Fat

Got the car re-aligned. The after from yesterday and the before from today's camber and caster readings did not match up. I have no idea what happened yesterday. It drives much better than before and while it doesn't drive straight as an arrow, it drives straight enough.

I did swap the front tires side to side after today's alignment and I don't really notice too much of a difference. Since I did the swap after the alignment, there is no control variable, so the tire may still be the reason why it doesn't drive straight as an arrow.

rpg51

How confident are you in the shop that is doing these alignments? How far out was it when you went back? Or, is the tech doing the alignment work improperly? Something is off with the sequence of events you describe. The alignment numbers should not change significantly overnight.

vortamock

The "after" settings look fine. In researching s2k alignments recently, I saw where someone posted that the Honda shop manual recommends replacing the locknuts when they are loosened to do the alignment. If thats the case, I'd be surprised if any alignment shop does that unless maybe you specifically request it. Maybe that's why? Mine was already out of whack after a week and that's what I'm figuring. Another guy was doubling the torque to keep them from loosening up, but I wouldn't do that. Might could damage the threads and then you'd be screwed.

ajohnson

I'm pretty good at reading comprehension, He said several surfaces and roads so no need to be a dick. Not a parking lot. Different road is irrelevant since there is a regulation for road crowns which must be met, so you could go to 50 different roads and it wouldn't change the fact they all have a crown.

Try a divided highway in the the left lane.

Car Analogy

Well, he said "I've tried driving on several surfaces and roads to make sure it wasn't the crown", after that you said "Don't forget that roads are crowned and can cause a pull ...", So I stand by my reading comprehension jab (but I do apologize for being a dick the way I said it. There was a post above yours where someone else had a reading comprehension fail, and between the two it kinda set me off).

Retroactively trying to make it seem like your comment was directed at the degree of crown from one road to next isn't helping your case.

Also, I kinda assumed his trying different roads likely included trying the left lane where crown goes the other way.

s2cho

Unless you have all brand new tires with a fresh alignment its likely the tires causing the pull. Because the tires were driven on with a subpar alignment it causes the tires to wear differently. Differently worn tires grip differently which leads to pulling to one side. An extreme example is camber wear. You can rotate tires which should help but it'll probably still pull one direction just because one or more tires are worn differently. Honestly just living with a slight pull isnt too bad. You'll end up spending a lot of money for subpar results unless already redoing tires and getting a new alignment.

NNY S2k

Levi

fernando.

Why is no one listening to Billman? 99.9% chance says it's a radial pull, I literally watched an apprentice struggle with this exact issue today, told him to swap tires from left to right and boom problem solved.

Some of you guys should stop spitballing far fetched ideas when it comes to these kinda "diag" threads.

ajohnson

i will admit I may not assume much anymore when a really broad question and vague answers toward problem resolution are given. I've spent the last year and a half managing a joint venture in India. Yes never means yes and more than likely means no, or it means yes we thought about that but no we didn't actually do it. I think I ask a lot stupid questions now.

what I shouldn't do is read and type on the mobile app in the car and not get my point across.


Irrespective. Billman is likely right.

Billman250

Heavily biased caster typically causes pull, the car will pull to the side with lower caster. The S2000 is one exception.

Having aligned many S2000s, they can have a fair bit of caster bias and still track straight.

This leaves the brakes (dragging right caliper) or the tires.

In 30 years of aligning cars, 85% of right pulls were cure by front tire swap.

While most S2000s have directional tires, a temporary tire swap is the number one and most powerful diagnosis you can do at home.

If it corrects the problem, just have a tires shop flip the tires for you.