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Would it not make sense for the dealer to perform a wheel alignment with the driver sitting inside the car? The reason why I ask is, as some of you may know I have posted a topic regarding wheel alignments before, the only ongoing issue with my 03 civic is that the steering wheel is always turned to the right when driving on a straight road, not by much but it’s not acceptable. When I have a passenger in the car it’s centered. Do any of you notice this or is it just me who has had this problem over and over again. Every time I go to the dealer (aprox 3,000 apart) my alignment specs are all off, especially "toe" The dealer has NO IDEA WHY...does not surprise me though. What do you think I should do to have this issue resolved once and for all???

 
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Tell them to give you a new car

 
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perhaps your tires have worn unevenly and are contributing to your alignment issues... check your pressures too. My g/f's 01 does a similar thing, but to the left. I don't really worry about it because it still does all the things i ask of it. maybe something's bent somewhere.

 
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my opinion is that they dont know how to align this car. when i bought mine new it took several alignments to get it right, the car always felt like it was wandering under their 'spec' alignments.

 
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I agree with this assessment. It took those idiots 3 tries to get it right. What I'm finding is if you put a little neg. camber in the front (max out the spec or even exceed it a little) the car wanders less. As long as toe is 0 you won't eat tires. The stock tires don't help either. I don't know what it is, but with my Yokos the car tracks straight, with my Kumhos the car tracks straight, with the stock ones, the car is all over. The only thing mine will do sometimes is follow the contour of the road. If its crowned more than normal, the car tends to pull a little, but it pulls in the direction of the road slope, which isn't really an alignment problem, thats my stiff *** suspension not wanting to move.

 
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I changed my tires to Yoko AVID T4's. My tires are perfect no premature wear. I am going back one last time, if they can not fix it I will leave it the way it is. I know it’s not a big issue but the point of the matter is it’s a brand new car.


Thanks again,
Sean

 
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dude i cant believe you are talking about this issue I am in the same boat i drive a 2001 and for some reason my wheel appears to be going to the left i have taken it back to honda to be realigned but the same results im starting to hate my civic because of those basterds my tire trend is wearing uneven grrrrrrrrrrr why did i buy a civic

 
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good thing you brought this up!

I asked the last time i went for an oil change, if they also did alignments. The worker said their machine wasn't working. at least it saved me some trouble and money.

My steering wheel is centered, it's just that I take off and put my wheels back on myself a couple times

 
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Im very easy going, I have been very patient with this. I am going back and raising some S**T, because they have wasted my time. You think I was asking them to take apart my engine with their eyes closed, an alignment is a very simple process, maybe I should do it my self....kidding

 
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the most common complaint from customers about wheel alignments is a crooked steering wheel. And it can be very frustrating for the customer and the tech. Many factors can come into play that can cause this. And alot of them are not avoidable. I once had a customer bring his car back numerous times for a crooked steering wheel. On this paticualry case i never had met the customer before. The last time he brought the car in i noticed he weigh the better part of 300 PLUS LBS. ! Now you need to understand that when they engineer cars they base them off of a certain AVERAGE weight of the driver and such. 300 LBS. is not average. So on this paticular case i asked him if we could align the car with him in it and that fixed the problem. Many times the alignment machine can cause the the steering wheel to be crooked. Worn out turn tables( the part that the tire sits on while doing the alingment) can cause it too. Cars that have steering wheels that dont have a straight edge on them anywhere to visually line it up when doing the alignment can be a challange too.

Assuming the actuall alignment settings that are related to crooked steering wheel ( total toe ) are with in specs. Being crooked wont have any adverse effects on the cars tire wear or handling, but you can have a crooked steering wheel

As for your alignment being out of spec after 3,000 miles this is totaly possible. You got to remmeber that our cars are built out of ULTRA light minimal material to save weight. The by product of a light car is it bends easy. Take this as an example..... Middle of winter customer brings car in and says he slid into a curb at less then 10 mph. I give the customer a $3,500 quote to fix his cars front and rear suspension and replace 2 wheels and he sh*ts a golden brick and says it was barely 10mph. But a 2 - 3000 lbs vehicle hitting a curb(or even a pothole) at nearly any rate of speed can and will cause something to give. So dont be surprised if its out. On the other hand they could have a totaly F'd up alignment machine or alignment tech

 
Rep Power: 327

Taking your wheels off and on wont effect wheel alignment, and a centered steering wheel is not always a clue to an alignment being good! A Good recomendation for checking wheel alignments is once every 12 months or if you notice any handling issues or tire wear!

 
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Thank you very much for your info, I understand what you stated regarding why the wheel would not be centered, I have an appointment Thurs Morning, can I ask them to perform the wheel alignment with me in the car. I feel embarrassed im only 6 foot 1 240lbs, not gigantic but not small, however, I didn’t have this problem when I got the car, it was ok until 6,000km. Every 3,000 my TOE gets knocked out to about -0.45, and I am not hitting any big potholes or curbs. I will see what happens on Thursday. I can’t understand why this happens every 3,000km Thanks again for all your help.

 
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tread pattern on tires is a contributor to a car that tracks the road grooves, and kumho 712 and 711 do this alot. To be honest with you guys, when you align a car, you do it with the driver sitting in it... we used to call this person DEAD WEIGHT.

 
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lol i just brought my car to the dealer becouse of the reason my steering wheel is to the right and i am going straight they said to me that they dont do alignments under warranty ok maybe not or maybe but a week a go i had my car in for new struts and this happen but they said putting new struts wont do anything to the alignment and that was that now i am p1ssed off about it what can i do?

 
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What year civic do you have, I thought they solved the strut issue on the 2003 civic. Why did you have it chaged?? The dealer could of caused the problem when they were changing the struts. I have paid 3 times for my wheel alignment and still its off, $69,99 * 3 times, I only have 14, 200km, ITS NEW!!!

 
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o1 sedan 24k mls dont know why but it just started to feel like an old caddie and when i brought it in they said the struts where bad after they replaced them the problem started now they (honda dealer)are giving me a problem they said they wont fix it

 
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i could show you how to do this yourself. the measurement that is likely out of spec is the toe in/out. so, with the car sitting on a level surface measure the distance of the back of your front tires center to center, and compare that to the measurement of the distance of the front of your front tires center to center, I use a 6 foot aluminum screen frame for this measurement. Now, tell me, what is the difference of the two measurements? The difference is what is pushing you all over the road ! So, to fix it, adjust your toe in/out so that these measurements are the same, or just one degree toe out. [note: front wheels must be pointing in same direction as rear wheels.]

Now before doing this, you will have to figure out which front wheel needs adjustment, and any professional front end alignment expert reading this may be cringing right now, for good reason. You can really *** up your ride if you screw up, or if your front end is out of alignment for some other completely different reason other than toe in/out. So only proceed with this diy at your own risk, and make sure you are completely familiar with your front end before doing this. See, I think this shiet over for weeks before actually performing the work, and yes, some of my adjustments needed to be reversed, and i even moved the wheels in the opposite direction than what i wanted at one time so i made the issue worse. This is why i measure, adjust, measure, test. Measure, adjust, measure, test. Measure, adjust, measure, test. I got it right now, and i know that my alignment is within +- 1 degree, and it feels good. I got 40600 miles on my firestones, and there is like 10 K miles left of tread on them.

Another thing i did not mention was that you need to make sure that your rear wheels also line up with your fronts, and that your steering wheel is straight. I really should not refer to this as a diy, cause there are no specifics in here, so, sorry about that. But i just wanted to let you know that if you got the motivation to do an alignment, there are other ways.

So, if anyone is serious about this, think it over. I am tired, i hope this makes sense to ya.

 
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I remember when my alignment when bad the first couple times. I jammed the brakes on pretty hard to avoid something, and immediately the alignment felt all over the road. So right away i suspected toe out was my problem. A quick measurement confirmed this was correct.

My springs were bad on my car and the dealer replaced them. I was bottoming out on small bumps and i had knocking in the suspension.