Alignment?

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93SOHC
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Post by 93SOHC »

jaydog5678 wrote:Well, you are not supposed to align a car that has any play in the tie rods (the Mx-3 for example). If it's still pulling, cross the front tires to see if it will pull to the other side. If it does pull to the left, you have a bad tire that needs to be replaced. It's called a radial pull. You have to make sure you are keeping atleast 32psi in all tires. A tire with a lower pressure on one side may cause a pull as well. If the tire pressure is right, the tires have been crossed, no loose suspension/chassis parts and still pulls to the right, then you definately have a camber/caster issue. A caster or camber split of .5 degree or more may cause it to pull. Lets see your alignment printout to see how far off it really was..
I am going to have to agree w/ jaydogg here and not just cause he has the same name and nickname as me :lol:
93SE-KLDE Theres a big peice of metal inside my other peice of metal now...weird???
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tw1st3d_cl0wn
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Post by tw1st3d_cl0wn »

Wow, thanks for all the input here. I'll print all this out and look at my car after work. As far as the print out for my aligment. They were real jerks at the place I went, I try a new place almost everytime I do something to my car, because I don't trust anyone. :? When I picked my car up, he looked at a piece of paper which LOOKED like the print out from the aligment and said "Woah." I was like "What, something wrong?" He didn't even answer me, and wouldn't give me the freakin' paper.

This is off the subject but, I remember when someone turned into my old car, their insurance didn't want to pay for it, my cv joint was obviously bad, along with other parts of the suspension, and they said they gave it an alignment, saying, "An alignment is how mechanics check for other problems with the suspension." and told me they didn't even visually look at it. And I was like, "You obviously think I'm an idiot..." Haha.

I tell ya, I hate mechanics. For me it's like going to the dentist.

Thanks again everyone, I really appreciate the help.
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tw1st3d_cl0wn
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Post by tw1st3d_cl0wn »

Well, it's been awhile since I posted anything about my problem with my suspension, but I figured I'd update you on what happened. I had to save a little money first before bringing it into a shop. I had a feeling it would be the hub bearing on the front passenger side, after the noise got worse. So, they confirmed it, and $305.00 is going to that. :cry: They said both my struts in the front are bad but they're full of it. But out of curiosity I asked how much it would cost to do all that work, and they said $1,000.00 for all of it. Yeah, right. You know, when I brought it in, I even put last Sunday's church bulletin in the front seat, thinking maybe it would give them a little conviction. But I guess not. lol.

So yeah, thanks for all of your help on this. Took me awhile but it's getting fixed as I speak. Thanks!
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jschrauwen
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Post by jschrauwen »

It's unfortunate that there are still those types of shops that like to prey on those they think are gullable and uninformed as to the ligitimacy (sp) of their claims. Why is it they feel they can BS every woman that comes in for repair. I'd love to be present when a well informed person like yourself is there ripping a piece off of them and calling them on their BS. I'd pay to see that. Good for you TC!!
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tw1st3d_cl0wn
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Post by tw1st3d_cl0wn »

Back again. I gotta say, my car is a million times better. I must have bought the car with a hub bearing that was starting to fail. I mean, everyone here talked about how much fun these cars were to drive, and I never got it. Until now. The ride is so much nicer now, and it great to drive the car without hearing that damn noise and worrying about it 24 hours a day!

But I think mechanics don't just go after women, they go after everyone they think they can get a few more dollars out of. In the area I live in, 80% of the people drive like BMW's, Mercedes, Porche, all those kinds of cars, so I think mechanics think these people can afford a little more. And most of the people are elderly, and I've seen these mechanics just rip them right off. That's like a doctor telling you you need heart surgery when you don't! Scumbags!
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Post by Tunes67 »

I agree TC.. When I got my first car (a 4 door 75 nova POS) it needed a distributor bushing really bad.. to do this (so I was told anyway), you have to rip the engine down completely to get to it (piss poor design by General Motors IMO) Anyway.. I was 16 and took my car to a shop to get it done.. I was quoted from 3 different places that it would cost between $400-$700 to fix. The bushing itself cost $1.73 at the time. I couldnt fathom how it could cost so much to fix.. I turned to my uncle for help (Foreman of a Auto machine shop now for well over 40 years) Between the two of us (more him doing the work and me just handing him tools and telling him how brilliant he was LOL) it took us 3 hours to get to the bushing, replace it and put the engine back together. (Engine was a chev I6 250ci) So I called back a couple of those shops and asked them how many labor hours were involved in the job and was told 5 at the minimum and one place told me 10 hours. I learned 3 things from this experience. 1) My uncle is damn good at working on engines. 2) Shops care about one thing only.. Cash. 3) It was time to invest in tools and start listening to my uncle more when he started rambling on about his various engine projects he works on ;)

Now for a bit of perspective.. This all happened 21 years ago.. I would shudder to think what shops would charge to do this job now.

The sad part about cars in general.. is how badly treated they are by their owners. People take their cars for granted.. especially if the car is bought for them new by their parents. They dont do maintenance regularly and often just drive the car into the ground then sell it off. Maybe I am old fashioned.. but thanks to my uncle.. I learned that if you replace/maintain parts that do have a finite life span, BEFORE they fail, then your car will give you many more trouble free years of service. Heh.. check this out.. I am rambling on just as my uncle does LMAO.. what goes around comes around I suppose. But just as my uncle helps me.. I do what I can to help others (with cars, computers, etc..).

One last thing TC.. Invest in some tools & a shop manual.. its not brain surgery to work on your car yourself (though suspension work does suck more than some other jobs admittedly) But you will gain a couple of things from that investment. 1) You will save $$$ doing repairs & maintenance yourself. 2) You will have a greater appreciation for your car and the sense of satisfaction that comes from doing the job yourself. 3) You will have the knowledge to go head to head with automotive shops in the event that you still do need to have a shop do work for you.

Best of luck.

Tunes67
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93SOHC
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Post by 93SOHC »

As usual, very well put Tunes. I couldn't have put it any better myself! :wink:
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tw1st3d_cl0wn
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Post by tw1st3d_cl0wn »

Yeah, I definitely try to be aware of what my car needs, and keep up with regular maintainence and things like that. I guess growing up with my mother and her complete irresponsibility when it came to her car just really made me aware of the fact that if you don't take care of a car, it will have alot of problems.

Alot of the simple things I would like to do myself, like even changing oil. I would love to learn how to do work on my car. But money, and where I live prevent me from doing that. They have strict rules where I rent my apartment. One of them if you can't work on your car, because it makes the complex look "trashy". Haha. People are ridiculous sometimes. Hm, and money, well we all know how it goes with that. Seems like everytime I get money saved it goes to some problem that arises. Not always car related. I bought a shop manual though, so I read it, and I figure if I have some knowledge before taking my car to a shop, I am way better off than if I knew nothing. But I bought new spark plugs, and a tranny cooler and some other stuff. Someone I know who has tools is going to help me out with getting all that done.

So in closing (I feel like I'm writing a book report or something), I figure that over time I'll learn stuff and one day be a genius when it comes to cars. Then I can be cool and give advice to people. Haha.
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Post by Macen »

Does our car have a inner tie rod? I can't find any in the online manual. My mechanic told me that my inner tie rods had play, so he couldn't do an alignment. I changed the driver side tie rod last year, and the passenger side one month ago.
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Post by jaydog5678 »

Macen wrote:Does our car have a inner tie rod? I can't find any in the online manual. My mechanic told me that my inner tie rods had play, so he couldn't do an alignment. I changed the driver side tie rod last year, and the passenger side one month ago.
It does Macen and yes, you should not align it when there is movement in this part. The inner tie rod is scrwed onto the steering rack, covered by what's called a bellow's boot. You'll know when you see it. It requires an "inner tie rod tool" to unscrew it. You can rent one at an auto parts store in most cases.
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Post by Macen »

Thanks, I found it in the manual now. :-)
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Post by TekPmp »

I had this problem and solved it last week. I didnt know exactly what it was so i redid my front suspension with all new balljoints, tie rod ends, struts and springs followed by an alignment.

2 outer tie rod ends 63.00 from pepboys
2 lower ball joints 90.00 from pepboys
4 ZX2 struts 160.00 from ford racing dealer
4 ST springs 200.00 from NOPI online


I dont know about you but I would rather upgrade the majority of the suspension in one shot as opposed to waiting for the next part to go wrong a month or so down the line. Anyway now I get an awesome ride and the car is rock solid at high speeds, no veering off in to other lanes on the highway.

Park your car and turn the wheels all the way to one side. Grab the outer tie rod end and see if you can wiggle it or if it has any play. After that, have a freiend wiggle the steering wheel about 1/4 turn back and forth while your holding the tie rod end. If you have any knocking or play in them try replacing them. For $63.00 and a little bit of physical labor its not a bad deal. Just one suspension component less to replace down the line :wink:

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Post by Macen »

Thanks for the info.
But I have already replaced both other tie rods and one of the lower ball joints.
I'm gonna let a mechanic take a look at it and see what is wrong.
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