Hello all,
New here and just wanted to share some info regarding alignments when you have electronic power steering.
The story:
Scheduled an alignment on my 20 Rebel as I was needing new tires and knew something was slightly off. So I wanted everything set well before investing that kind of money. So I get the alignment first. Right off the lot something felt off. The truck tracked a lot straighter but the steering wheel was about 15 to 20 degrees to the right when holding straight. Correcting the wheel made the truck quickly go into oncoming traffic lane.
Got my tires anyways right after that and let the dealer know there was still an issue regarding steering wheel center. Brought it in first thing next morning. Now through doing some research, and also having an online service manual, I kind of suspected what the underlying issue may be.
So the good news is, second time was a charm and the truck tracks beautifully with a straight wheel. Here is what I found:
1: You will want the “steer ahead” measurement to be as close to zero as possible. My first printout after alignment was at .02 but when I brought the truck in, it was only at .01 although it did have a slight drift before all this. So this measurement was actually slightly worse after alignment but there is actually more to the story…
2: Total Toe should be close to zero, but obviously with some toe in, you may see something like .04 on up to .1, etc, but more importantly, as per the manual , the total toe measurement needs to be split as evenly as possible side to side to induce a centered steering wheel. I.e. if total toe is .06, you would want .03 on each side, not .05 left and .01 right. Having that off makes a big difference.
3: Electric power steering compensation reset—
I had a feeling this was part of my problem, after reading about this the other night, it seems that the vehicles learn to compensate over time, the torque input to offset road crown and other factors. When you have an alignment done, if you don’t go to the dealer or a shop that can reset this with a scan tool, you may have a slight drift even after a perfect alignment, as the vehicles ecu is still expecting the vehicle to pull a certain way based on the old alignment angles. Furthermore, if the alignment was way out you may need the steering angle sensor recalibrated to prevent trac and abs lights etc. These things should be done by a dealer trained tech, but as you can see, sometimes things slip through the cracks.
All in all, the shop made it right. But I wanted to arm some of you with some knowledge going in so you can ask the right questions and hopefully have a successful and perfect alignment the first time. I have attached photos of the two alignments to reference what I was trying to explain.
I hope this helps people out, and in no way or shape is this meant to be an exacting spec for alignments but it should help you spot the “it’s in the green, it’s good enough” problems so you can better guide the shop to a good alignment if problems still persist.
New here and just wanted to share some info regarding alignments when you have electronic power steering.
The story:
Scheduled an alignment on my 20 Rebel as I was needing new tires and knew something was slightly off. So I wanted everything set well before investing that kind of money. So I get the alignment first. Right off the lot something felt off. The truck tracked a lot straighter but the steering wheel was about 15 to 20 degrees to the right when holding straight. Correcting the wheel made the truck quickly go into oncoming traffic lane.
Got my tires anyways right after that and let the dealer know there was still an issue regarding steering wheel center. Brought it in first thing next morning. Now through doing some research, and also having an online service manual, I kind of suspected what the underlying issue may be.
So the good news is, second time was a charm and the truck tracks beautifully with a straight wheel. Here is what I found:
1: You will want the “steer ahead” measurement to be as close to zero as possible. My first printout after alignment was at .02 but when I brought the truck in, it was only at .01 although it did have a slight drift before all this. So this measurement was actually slightly worse after alignment but there is actually more to the story…
2: Total Toe should be close to zero, but obviously with some toe in, you may see something like .04 on up to .1, etc, but more importantly, as per the manual , the total toe measurement needs to be split as evenly as possible side to side to induce a centered steering wheel. I.e. if total toe is .06, you would want .03 on each side, not .05 left and .01 right. Having that off makes a big difference.
3: Electric power steering compensation reset—
I had a feeling this was part of my problem, after reading about this the other night, it seems that the vehicles learn to compensate over time, the torque input to offset road crown and other factors. When you have an alignment done, if you don’t go to the dealer or a shop that can reset this with a scan tool, you may have a slight drift even after a perfect alignment, as the vehicles ecu is still expecting the vehicle to pull a certain way based on the old alignment angles. Furthermore, if the alignment was way out you may need the steering angle sensor recalibrated to prevent trac and abs lights etc. These things should be done by a dealer trained tech, but as you can see, sometimes things slip through the cracks.
All in all, the shop made it right. But I wanted to arm some of you with some knowledge going in so you can ask the right questions and hopefully have a successful and perfect alignment the first time. I have attached photos of the two alignments to reference what I was trying to explain.
I hope this helps people out, and in no way or shape is this meant to be an exacting spec for alignments but it should help you spot the “it’s in the green, it’s good enough” problems so you can better guide the shop to a good alignment if problems still persist.
