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Car Pulls Hard to Either side after upgrades and alignment

1K views 11 replies 5 participants last post by  my89foxbody 
#1 ·
So I recently had many of my outdated suspension mods replaced to the following:
BMR drag springs (front and rear)
Strange adjustable shocks and struts
BBK caster/camber plates
Steeda adjustable UCA
New factory bumpstops
I noticed that before I had the camber plates installed, the negative camber from the car being lowered was causing some pretty gnarly inside tire wear, which was the main reason I went ahead and spent the money on the plates this go around. After the install, it seemed that due to the corrected camber, the driver side tire was now rubbing against the fender well whenever to turned hard to either side. I also noticed that the car would pull pretty hard to whatever side I had last turned the car hard to until I turned it hard the other way. The mechanic that installed the suspension components told me after that I would have to get an alignment which he didn't do, so I took the car to my local Ford dealership over the weekend and had them install 2 slightly skinnier, slightly lower profile tires on the front as well as perform a front end alignment. Now the tires don't seem to be rubbing but the car still pulls hella hard to either side depending which way I last turned hard. Is there something going on with the components I installed or did Ford half-ass my alignment?
 
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#2 ·
Did they give you the print-out from the alignment; and if so, what does it say?

I am only spitballing, but things I am wondering about:

> are those springs super-soft and/or super low? it is very unusual to have the tire rubbing the fender unless something is WAY off . . .

> what size were the tires that were rubbing? (trying to understand how/why they would be rubbing)

> do you have aftermarket wheels? if so, what size and offset are they? (still trying to figure out why the tires would be rubbing)

> why would the driver and passenger side be different? (normally if one tire rubs, they both rub)

> could front-end components be shot -- tie rod ends, steering rack, bushings? It sounds like maybe when you turn to one side, there is so much play in the system, that the wheels are staying turned in that direction and not returning to straight, maybe????
 
#3 ·
No I did not get the printout as I am only just learning that is a thing
Front springs are BMR linear with 150/lb per inch rate and 1.5' drop
Old tires were 275/40/19 new are 255/35/19
I do have aftermarket wheels but the front are same diameter and width as factory (19x9) not sure about offset
Not sure why one would rub and not the other but I can clearly see a groove in the driver fender well and nothing on passenger side
I'm not sure about those other components but the car was not doing this before I had the new suspension parts installed. I'm wondering if this could be a result of the caster/camber plates not being calibrated after install.
I am working on getting the alignment printout now and will post.
 
#4 ·
That is not a huge drop, and I have 275/40-19's on my car right now and they do not rub (with 1" drop and about -1 degree camber) . . . those tires are a bit wide for 9" wheel and might need more offset to tuck them inside the fender well.

The fact that it is different side to side, does suggest that the camber was not set evenly. That does seem like it could have something to do with it, but that would make it pull in one direction, not the direction you just turned. Race cars that run on oval tracks are made to turn left, and they have uneven camber, both wheels leaning to the left, and they do pull to the left.
 
#5 ·
So I got Ford to text me my printout. Apparently they did not have the "before" only the after but the red ink is what the tech is saying the "before" specs were for the front camber. Seems like a significant improvement but over 2 degrees seems like a lot of negative camber that could've still been adjusted...
 

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#6 ·
Does the car pull hard by itself, or when you apply the brakes?
 
#9 ·
Silly question, did you do anything with the tie-rods? If you left the original tie-rods in and dropped the car 1.5" that will definitely give you the memory steer. What happens is the inner tie-rods out to the spindles where the outer tie-rod connects is no longer parallel. Take a look at the pictures attached, you will need a bump steer kit if you haven't done anything with the tie-rods and shame on Ford's alignment guy if he didn't mention it. Personally I find your camber a little too negative for good tire wear. I would prefer a max of -2.0 on the right front and -1.5 on the left front. The caster setting is perfect according to your print out
 

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#10 ·
Yeah that is still a lot of camber, they should be able to adjust that out, that is more than I run for the road track!

I don't understand why you are seeing such extreme camber . . . if I remember correctly, my car after lowering 1" was about -1 degree; which is just slightly out of spec; IIRC the spec range runs to -0.7 degrees. Usually Ford dealers are sticky about staying with the factory specs, so I am surprised that they let it go like that. However I am not sure if that is the issue, I have no direct experience with that much camber.

The toe looks pretty good and even side-to-side so that does not seem to be the issue.

really not sure what is going on . . .

EDIT: just saw above post from my89:
> why do you want different camber left and right?
> I looked into the bump steer thing for my car, and learned that it is not worth correcting at 1" drop; I guess that could be the issue at 1.5" but I did not realize that it causes this pulling thing
 
#11 ·
The more negative on the right makes up for road crown, every road has a slight crown to the right for water drainage so to actually have a vehicle track straight down a road it needs to track slight left. Yeah 1.5" drop is huge on the inner tie-rods, the picture of the Porsche you can see the stress at the rack & pinion on the inner tie-rods. It creates memory steer, which is what was described, he needs to steer hard in the opposite direction after a turn.
 
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