Question about alignments

[lbcrocks14]

I dropped my car off at Neubauers, a shop up the street from my house that has worked on my car before. They were to put tie rods on, and align the car. I got a call earlier today about my car. Apparently after the road test for the alignment they put the car back on the alignment machine to find it out of spec again. They repeated the process of aligning the car and road testing it, same story...out of alignment. I'm trying to find an answer to this, suspension mod on the car:
- Megan coilovers
- 3sx adjustable upper control arms
- also leaky steering rack

Could a leaking steering rack cause this issue, or could my rack potentially be missing a tooth? Any suggestions are welcome as I have no clue where to proceed. I will post pictures of the alignment specs in the morning when I pick the car up


thanks

[Warzone]

I found most shops are not very good at aligning a car with a fair amount of aftermarket suspension. it could be just them

[duke3k]

This may or may not be the problem - but it was for us. See the First & Third posts in this thread on Colorado3s.org:

Why would this nut being loose cause a 3k to exhibit torque steer...

[speedy25]

I have to agree with warzone. WHile the neighborhood guys may have been OK over the years they must not be very good at suspension. The first time it didnt pass they should have been all over the front suspension to find out whats moving. Actually they should have found it BEFORE starting the alignment. Storied like these are why I alway recommend a REAL alignment shop. They check things out better.

A leaky rack wont cause alignment issues. And NO it cant be nmissing a tooth. (Thats a good one!)

There are a lot of potential wear items causing the trouble. Sometimes replacing everyhting is the answer for an older car.

-SP

[Forest Gump]

you have a bad bushing, tie rod, or ball joint somewhere. A good shop should've checked all of this. They also should know there is a procedure to align the rear in the all wheels steering cars.

These cars will actually drive ok with pretty bad alignments if all of the parts are not worn badly, so anytime the car is driving really badly it is usually a tire that has a pull or worn parts.

It would help to see your alignment sheet.

[lbcrocks14]

Here are the specs of the alignments performed, one before, one after roadtest, and one current. I am not driving the car currently, I plan to jack the car up after this snow storm and look around myself. The picture with total toe -.30 is before alignment. The picture with .02 total toe is the first alignment. the last picture is the current alignment. The picture with the -.67 total toe is after the roadtest...pretty sketch. This shop is terrible...they honestly gave me no respect on the phone until I told him that the previous month my roommate and I did a turbo swap on the car with motor mounts and a bunch of other goodies.

[lbcrocks14]

this last spec is after the road test.

[Forest Gump]

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say they either installed your tie rods wrong, they installed tie rods that don't fit properly, or your inner tie rods are very worn.

Wow and add to that I'm sure they didn't disconnect the rear aws end links when aligning the back. It is either that or they don't know how to use the alignment machine.

These are a quick way to check things for yourself:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Race-Toe-In-...af18dc&vxp=mtr

(note a parallel string box is going to be more accurate, but plates will get you in the ball park and at least tell you if it is wrong per axle)