Alignment Question on New Car

[OriginHacker21]

I have a 2013 Honda Civic - 2.5 months old. A recent 21 point inspection (3 pages) at the Honda Dealership showed 0ft/mi (pass) for my front wheels and -21ft/mi (marginal) for my rear wheels for alignment I believe.

The test would have failed had it been -30ft/mi. I don't notice an obvious pull but if you had to ask me it pulls to the left a tiny bit but I chalk it up to wind and other factors.

Do I need to get a rear wheel alignment?

 

[crgstvrs]

it's a new car. I would request that it be done. Could have been wrong from moment it was built.

 

[hardcore302]

See if they will do it.

 

[OriginHacker21]

Yeah, I'm hoping they will do it but if not, would you guys pay $100 to have it done? It is in the yellow (Marginal) and wasn't enough for them to tell me about it when they handed me my keys after the inspection.

Pass: 0-15ft/mi, Marginal: 16-30 ft/mi, Fail: 31-x ft/mi.

I assume they did that test with the wheels on since I didn't give them my locking lug nuts.

 

[RamFan]

My brand new CX-5 was missaligned off the lot. I told them, they drove it to confirm, made the adjustments.

 

[The_Jeff]

Does Honda have a bumper to bumper warranty? I'd find the specs. A little toe is sometimes built in on purpose. They imply it should be zeroed all over. Also this "yellow zone" is debatable; the factory gives a spec then the dealer narrows the spec half again making the fringe an implied dangerous zone. Great if you're persnickity, I guess.

Also, this "feet per mile" is a new one on me. Sounds like a great sales spiel, better than "off by 1/2 of one degree" which sounds tiny.

It's a lot of effort to hook up the alignment doodads for a free check. On a new car that's not rusty and that doesn't need shims, it's most of the work.

Sounds like they have a whiz-bang alignment rack, or several of them, and are enslaving the techs to check every car that comes through.

If you have threaded rods in your rear suspension, you yourself can tweak them before you bring it back for your next free inspection.

And if you screw it up badly, there's the warranty.

 

[The motor guy]

Brilliant idea. I'll have to do that on my truck. How do you adjust it? Is it just two nuts? One on the outside to lock it and another to adjust it? My alignment never stays in check. I can tell just by looking at the tires. They give a 6 month alignment warranty. hehe.

 

[Vikas]

Does somebody have explanation for those numbers, especially those units? ft/mi ?

 

[The_Jeff]

Originally Posted By: motor_oil_madman
Brilliant idea. I'll have to do that on my truck. How do you adjust it? Is it just two nuts? One on the outside to lock it and another to adjust it? My alignment never stays in check. I can tell just by looking at the tires. They give a 6 month alignment warranty. hehe.


You have to loosen a locknut or pinch bolt then twist the middle with a pipe wrench. It'll be a workout if you have any rust.

I set my toe with a laser level on the front tire pointing at the rear tire. Goal is to barely miss the tire with the light.

As for ft/mi, get them in the same unit by dividing ft by 5280 then do a cosine (IIRC) to get degrees of toe. In your example 21/5280 works out to almost exactly one degree of toe-- in fact, I bet they worked backwards to get that 21 number.

 

[FZ1]

Make the dealer align it for free. I don't think the dealers always do this when they sell you a new car.

 

[OriginHacker21]

So is 21 ft/mi bad enough to warrant $100 to fix? I doubt I'll get a free alignment because I've driven 7k miles. I haven't hit anything or done anything to affect alignment. Will definitely try to get them to do it for free.

 

[The_Jeff]

Good god man, you've already slid sideways 27.8 miles!!

But seriously, Honda might have put that in your rear on purpose to make it corner better, understeer less (or more!), etc.

 

[OriginHacker21]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
Good god man, you've already slid sideways 27.8 miles!!

But seriously, Honda might have put that in your rear on purpose to make it corner better, understeer less (or more!), etc.
lol that sounds pretty bad. Treadware (on same inspection) shows 7s all the way around. I haven't seen any obvious wear. Those 7k miles were 90% highway (Trip to Iowa from California).

And yes, that's what I'm thinking - about the cornering. So if you were me, save $100 and just let it go? I'll definitely look up the specs.

 

[DuckRyder]

Originally Posted By: Vikas
Does somebody have explanation for those numbers, especially those units? ft/mi ?


http://www.hunter.com/inspection/inspectionlane/4002T.pdf

 

[yonyon]

Originally Posted By: Vikas
Does somebody have explanation for those numbers, especially those units? ft/mi ?


Sideslip in feet per mile rolled. Back in ancient times this was typically measured by driving over a device that would have plates that actually slip laterally causing a pointer to shake back and forth and on fancier models it might even ring a bell. Something like that anyway.


OPs 21 feet per mile should then be the same thing as 21 feet per 5280 feet. Now keep in mind that I'm on my third beer already so my math is probably wrong wrong here so if you'd like to fix it for me that would be appreciated. Anyway, 21/5280 is about .004. That should work out to be something like -0.23 degrees of negative toe. I think. I can't find my calculator.

whatever you get as x when tan(x)=-21/5280

 

[JHZR2]

Would I pay $100?

Well, how expensive are the tires and how often do you rotate them?

If you rotate well, it's like $25/tire amortized, will you get that much more wear from it?

I'd take it to the dealer and ask them to fine tune it to the acceptable range. If I were the dealer, I'd question if you perhaps hit something over 7000 miles.

Since it was only one wheel, there is probably a good chance that it would be adjusted on goodwill, especially if you take it in on some other service.

 

[yonyon]

Originally Posted By: JHZR2

Since it was only one wheel, there is probably a good chance that it would be adjusted on goodwill, especially if you take it in on some other service.


It can't really be just one wheel unless the steering wheel is crooked. It could be two about evenly in the back, but if it's one in the back and the steering wheel is straight, then both fronts will have to be adjusted as well to keep it straight.

Then again, is the service writer going to care about any of that? I think he/she would see it more as weighing the regular blanket price for an alignment vs. the value of a happy customer.

 

[JethroBodine]

Originally Posted By: FZ1
Make the dealer align it for free. I don't think the dealers always do this when they sell you a new car.


+1 this

 

[bdcardinal]

There should be at least a 12/12 adjustment warranty. Alignment isn't covered under bumper to bumper because it can change with customer damage. However with that few miles, it should be covered, especially under 12 months 12k miles.

 

[antiqueshell]

They brought up the issue, so if you are polite and explain your concern about possible tire wear, and get a paid basic service done at that time--O&F change, they likely will do it as a good will gesture.