Thread: Front end alignment/ steering wheel position

Originally Posted by Bulletman

Exactly how the guru explained it to me ..

Bulletman

You need a better wheel alignment centre. Having the steering wheel offset to counter the road camber, while leaving the wheel in the centre, is a garbage way of correcting the steering wheel position, and hasn't fixed the issue. Ask your wheel alignment centre to increase the castor on the left side by 1/2 to 3/4 of a degree. Centre the steering wheel like it is supposed to be. This will stop the drift to the left on cambered roads. You may have to play with the amount of offset dependant on how much camber your roads generally have. I believe WA roads use a a bit more camber right to left than the east coast. Someone will probably jump in and confirm this. You should also note that a lot of tyre dealers either don't have the gear or the trained personnel to complete anymore than toe adjustments to vehicles, let alone 4 wheel alignments and castor adjustments.

I take mine to Integrity Tyres in Wangara, Perth. Bit of a hike for me, but they have the right gear and do a lot of Disco's for a reputable Indie up there as well (Dovers Rovers). They did mine after the control arm replacement and it now tracks beautifully, does not pull left or right under braking nor drift to either side at all.

Agree that most of the larger tyre places don't have the expertise or equipment.

Originally Posted by ADMIRAL

You need a better wheel alignment centre. Having the steering wheel offset to counter the road camber, while leaving the wheel in the centre, is a garbage way of correcting the steering wheel position, and hasn't fixed the issue. Ask your wheel alignment centre to increase the castor on the left side by 1/2 to 3/4 of a degree. Centre the steering wheel like it is supposed to be. This will stop the drift to the left on cambered roads. You may have to play with the amount of offset dependant on how much camber your roads generally have. I believe WA roads use a a bit more camber right to left than the east coast. Someone will probably jump in and confirm this. You should also note that a lot of tyre dealers either don't have the gear or the trained personnel to complete anymore than toe adjustments to vehicles, let alone 4 wheel alignments and castor adjustments.

I thank you for the post , and after trying 3 or 4 different wheel alignment places in darwin I took it to the only recognized land rover work shop in darwin who now does wheel alignment.
I will hold back on my judgement as previous alignment places have cost me new tyres when after 4000ks travel they wore down to the steel belt or exploded.
In fairness to this latest alignment, I had fitted new upper and lower arms on the car so the steering wheel being not centred was noticeable with a few hundred meters from our house.
Bulletman

(L320 if it makes a difference - may well with geometry)

4 new tyres today 245/45R20. Car had been scrubbing out the outer edge of the front left tyre over the last little while but only since I moved from 40 to 45 profile.

I watched the alignment, he initially asked me if it was an Evoque (so I am not expecting miracles), I enabled TTM but only on the aligner. (TIP: Make sure you get a printout and that the right model is selected!)

I was a little distracted and he asked me if it was drifting left - I said I hadn't noticed that. I suspect he compensated.

The car now drifts right and the steering wheel is off centre to the left. This was the price of getting 4 new tyres at no notice. So I need a new alignment, fix the steering alignment (and maybe new bushes - LCAs were done not that long ago)

I've attached the before and after measurements, any insight?

P.S. That being said, the vehicle feels much more planted





PXL_20221222_080536449.PORTRAIT.jpg

Well yes, you had positive toe to the left so the left wheel was pointing left and negative toe on the right so it should have had a leftward tendency. You’re correct though, he’s now added negative on the left (good) but positive on the right, so now there is a rightward skew). Now this can mean it compensates for the natural camber of the road this feeling like it tracks straight most of the time, but I personally prefer it more even than that. That’s quite a skew and I’m not surprised what you’re experiencing

Originally Posted by DiscoJeffster

Well yes, you had positive toe to the left so the left wheel was pointing left and negative toe on the right so it should have had a leftward tendency. You’re correct though, he’s now added negative on the left (good) but positive on the right, so now there is a rightward skew). Now this can mean it compensates for the natural camber of the road this feeling like it tracks straight most of the time, but I personally prefer it more even than that. That’s quite a skew and I’m not surprised what you’re experiencing

Positive toe means the front of the wheel points to the centreline, negative is front of wheel pointing outwards.

The excessive positive toe was why the left front tyre was scrubbing out on the outside.

The negative camber still out of spec could be bushes or altered ride level.

Agree with previous comments taking it to a wheel aligner familiar with these vehicles

Have to admit, I like this idea of having the wheel of-centre to compensate for road camber.. I wonder why they don't come like that from the factory...

Originally Posted by DiscoJeffster

Well yes, you had positive toe to the left so the left wheel was pointing left and negative toe on the right so it should have had a leftward tendency. You’re correct though, he’s now added negative on the left (good) but positive on the right, so now there is a rightward skew). Now this can mean it compensates for the natural camber of the road this feeling like it tracks straight most of the time, but I personally prefer it more even than that. That’s quite a skew and I’m not surprised what you’re experiencing

(Firstly, thanks all - appreciated)

Managed to get it in first thing with someone who appears to know what they are doing about alignment (although not LR specific - TTM was a new thing).

Same conclusions as stated but apparently there is a problem with one of the LCA bolts and setting it properly was not possible. Compensation was added but lots of unknowns (I have to admit I was in a hurry so did not fully comprehend).

Anyway, it drives really well and I appreciate how bad it was. The tramlining and other niggles are gone. Much more pleasurable for the holidays

Hopefully the holiday km don't kill the new tyres before the replacement bolt arrives. Original LR - $60 from Rimmer Bros - to their credit, they shipped on Friday UK time.

New alignment stats attached.


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