Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

Hi Guys,

I'm having an issue with the car pulling left. Even when I'm in a right cambered lane the car will pull left.

I just had my alignment checked at fulcrum and their answer was off centre castor bushes to correct it.

I'm no expert so please correct me if I'm wrong but my settings might be a slight cause.

left front toe +1.9mm

right front toe +2.2mm

left rear toe 0.0mm

right rear toe -1.5mm

Castor is +6.80 and +6.68 and I did see some play when they had it on the machine.

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/282329-car-pulling-left-slightly/
Share on other sites

Wow, let me get this straight. Fulcrum checked your alignment and got the above read out then explained your problem to be in the castor and to buy bushes off them without first simply changing the toe?

Take it somewhere else and get them to correct your toe. The castor is fine. I hope you didn't pay too much for that "answer". Even if the toe does not fix it pulling (which it most likely will) your rear toe needs to be changed anyway. Tick off the simple solutions first.

Go to a independent joint.

Yes they charged me $27 to give me a quote for $500 to fix a simple alignment issue!

There was alot of play in the castor bushes which I will probably rectify in the future.

I had an alignment done 5 months ago and it didn't solve the problem then either.

Is there anyway of doing the toe myself? can I fix it simply but turning the tie rod end in one turn on the right hand front and doing a similar thing to the rear?

On that note I am a bit confused by the rear setting, 0.0 seems good but -1.5 is weird! -ive toe on rear would mean it points out hey?

does the rear wheel steering work in the oposite to the front? ie turning right the rear wheels turn left?

It shouldn't cost $500 to replace castor bushes even if they do need fixing.

There are guides to adjusting the toe yourself and its not as simple as just turning some bolts. It has to be measured properly.

Your rear toe is out by a significant amount. Hopefully someone can give you a name of a reputable suspension joint in Brisbane that can sort your issues out.

Thanks for the help gunmetalgrey,

The $500 was $100 for the alignment, $133 for the bushes and $200 for labour + GST + me rounding it up!

There is a place in Springwood called City Suspension who apparently do good work, my mate has taken his S15 there before and been happy so I'll try them.

Is the right rear toe the main issue here? Anything from 0.0 to +1 is good? same for the front? I'm after street specs and I do alot of K's so a sports set up isn't needed at the moment.

In that case $500 is not so shabby. Probably what most places will charge. I am not saying Fulcrum is no good it's just that have suggested your car is pulling left because of castor bushes but like you suggested it could well be the fact your toe is out.

If you feel your bushes are actually stuffed and need replacing than getting them to fix them and get your toe/wheel alignment done at the same time is probably a smart move.

Saves you paying for an alignment now then needing another when you replace the bushes in the near future. That is if they are stuffed.

I wouldn't say they were stuffed. The car although a '99 model has only done 44,000k's although there's alot more play than new items and there is cracking in the rubber on the faces.

I intend on doing an entire suspension upgrade in the new year when I intend on doing some track work so hopefully they should be fine till then. Or do you think I should bite the bullet now?

Apparently Whiteline do a fully adjustable arm that might be on the list when I do the lot.

You would think after so little km's they would be ok until new year but I am not a suspension expert nor have I seen them.

There is a bucket load of information on here to help with your decision in suspension bits and plenty of time for you to research :/ Can't remember if whiteline make an adjustable castor arm but they do make bushes.

ive got the same problem on my r34 gtt.

had beaurepairs do an alignment. made zero difference.

new tyres on front because the old ones had massive camber wear. that improved things heaps. but still pulling to the left and slightly shaky steering at 100+kmph

was going to go to fulcrum to have another alignment done cause i dont really trust beaurepairs (was just close to work to try it quickly) but i might try this city suspension place.

let me know how you go with them if you go there

just get the toe adjusted properly ..shouldn't be more than $50-60 and if it's still pulling to one side it could be a seized up caliper piston ..but it's probably just the toe

mate no change 200 labour i paid 80 for mine. bought adjustable caster rod bushes (ON CAR) from whiteline 180. With an allignement (only the front needed it) 300 all up :( u gotta shop around, the car feels SOOO much better. i would also look at your tie rod ends cause my car was pulling due to the tie rods been to warn down/slight split (bought them from pedders $70 for both, and fitted it myself- save on the double allignment costs :))

Took it down to a local joint and they'e readings were alot better than Fulcrums!

They had their alignment machine calibrated last week and the figures were very close to the alignment I had done 5 months ago.

Without any sugestion from me they came to same conclusion as Fulcrum that I needed to adjust the castor and therefore get the bushes.

I showed them Fulcrum's quote and they said that they would be getting the parts from Fulcrum and could still do it cheaper :D

Car is booked for Thursday........

What shop was that mate?

pm me if you like

Took it down to a local joint and they'e readings were alot better than Fulcrums!

They had their alignment machine calibrated last week and the figures were very close to the alignment I had done 5 months ago.

Without any sugestion from me they came to same conclusion as Fulcrum that I needed to adjust the castor and therefore get the bushes.

I showed them Fulcrum's quote and they said that they would be getting the parts from Fulcrum and could still do it cheaper :ninja:

Car is booked for Thursday........

Had a hold up today (my fault) so car is booked for tomorrow 10am.

$390 @ Driveline in Archerfield (Bushes, labor + alignment). I'm impressed with the service so far but I am reserving judgement untill I'm driving away tomorrow.

Cheers for that mate,

got the car booked in at fulcrum on wednesday.

but if these guys do a good job i'll try them out

Yeah that's them, I'll post up my results this arvo before you call them, just incase :thumbsup:

Which Fulcrum?

The one on Fairfeild RD is where I went and they just did me up a big quote and charged me $27 for it :thumbsup:

I'm a bit iffy with thier Alignment machine as the 2 other machines my car has been on came back with similar settings but Fulcrums was way off.

Car is at Driveline now, they even dropped me home and are picking me up when the car is ready :D

its the hillcrest fulcrum.

Its handy because its a 10min walk home from my place while i wait. whereas driveline is a 15 or so min drive.

but if they want to drop me home and stuff im all for it haha

I asked fulcrum about installing my hicas lock bar before the alignment and the guy was a little confused about it. had to explain it all to him, which makes me a little worried.

OK car is back.......

STILL Pulling left!!!

They have done everything they can and there is no difference?

The bushes are adjusted to maximum.

They had a power steering expert look at it because sometimes racks can be the cause but it's fine.

Tyres are 5000k's old recently rotated and balanced.

Wheel alignment is spot on.

Car has never been in an accident.

The only thing I can think of is the HICCAS playing up?

Does anyone have any idea's?

P.S I was really happy with the sevice from Driveline, they even dropped the alignment charge.

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • First up, I wouldn't use PID straight up for boost control. There's also other control techniques that can be implemented. And as I said, and you keep missing the point. It's not the ONE thing, it's the wrapping it up together with everything else in the one system that starts to unravel the problem. It's why there are people who can work in a certain field as a generalist, IE a IT person, and then there are specialists. IE, an SQL database specialist. Sure the IT person can build and run a database, and it'll work, however theyll likely never be as good as a specialist.   So, as said, it's not as simple as you're thinking. And yes, there's a limit to the number of everything's in MCUs, and they run out far to freaking fast when you're designing a complex system, which means you have to make compromises. Add to that, you'll have a limited team working on it, so fixing / tweaking some features means some features are a higher priority than others. Add to that, someone might fix a problem around a certain unrelated feature, and that change due to other complexities in the system design, can now cause a new, unforseen bug in something else.   The whole thing is, as said, sometimes split systems can work as good, and if not better. Plus when there's no need to spend $4k on an all in one solution, to meet the needs of a $200 system, maybe don't just spout off things others have said / you've read. There's a lot of misinformation on the internet, including in translated service manuals, and data sheets. Going and doing, so that you know, is better than stating something you read. Stating something that has been read, is about as useful as an engineering graduate, as all they know is what they've read. And trust me, nearly every engineering graduate is useless in the real world. And add to that, if you don't know this stuff, and just have an opinion, maybe accept what people with experience are telling you as information, and don't keep reciting the exact same thing over and over in response.
    • How complicated is PID boost control? To me it really doesn't seem that difficult. I'm not disputing the core assertion (specialization can be better than general purpose solutions), I'm just saying we're 30+ years removed from the days when transistor budgets were in the thousands and we had to hem and haw about whether there's enough ECC DRAM or enough clock cycles or the interrupt handler can respond fast enough to handle another task. I really struggle to see how a Greddy Profec or an HKS EVC7 or whatever else is somehow a far superior solution to what you get in a Haltech Nexus/Elite ECU. I don't see OEMs spending time on dedicated boost control modules in any car I've ever touched. Is there value to separating out a motor controller or engine controller vs an infotainment module? Of course, those are two completely different tasks with highly divergent requirements. The reason why I cite data sheets, service manuals, etc is because as you have clearly suggested I don't know what I'm doing, can't learn how to do anything correctly, and have never actually done anything myself. So when I do offer advice to people I like to use sources that are not just based off of taking my word for it and can be independently verified by others so it's not just my misinterpretation of a primary source.
    • That's awesome, well done! Love all these older Datsun / Nissans so rare now
    • As I said, there's trade offs to jamming EVERYTHING in. Timing, resources etc, being the huge ones. Calling out the factory ECU has nothing to do with it, as it doesn't do any form of fancy boost control. It's all open loop boost control. You mention the Haltech Nexus, that's effectively two separate devices jammed into one box. What you quote about it, is proof for that. So now you've lost flexibility as a product too...   A product designed to do one thing really well, will always beat other products doing multiple things. Also, I wouldn't knock COTS stuff, you'd be surprised how many things are using it, that you're probably totally in love with As for the SpaceX comment that we're working directly with them, it's about the type of stuff we're doing. We're doing design work, and breaking world firsts. If you can't understand that I have real world hands on experience, including in very modern tech, and actually understand this stuff, then to avoid useless debates where you just won't accept fact and experience, from here on, it seems you'd be be happy I (and possibly anyone with knowledge really) not reply to your questions, or input, no matter how much help you could be given to help you, or let you learn. It seems you're happy reading your data sheets, factory service manuals, and only want people to reinforce your thoughts and points of view. 
    • I don't really understand because clearly it's possible. The factory ECU is running on like a 4 MHz 16-bit processor. Modern GDI ECUs have like 200 MHz superscalar cores with floating point units too. The Haltech Nexus has two 240 MHz CPU cores. The Elite 2500 is a single 80 MHz core. Surely 20x the compute means adding some PID boost control logic isn't that complicated. I'm not saying clock speed is everything, but the requirements to add boost control to a port injection 6 cylinder ECU are really not that difficult. More I/O, more interrupt handlers, more working memory, etc isn't that crazy to figure out. SpaceX if anything shows just how far you can get arguably doing things the "wrong" way, ie x86 COTS running C++ on Linux. That is about as far away from the "correct" architecture as it gets for a real time system, but it works anyways. 
×
×
  • Create New...