The car came misaligned out of the factory and the wheels not completely balanced. I was almost 1/2 oz off on 3 of the 4 wheels. THe Hunter GSP9700 balancer was showing the wheel doing up/down hops. The toe was off also on 3 of the 4 wheels. Everytime i punched it, the car got squirly like I had torque steer on a front wheel drive car. Once they aligned it, it goes straight like an arrow now. I don't know how they can send cars out of the factory not aligned and mis-balanced. Do they hire elemetary school drop outs to do this??
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Anyone get an alignment?
- Thread starter AnOutsider
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- Driving Dynamics Model S
I went straight to the Tesla Service Center and described the problem. I also told them my steering wheel was off center too. Since the Menlo Park does not own an alignment machine, they brought it to a small little shop across the street that they contract to do (spent 2.5 hours waiting till they finally started). They did balance it in house at their shop with the Roadforce balancer from Hunter which was a little more comforting. The shop across the street deals more with cheaper cars and are not as careful about keeping your interior clean. Nice black finger prints on the door panel. I even brought my own steering wheel plastic cover and plastic seat covers as my seats are light grey. Spent about 5-10 minutes trying to clean it off. Oh well. What can you do.
Zapped
Model S - PURE EV
I got the wheels aligned on my Model S and stayed with the car while it was being done.
Some interesting notes.
1. alignment equipment was a Hofmann unit ( worth $60k according to the tire shop) so I assume it would be good.
2. had to set the suspension to VERY HIGH so the spec suspension clearance to road were correct. (144 mm rear, 213 mm front )
3. technician had remove the rear area shroud to the underside of the car to get his hands in and make the adjustments ( electric motor was exposed but I didn't get a photo )
4. the front left toe was -0.50 and right was 0.30 which probably explains why the steering wheel was off. ( had to hold 4 deg right of center to go straight before the alignment . Also might explain why the car was a bit squirky on hard acceleration ( toe was set to 0.0 front and rear to reduce wear and rolling resistance as lolachampcar suggested )
Overall they checked the alignment twice and took about 2 hours.
When it was all done, the driving experience seemed quite different but it's hard to say if I was overly focused on or sensitive to any changes. The car seems to drive straighter
Some interesting notes.
1. alignment equipment was a Hofmann unit ( worth $60k according to the tire shop) so I assume it would be good.
2. had to set the suspension to VERY HIGH so the spec suspension clearance to road were correct. (144 mm rear, 213 mm front )
3. technician had remove the rear area shroud to the underside of the car to get his hands in and make the adjustments ( electric motor was exposed but I didn't get a photo )
4. the front left toe was -0.50 and right was 0.30 which probably explains why the steering wheel was off. ( had to hold 4 deg right of center to go straight before the alignment . Also might explain why the car was a bit squirky on hard acceleration ( toe was set to 0.0 front and rear to reduce wear and rolling resistance as lolachampcar suggested )
Overall they checked the alignment twice and took about 2 hours.
When it was all done, the driving experience seemed quite different but it's hard to say if I was overly focused on or sensitive to any changes. The car seems to drive straighter
Last edited:
kevincwelch
Active Member
Good to hear. Mine's been adjusted twice and I'll be going in for a third time for an adjustment next week. Hopefully this will be the last time.
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I don't know what else to try at this point. alignments, tire rotations... I don't wanna be a Pita, but can you lemon a car for a persistent misalignment?
kevincwelch
Active Member
I'm not sure.
I don't want to be a PITA either, but I will pursue this issue until it's fixed or I get a replacement.
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You need to check all the readings on the wheel alignment, not just the toe.
It sounds like the camber and the caster and KPI is out.
From what I have seen the Tesla suspension only has adjustment for toe, so there is the problem.
It is a wishbone suspension and the only way to change camber and caster is with bolt kits that I understand Tesla now make. But that is a big job for a specialist to know what you are doing, order the parts, pull it apart and install the kit.
You don't get that in your 15 minute $70 wheel alignment.
Cyclone
Cyclonic Member ((.oO))
Additionally, my local SC said Tesla has stopped offering the adjustment bolts. The rep said they were thinner and had more play on where they could be tightened to push out/in the camber, but this design meant that when you hit a bump, the bolt could shift and now you are further out of alignment. He said my local SC is actively removing them and putting the original bolts back on when a car with the (temporarily) revised bolts comes through.
And my service center vehemently contradicted the above when I had my annual service in December. What you said above was said back then, about service removing the camber bolts, and my service center told me that is complete nonsense and that they have no directive from corporate to do anything of the sort. I had the camber bolts installed a year ago. My tire wear is completely even and after 26,000 miles I still have half of my tread life remaining. Service said the camber bolts will not go out of spec if they are properly torqued. They no longer install them, but my service center is certainly not removing them.
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