The car tracks straight on the highway, but the steering wheel is about 15 degrees off to the left.

There are alot of potholes in my area lately and I have gone through a few of them...but nothing too bad.

I am not sure if the steering wheel has always been like this or if I am just now noticing it.

I have a lifetime alignment policy that I got at Firestone on the car.

I don't know much about alignments, but over my many years as an enthusiast it seems that no matter what car I have driven the aligment guy always claims that all they can adjust is toe which I generally believe to be true.

Is there a camber/caster adjustment for the GVR-4?

I am thinking about just taking the car in for an alignment (not telling them what the issue is) and then centering the steering wheel myself if it doesn't come out centered. Can I do that? I just want to avoid getting into an expensive situation at Firestone with people that I don't know or trust. Every time I have brought my vehicle there they have always been FAR too agressive looking for a way to turn a profit.

Also, I have been telling them to align the car to 91 Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX specs for years now since I am afraid that they will align the car to base Galant specs. They have no idea what my car is like most people. Is that ok?

Thanks

have you tried to center the steering wheel?

No, how do I do that?

center the wheels (ie with the wheel pointing the incorrect way), take off the horn cover, undo the 19mm nut about 4-5 turns (but leaving it on the thread) then wriggle the wheel from side to side to free it from the spline, pulling towards you with force if need be (why the nut is still on, to save hitting yourself in the face) and then put back on with the wheel pointing straight. You would want to make sure the rack is centered too due to the fact that you may have less lock in one direction compared to the other if the rack isn't central compared to the tie rod ends.

I would take it to Firestone and get them to do the alignment, they are half right in the sense that camber/castor is not easily adjusted but the camber can be adjusted up front by loosening the strut to knuckle bolts and the castor adjusted by replacing the inner control arm bush at the rear side. Rear suspension geometry can't easily be adjusted either but I wouldn't be surprised if you could adjust some camber by loosening the wishbone to subframe mounting bolts, re-adjusting and then tighten again.

1G GSX wont take into account the 4WS (assuming you still have it). But yes either 1G GSX or G-GSX settings should be fine.

Priceless, thank you.

Do you have the rear steering still intact? If so that's where the alignment is getting off. There is a specific procedure to align a car with 4WS.

Like Fuel said, make sure centering the rack is step number one. Otherwise, you will wind up with with other issues like turn signals not shutting off if you just change the steering wheel position.

That is not the proper way to center a steering wheel. You need to get the car up enough to get under it safely. Take a paint marker or visible crayon and draw a line across from the inner to the outer tie rod. Then you loosen the jam nut and turn each one about an 1/8th to a 1/4 turn in the same direction. So if you move the right side mark to the front of the car you do the same with the left. If you move one in you move the other out. Try to move them both the same amount. I use a paint marker and judge distance based on the thickness of the paint mark I leave. I test drive every car and make sure the wheel is straight before I give it back. But I also charge as much for one alignment as most places sell there lifetime alignments for but you get what you pay for. Like others said there is minimal camber adjustment in the front unless you install crash bolts. The rear has tons of adjustment at stock height. For doing the rear toe you disconnect the tie rod from the trailing arm while setting the toe. Adjust the tie rod so that it fits in the trailing arm without changing the toe and then do the other side. Hope this helps.

I once paid $80 for a 4 wheel and came back with the steering wheel not straight. They said I had to center the wheel. I laughed and told them centering the steering wheel should be the FIRST step. They refused to fix it and I refused to pay.

I now do my own alignments. A bit time consuming, but free and I can set it however I want.

Wiz

What vr4play said.

If you guys are getting an alignment and you drive away with an off center steering wheel then the alignment was NOT preformed correctly. Chances are is you went somewhere that does NOT have a skilled alignment tech. Don't do business there. Most likely they are paying some guy 9 bucks an hour to throw it on the machine and just do it. It's a sham.

In 5 years and over 1k alignments deep, I have yet to ever give a customer a car with a steering wheel off center. It's total BS if they tell you it's not their fault.

Quoting fuel:
Rear suspension geometry can't easily be adjusted either but I wouldn't be surprised if you could adjust some camber by loosening the wishbone to subframe mounting bolts, re-adjusting and then tighten again.

1G GSX wont take into account the 4WS (assuming you still have it). But yes either 1G GSX or G-GSX settings should be fine.



Rear suspension is adjustable for both camber and toe.

Quoting turbowop:
Like Fuel said, make sure centering the rack is step number one. Otherwise, you will wind up with with other issues like turn signals not shutting off if you just change the steering wheel position.



Hmmm interesting! I never thought about that. I just "assumed" my indicators not cancelling out was a dodgy column switch. Might be worth checking to see if my front steering rack is properly centered.

The cancel cam could be out of position as well Paul.

Could you possibly drop me a PM (to avoid me cluttering up this guy's thread with my problems) and tell me if that is something I can adjust myself and how if so I might go about doing that. I've removed the steering column switches before but that was a frantic couple of hours spent removing parts from a car that we were sending off to be crushed. I've never really examined that part of the car in any detail.

As far as I remember, the signal cams are operated by the column position and are independant of the wheel itself. IE, they would work without a wheel even attached.

Wiz

Yes but not the canceling function surely?

I've been wondering this too. The cancel is based off a "lobe" on the shaft, not the steering wheel itself.

I'm on the fence, but I'm leaning to the side that the cancel function is unaffected by the rack position.

4WS is disabled on this vehicle.

Took it to Firestone, Toe was extremely off according to them. Steering wheel is about 80% corrected now.

There is a piece under the steering wheel that cancels the signals. You can remove it and reposition it to get everything to work right. I had to do it on one of my cars after pulling the rack and the wheel and then putting it all back together. I usually center the rack by adjusting the toe all the way in or out and then install the wheel. The column must have moved while I had it all apart and it would cancel barely moving the wheel one way but you had to turn it super far the other way. Moved the little piece inside and it works perfect now. It's been a while since I did it but I thing the piece is plastic if that helps.