Hey guys, I've been trying to figure out this issue for a good month now, and can't figure it out.

I was involved in an accident (some of you may remember my thread about the semi truck tire on the highway that inadvertently put me into a wall). The car did suffer some very minor frame damage, and was summarily repaired. The work was done very well (i'd say 99%, as i'm very anal and swear the bumper is off by the thickness of a sheet of paper, although nobody else seems to notice it).

After getting the car back, and having it aligned, I've noticed the steering feel is even more numb, and the car has a tendency to tramline when on certain roads more than it did before. It's hard to describe, but the steering wheel feels loose, and little bumps in the road cause the steering to jitter a little. Basically feels similar to bumpsteer. Prior to the accident, the car did not behave this way. Tires are have around 50% tread, and I've had the alignment checked 3 times already, each time coming back fine. Lower control arm was replace in the accident.

Anything else I should check? Any suggestions I should look into? Thanks in advance for the help!

 

If you are satisfied with the work I would say maybe the tires are out of balance. I had my rear tires go out of balance and the car shook like crazy. I imagine if the front wheels balance was out it would give more then average steering wheel vibration. Thats a cheap place to start checking.

 

What is the caster number they achieved with the alignment? This is the first thing I'd suspect since the lower control arm was replaced. Caster is what makes the wheel self-center coming out of turns and gives you feedback in general. I know you said it's been checked 3x but have you gone to a different place with a different rack?

 

take it to a different alignment shop, some alignment techs' are lazy and will move the heads to make the numbers "green"

everything can be in spec and still not be "right" I run into this alllll the time. Someone will have another shop align their car, then bring it to my shop.. we check the alignment on every car that comes through the door and end up fixing alot of alignments that were just done.

Post the numbers from the last time you had the alignment checked.. make sure they check caster, alot of times that isnt checked because it takes more time.

 

Agreed with the above. Have an alignment done and get a print out of the specs.

 

Post your caster settings.

Low caster=numb steering.

 

Also, if the car is low on tow-in in the rear, the handling will not be precise.

 

Waiting for ZDan.....

 

I never got the printout of the alignment settings , but they did tell me the last time i took it in that "it aligned perfectly" Gonna give it one more shot there, since they warranty their work and actually get a print out of it.

I drove another s2k yesterday, and i immediately noticed a slight, but noticeable difference. On the highway, I feel my steering wheel requires less effort to move and tends to bumpsteer a little more than the one I drove, so I know at this juncture it's not my imagination. It does seem to feel very planted going into corners though (issue only presents itself going in a straight line).

Going to stop by the shop tomorrow and have them put it back up on the rack. I'll post the numbers tomorrow.

 

Just got back from the shop, and with my luck, they just happened to be having issues with their alignment machine and couldn't do any alignments. They did however put it on the rack to at least give me a ballpark figure, which i'm sure is useless.

Edit - just realized the printout doesn't even have a figure for the caster, which was the most important thing. I'm just going to take it elsewhere, as I'm already tired of dealing with this place.