wheel is lined up correctly as well, it is taught as basic curriculum (sp?) in all automotive classes, if its done incorrectly, have them fix it, and make sure they dont do it again, it is my opinion that most of todays mechanics are terrible at their job and horribly incompitent because they can do it half-assed, and only 30% of the people will ever come back and say anything about it, so in the rare chance that i come accross something i cant fix on my own, i make sure the shop does it right, and if they dont, they will most definitly know about it when i'm done verbally assaulting them :p...

i also disagree, i have done a number of "front end" alignments, and during all of them we had each wheel hooked to the machine, but only adjusted the front wheels, and made sure they were aligned, and tracking straight, AND that the steering wheel was in a centered position... a front end alignment is just that, the front end of the car getting aligned, as opposed to all 4 wheels, it doesn't mean that it is any less of a job on the front wheels than if the rear where getting aligned as well...

Right, you did a front toe set. You set the toe so the car tracks straight and the steering wheel is straight. Did you adjust the camber or caster during your "front end alignment"?? The rear toe being out of adjustment won't effect how the car drives?? It does.

While it is a little more expensive to have a 4 wheel alignment done, it does benefit all 4 tires and if you're replacing tires all the time due to the car being out of alignment, a 4 wheel alignment will benefit your wallet

wait wait, i never said that the rear tires being out of alignment wouldn't affect driveability, thats just obvious, but the rear tires dont get out of alignment very often at all, so its not always neccessary to get them aligned along with the fronts (which seem to get knocked out of alignment ALL the time lol)... and as a matter of fact we did set the camber, and caster, it has always been my understanding that when you get a front wheel alignment, they adjust everything, not just the toe, thats just the information i've aquired from having numerous cars aligned, from my probes, to my bronco, to my dakota, etc etc, and also from taking a few automotive courses as well, 300 bucks wasn't bad for a semesters worth of lift and air tool time every saturday :D... whenever i get an alignment its usually because i notice my tires starting to wear oddly, now if the camber isn't adjusted they are going to continue to wear out unevenly, and after each alignment they stopped :shrug:...

this is just my experiences over the years, take it for what its worth i guess...

I'd like to chime in to JHew's comments...I totally agree with him...no need for a 4 wheel alignment as much as bwhite seems to think is needed, IMHO. Obviously, if tires are constantly wearing out, then it may be time to get the rear's check and aligned if needed as well, but just don't see them as needing it very often...also, my fronts don't need it very often either....have 70K miles on my Prot. and got a front wheel alignment for the first time about a month ago....before that, I never had an issue with out-of-alignment until the last set of tires, like I mentioned in my previous post. Now, the car rides more steady than it's ever felt....like my Kumho's...I know they help....but there is absolutely no unever wear and ABSOLUTELY NO VIBRATION, etc. out of the rear either...like you might feel if there was an alignment problem back there....my 2cents too....

Your car has 4 tires right?? Aren't all 4 tires touching the ground??? Then all 4 of them need to be in proper alignment. FWD vehicle's have the rear wheels aligned and then the front to the rear. All 4 tires are hitting the road flat and straight. You personally do not have to get a 4 wheel alignment done on YOUR car. That is your decision. My point was I bought my car brand new with 3 miles on it. I brought it to work as soon as I picked it up from the dealer and had the alignment checked. Both rear tires were pointing to the right (known as dog tracking). The car was BRAND NEW! After the 4 wheel alignment was done, it drove even better.
Most manufacturer's build the first car for the model year, do a 4 wheel alignment, and then build every other model to those aligned spec's. If your car was, say, 150,000 cars later, the alignment is bound to be off. But if you never have it checked or corrected, it will effect the way the car drives.
If you have never had a 4 wheel alignment done, how do you know the car won't drive/ride any better??????
If you are having a vibration issue, it is not alignment related. It would be tire or tire balance related.

i'm not saying that if you rear tires are out of alignment that it is unnessesary to get a 4 wheel alignment lol, read my posts more thuroughly, what i'm saying is that to get your front wheels (just the fronts) aligned and set to spec you dont have to get the rears aligned at the same time, now if your rear wheels are out of alignment by all means get them aligned, but rear wheels rarely need an alignment anyway because there really isn't much play to begin with since they are mounted a hell of a lot more solid than the fronts and dont turn at all, so its alot harder to knock them out of alignment, so the need for a 4 wheel alignment is not as needed as a front end most of the time... and yes, i've also had 4 wheel alignments done, when i bought my bronco i replaced a bunch of front end parts (tie rods, brakes, wheel bearings...) and when i put my 31" street tires on it i went in and had a 4 wheel alignment done on it, which is recomended on 4x4's anyway...

regardless, the discussion at hand is that to get your front end aligned properly you dont need to have the rears aligned as well, a front end alignment consists of just that, adjusting the toe, camber, and caster to align the front tires, and all of that SHOULD be adjusted without ordering a 4 wheel alignment or your getting ripped off and need to find a better shop :dunno: now have a beer on me and lets forget this :p

:cheers: :cheers:

yep,yep

BW raises a good point. I had the P5 thrust-aligned by the dealer (one free under warranty within the first year) when I mounted a new set of 17 ADRs with Goodyear FZ-D3s. A couple of toe #s were outside spec. The car had less than 2K on it and hadn't seen a pothole or been curbed. After alignment, tracking was obviously better.

I've always checked all four on my cars as a matter of course. :D

well, first off i dont really trust dealer mechanics, i dont trust mechanics period, but dealer mechanics have always rubbed me the wrong way :p, 2nd most alignments get knocked off just slightly as soon as you leave the shop, not enough to make any sort of difference, but even hitting a speed bump at the slightest wrong angle can make a difference sometimes... and also when you change the overall diameter of the wheel (going from a stock sized rim, to a 17 inch rim, or even keeping the same sized rim, and getting a tire with a different profile) it is going to throw off your alignment as well, just because you have that extra amount of wheel there that hangs over where the other wheels were aligned, so when you get new rims/tires its always a good idea to get them aligned as well... i could try to explain it, but i'm finding it hard to put into words without writing a novel and even confusing myself i'm sure haha, if you want i can try and draw up some kinda diagram in mspaint with an explanation to go along with it...

My tires steer straight...absolutely no shimmer or vibrations....ride is as smooth as I've ever experienced in my car....I think a lot is attributable to the Kumhos on my car (which when I installed, I had a front end alignment done, and nothing else)....I'm totally satisfied with my ride...and so I'm happy and feel no need for any more tinkering! :blue: