So my car is lowered by 2" on Tein springs and Tokico Illuminia struts. I have 2 camber bolts which have been installed (adjusted aswell) and have had the wheel alligned. With the car driving in a straight line and holding the steering wheel with 2 hands I can feel the steering wheel want to turn left (steering wheel becomes stiff) If I let go of the steering wheel when it randomly stiffens up it will turn either to the left or to the right. Sometimes it turns hard other times its just a little.

The camber bolts have been used before (by previous owner) would it be that the camber bolts where installed incorrectly before hand and now allowing the strut to move slightly? its weird....

 

Interesting after I lowered mine it does the same thing it pulls to the left and especially after I put the bigger rims its more pronounced. The springs were professionally installed and an alignment was done right after. I'm interested to see what the problem is too.

 

Do you have camber bolts?

 

No I'm only dropped 1.5"

 

Did you do a wheel rotation. Since you're dropped, your tires become worn due to the excessive weight being force on them. Perhaps checking your tires.

 

are your rims wider than stock? I've found they tend to track more with grooves in the road surface.

 

When you lower or raise a car, the camber specification changes and also (to a lesser extent) the caster, so when you get an alignment to factory specifications, it is wrong. Draw an imaginary line between the ball joint and the top strut mounting then extend the line down to the ground. It should fall in the middle of the tire footprint, side to side and front to rear. I don't know if a 2 inch drop changes the required spec that much to where you have to use different alignment specifications, but it is possible.

 

A 2" drop changes the whole suspension geometry. You can align it correctly, but it will never track like it does at the factroy specified ride height.

 

My Rims are 18X9.5, tires 245x40x18. Stock tires are 215.

 

Tires are new. Also its not a constant thing, you can be driving on a bumpy road or be driving on a smooth road. It randomly likes to pull left or right.

 

 

I've had a few cars do this to me, only one was able to solved, but it was RWD, so not sure it applies here.

I had an 88 200SX (RWD/CA20e/5MT/R200LSD) Lowered 1.6" front and 1.3" rear - I found that the front drop with 'factory' alignment had my tires Camber incorrect for the drop - causing me to run on the 'insides' of the tire slightly (as it took me 3 months to notice) - I had it adjusted by 1.2 degrees - causing my tires to sit more flat (though still a degree to the inside) - honestly not sure on a FWD car if that would be a 'fix'... but it may be worth looking at. ( a simple level from bottom of tire to top of tire can show if your set wrong.)

Some useful facts here:
http://www.youfixcars.com/wheel-alignment.html

 

Did you check the PSI on each tire. They should be balanced with equal amount of psi. Also check your brake calipers. Check all of your steering components like tie rods, control arms, rack & pinion as well as your suspension components. You might have bad bushings or bent components that is causing this drifting to the sides. I would say take your car to a trustworthy shop.

Also,
Was this car ever in an accident before. Since you said there was a previous owner, bring your car to a body shop to check the frame of the car. It could also be that if the previous owner had gotten into the accident and took the car to a cheap body shop maybe the caster would be off since the frame still hasnt been placed back to normal, and no matter how many alignments you do it still wont fix the problem.

 

Tires where balanced,proper psi on both tires, sway links replaced.

The car was in a previous accident...but it was hit on the passanger side of the car. The steering issue is not all the time. Like I said if you hold the steering wheel straight the car will go straight. Its just weird that when you hold the steering wheel you can sometimes feel it stiffen up then revert back to its proper looser lighter steering. The car wants to go left alot when the steerign stiffens.

I currently have a mechanic looking at it, so hopefully this will get resolved. Could camber bolts if not installed correctly again by previous owner get worn to a point where they allow the strut to have some play? and thus cause some movement?

 

my carfax doesnt list an accident but the cheap paint thats chipping on my front bumper leads me to believe mine was in an accident, but mine only started doing this after it was lowered and put on 20s and every suspension part you can think of is new so no bad parts

 

There are other people who are lowered aswell, you don't hear them complain?

 

Because the many of them have lowering springs on regular struts..So problems like these wont occur that much.

 

Lowering springs on oem struts will cause the struts to give out sooner or later....I'm sorry what you said didn't make any sense.......

 

I never said on OEM struts sir....But why not just swap and buy a set of coilovers if you want a nice drop. But it seems no matter how much you try it wont get fixed. My best guess I had earlier is your frame. Sometimes you can tell in your engine bay if you look thoroughly but just take it to a body shop and get it checked out.

 

Whats regular struts then

 

Anything that is not a coilover. When I said that I didnt realize that he is using aftermarket struts..But I meant for aftermarket only.

 

Oh so you meant regular setup? Because the way you said lowering springs on regular starts was weird because lowering springs only fit on struts and to the OP get a balance I just got my rims balanced and now its good.

 

Getting an alignment tomorrow. Got up to 2 degree camber bolts. I think my other camber bolts where only 1 degree. But before that checking tonight to see if anything is loose. Will post back. Rims have been balanced within 2 months. Can't hurt to check though...

 

Oh because one of my rims is bent up too bad so it wouldn't balance and I had a 5th rim and swapped it in and now its all good.

 

Checked the car last night, everything underneath was tight and good. Looked at the upper strut mount. Basically whoever installed the springs never tightened the top nut that holds the assembly together. Basically the upper strut mount was torn supposed to be a circle, not so much...Hope that fixes my issue.

 

Yea I had a problem where an idiot mechanic installed them the wrong way causing them to go bad after 8k miles and making the car ride sloppy.

 

Well I fixed my problem....Whoever installed the upper strut mounts on my Tokiko's didn't put them facing the right way. I bought them used and at that time I just put them on, never crossed my mind to check if they where done properly. Anywho got new upper strut mounts put in and the car alligned. All I have to worry about now is my big tires like to track but I can live with that.

 

my 17" anniversery rims with my ventus k104s track real hard with the road definitly a two hander sometimes then i put my 16" sunny all seasons no problem at all like night and day