Tracking/car pulling etc

Take it back and get them to get the steering centred. Whatever they promised, it either IS centered or is NOT cenmtred.

Rob Graham

I'd also ask them to check the trackrods, steering joints and wishbones for damage caused by kerbing or hitting a pothole.

Have a look underneath, and make certain *both* track rod ends have been disturbed..

Chris

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember paulfoel saying something like:

Depends. Swap tyres left to right and see if it's improved, but I suspect they haven't done it right. Even if the tyres are slightly mismatched, it doesn't normally cause an off-centre steering wheel, just a bit of drift, so I think they're lying to you.

paulfoel explained :

If your tracking has been out, then your tyres will have worn a little uneven. Uneven tyre tread can cause the car to seem to pull to one side, as also can imbalanced tyre pressures. Have you tried swapping the tyres (front and back) left to right?

If I'm in any doubt if it is pulling to one side or the other, I find a level bit of road and let go of the steering to check if it really does pull.

The original post said he'd had new tyres fitted. I'd be more inclined to worry about problems with the wishbones, suspension bushes, suspension mounting points, trackrods or steering joints.

On our vehicles at work, the symptoms mentioned are more often than not caused by kerbing the front wheel or driving through a pothole, damaging the suspension.

John Williamson formulated the question :

So he did.

Yes!

Yeh. Took it back and this time they say they centred it.

However, im not sure its straight now and it still doenst feel right.

Worryingly they said it was difficult to do mine because they cant get the wheel trims off (the wheel nuts go through and hold them on) so I'm wondering if they're not doing it right.

Thing is it was like this before i took it for new tyres. Tyres had worn on the edges, steering wheel was off and I thought - tracking.

If it's one of those computer alignment places I suggest you avoid them like the plague. Find an old guy with a Dunlop optical tracking gauge if you want it done right. The monkeys that run those computer alignment things just punch the vehicle details in and blindly follow whatever it says. I saw a mate's Peugeot 205 come out of one of those places with 13mm toe out. You could see the error by eye but the monkeys said it must be right cos the machine was wot did it.

Think it was a bog standard optical one....

So they are saying that this car (whatever it is) is built in such a way that it cannot be tracked?

Have you driven it with one of them in it with you and shown that it pulls to one side? This is beginning to look like a game of verbal pingpong.

Rob

I'm having difficulty believing they're competent to adjust the tracking if they can't get the wheel trims off.

=A0

I think they're saying the things they put on the wheel dont fit that well with the trims on.Usually with other cars they take the trims off and fit the tracking sensors to the rim directly,

With my car, like I said, wheel nuts go through the trims so theyd have to remove wheel nuts, take off trims, replace nuts , do tracking etc.

Next step is to go back and let them drive it.

Kia Sedona btw

That's the only way to do it, yes.

so not a mechanical gauge as Dave described.

sorry, misread that completely. my preference for reliable tracking with no frills is a completely mechanical gauge, no optics, no lasers, just a ruler in essence.

They appear to be saying that because the car is not exactly straightforward they are not prepared to take trouble to do it properly.

They must have come across this problem before, but they still took your money rather than say they couldn't/wouldn't do it. They sound a complete shower and you should name and shame them.

Rob