I took my car and got new tires, and they aligned it. The alignment didn't seem to be any better, so I took it back again. Then, it still wasn't fixed, so I took it back one more time. Well, it's still off really bad now, so did they just do a bad job or there something else wrong here?

 

Ill tell you of a problem I had with my third gen. When I got the wheels aligned, I drove off and thought thats weird, I could swear the wheel was straight when the guy tested it. The car drove straight but the wheel pointed left. Turns out the rubber bushed on the rack and pinion steering mechinisim were shot and the whole thing would move an inch when I turned the wheel instead of the tires.

 

did you have to take it to a mechanic to figure that out?

 

No. But I found it strange that the wheel alignment guy didn't spot it.

 

a lot of alignment guys don't really drive the cars except up to the front of the store. If the wheel is off but the car goes straight, the wheels are aligned to the body of the car just not to the steering wheel. This would mean (if I understand correctly), that either your tie rod has been bent too far to properly adjust your alignment or that they just didn't straighten the wheel out before doing the correction. I've been told about people having there wheel turned so the were able to re-gain threads on the tie rod ends for adjustment. It's a half ***, cheap way to do it with out replacing the rod ends.

 

Go to a GOOD alignment place. There are places that do truck alignments and have machines that are able to do such things as caster pushes to get everything into spec. I had the exact same problem as you did and I went to these guys and now my alignment is pretty good.

 

So how do I know which are GOOD alignment places? I'm trying to sell my car and I need to get this problem fixed soon, so I can get a 5 speed max!

 

Ask if they do large truck alignments. If they do, then chances are, they could help you. Also, you can call an alignment place and tell them you had multiple alignments and it does no good. Tell them you think there might be something wrong with the entire subsystem underneath the car and some type of physical adjustment might be necessary.

I live in San Diego and I get mine aligned at a place called True Line.

 

Also ask them when the last time the machine was calibrated as well.

 

Yeah, definitely go to a place that specialized in alignments and not just another wheel/tire place. They could give a rat's *** in most cases, but specialized alignment places live off of alignments so they usually do a better job. I usually only go to places that I get referred to now after getting screwed over at many places.

 

Im havin the same problem...

 

I HAD THE SAME PROBLEM DUE TO A BALD TIRE. I GOT NEW TIRES AND THE STEERING WHEEL WAS STRAIGHT.

 

also before I knew any better I had 1 directional on the front left and a non directional on the front right. the car pulled majorly. even when I swapped the left front and rear over it still pulled like crazy. The wheel alignment shop DID spot this though and swapped the tire for free for a non directional. This cause one tie rod end to fail.