Checked Alignment: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

[lolachampcar]

I'll have to go dig up the toe string one.

Camber gauge can be done with a straight piece of wood or aluminum and an IPhone with a free app!

here it is but much easer to take it to a shop...
Tesla Alignment

 

[jerry33]

OK, so car alignment noob here. How can I tell if my car is OoA short of it mis-behaving or tires wearing out. I've noticed a "feeling" when driving lately of more rolling resistance, and potentially higher Wh/mi values. The feeling is almost like the feeling you get when driving an old 4WD vehicle on dry pavement.

The first thing to do is check the tire pressures. They will feel the way you describe long before the silly TPMS notices it.

 

[zwede]

Just got my P85+ back from alignment.

Rear wheels before (L/R):

Camber: -1.9 -2.1
Toe: 0.02 -0.02
Total toe: 0

After:

Camber: -1.3 -1.6
Toe: 0.10 0.07
Total toe: 0.16

The -1.3 camber on the left is technically out of spec, but I had asked them to knock out as much camber as they could even if it took it out of spec (I'm not a believer in massive neg camber).

 

[lolachampcar]

I assume they used the bolts which would indicate they are good for 0.5-0.6 of camber reduction (roughly 0.1" of slop). That is a lot of slop.

 

[zwede]

Yes, they used the bolts. I was surprised also as they had told me they would probably only be good for 0.3 dgr. The bolts are listed as:

BOLT HF M12x1.75-70 [10.9] 9.8 SHNK (2007078-01-A)

So if the hole is 12mm, and the shank 9.8 that would be +-1.1mm adjustment. But maybe the hole is a bit larger, like 13mm? Then we'd have +-1.6 mm and 1/2 dgr adjustment starts sounding possible.

 

[Kraken]

Got my alignment checked today. I haven't compared the results to the previous one, but I will do so and post it soon. The first one was done at around 5000 miles after my wife hit a pothole and the right rear tire blew out. Tesla was the one who noticed the alignment was out at that time. They didnt mention anything about any strange wear patterns on the inside edge that others were seeing who had bad alignments, but that doesn't mean there weren't wear issues. Seeing that the right rear was brand new, and I didn't really see any issues with the left rear, I was assuming I didn't have those wear issues. For all I know though, it was there and I didn't see it.

Because the alignment was bad at 5000 miles and we weren't entirely sure whether they replaced only one or both rears, we took the car in today to have the tread and alignment checked again at 15,000 miles. Sure enough, the left rear had inside tire wear. I don't know if this was there previously (it wasnt to the cords as others have shown) at the 5000 mile alignment check. They said the tread on all of the tires was still good (they were surprised that I didn't need all new tires at 15,000 miles.... It seemed like they expected them to last about 8-10k max). They recommended swapping out the left rear due to the inside wall wear (I forgot to take a picture... It was noticeable, but not bad). They also recommended swapping the right rear to keep the tires even.... They didnt suggest that when we had one tire replaced at 5000... I declined on getting the right rear replaced as I figured I would wait for a better time to swap both. I did swap out the left rear. From the looks of it, and I'm not driving like an old lady, these tires would have lasted me 20k-25k miles, if not more.

My guess is that the wall wear was there at 5000 miles and hasn't gotten worse and the alignment was still pretty close to good. I wish they would have noticed the wear the first time around. I really think it is just the alignments from the factory. Hopefully they are fixing this issue.

They actually charged me less for this tire than the last one... The difference was that they charged half as much/hour for labor.... Strange.

 

[chibi_kurochan]

Newbie here, can someone please see my alignment result just for sanity check? Our first annual service after putting 23k miles in 10months on our 2017 MS 75. Thank you!

 

[The Duke]

View attachment 274322 Newbie here, can someone please see my alignment result just for sanity check? Our first annual service after putting 23k miles in 10months on our 2017 MS 75. Thank you!

Don't accept anything in the red....

 

[chibi_kurochan]

Don't accept anything in the red....

Talked to the service technician. He said they purposely adjust the caster to accommodate California road conditions where it’s slightly sloped to the right.

He said the cross caster is within spec and will not affect tire wear.

 

[zwede]

Cross caster does not affect tire wear, so that is correct. I agree with the tech, all loaners I've had always pulled to the right. I adjusted my alignment myself so it doesn't pull. I thought I had the only Tesla that goes straight, but maybe there's another now.

 

[The Duke]

Agreed about cross caster. But I drive on multi lane freeways which do not have the slope like country roads or I drive on city streets. Nicki does not pull on flat roads because the cross camber is within Tesla spec. Tire wear and handling will not be effected unless you are close to tire traction limits. Caster effects camber when turning. But for me I will take the pull telling me the road is not flat and true tracking on flat roads.

Using Caster to Properly Align Vehicles

 

[zwede]

All roads, even multi-lane, are sloped to aid water run-off.

 

[The Duke]

Your point? Some are sloped down hill and flat across, some are sloped to a center drain. I think we are agreeing you may or may not want cross caster depending on how and where you drive.

 

[chibi_kurochan]

Agreed about cross caster. But I drive on multi lane freeways which do not have the slope like country roads or I drive on city streets. Nicki does not pull on flat roads because the cross camber is within Tesla spec. Tire wear and handling will not be effected unless you are close to tire traction limits. Caster effects camber when turning. But for me I will take the pull telling me the road is not flat and true tracking on flat roads.

Using Caster to Properly Align Vehicles

Thanks for the link! Very helpful!

Went driving up and down the highway today to see the effect of this current setting, I feel the car ever so slightly pull to the left.
The article says cross-caster within half a degree or less should be fine, but the spec sheet range is -0.20 to 0.20 degree.

Is it too nit-picky to ask them to re-adjust it to be within the specified range?

 

[AmpedRealtor]

Is it too nit-picky to ask them to re-adjust it to be within the specified range?

I don't think it's unfair to ask them to align your car to Tesla specs.

 

[The Duke]

Check your tires are exactly the same pressure and within range, test again. If it pulls to the left they need to align it.

 

[chibi_kurochan]

Check your tires are exactly the same pressure and within range, test again. If it pulls to the left they need to align it.

Double checked tire pressures, all within range. 45psi Cold.
On saturday, drove on 880 fast lane, it was pulling to the left ever so slightly. (short drive)
Yesterday, drove on 680, it was pulling to the right no matter what lanes i'm on. (100 miles drive)
Either way, it's not going straight, i have to keep adjusting the wheel to correct for the pull.
Scheduled another appointment to get it adjusted again. Although i don't understand how the current alignment would cause the car to pull to the right?
Thank you all.

 

[AmpedRealtor]

We have pretty steep road crown here in AZ due to our summer monsoon rains. Road crown causes your car to feel like it's pulling to the right. Service said they could compensate for the road crown, but then the car would feel like it's pulling left when on a flat surface. I was told the HOV lane exhibits the least amount of road crown, and to check while in that lane. When in the HOV lane, I can say that my car drives perfectly straight.

I believe Tesla's toe specs cause near zero toe while at speed. This is great for efficiency, but not so great for stability. You might want more toe-in to give you greater straight-line stability at the expense of efficiency. I'm only going by what I was told, I don't know much about suspensions.

 

[davidc18]

lots of good info in this old thread

 

[Aggmeister2010]

My alignment sheet from today is below.

The top is how the Service Center handed it to me after they performed an alignment. Yikes. It drove crooked, and was impossible to keep it straight. Toe values are straight up shocking.

Afterwards is what it left the alignment shop with. My car is lowered, and it was aligned to 'low,' so the camber is a bit more negative than most, and i'm okay with that.

Oddly, the front left camber adjustment lobe on the lower control arm is at its maximum, and they could only get it to -1.5. Front right wasn't. Not sure why that's the case, but everything else looks fine to me, and it drives straight!