Guys just want your thoughts on the following

I have a TL limited Edition VRX with Koni Adjustable Dampers and King Lows (it's a manual)

After driving Commodore VT to VZ and various other cars this feels quite vague at the straight ahead.

It wanders even at low speed

The car has been wheel aligned recently and I have also driven a very low mileage TW VRX recently that wasn't as vague.

Does any one reckon the steering feel can be improved or do you reckon they all are quite imprecise

I reckon my son's TR magna needs less steering correction at the straight ahead (that has king low and Monroe GT dampers)

Any thoughts from any one

TL and W are supposed to have a similar rack to the Ralliart, I know when I installed the TW rack into my TE, the steering has become much more presise and "stiff" for a lack of a better word

I would be looking at things like the correct tyre size, make sure your tyres are not too large for the rims, check that all rear end is also alligned and the rear bushes are ok.

ALso check that you do not have tyre drag issues, have seen this before and can stump you, perhaps get the tyres from your sons TR if they are 15" or larger and go for a quick drive with them on, will rule out this.

Also, what Tyre Pressure are you Running??

An old trick - pump up the front tyres more, and try it again (or alternatively lower pressure and see if this improves things). If the straight line wander is worse with higher pressure and better with lower, increase front toe in by a few mm. Then try again with normal tyre pressure. Did your wheel alignment bloke use the standard settings? These may not suit your lowered car and tyre size/pressure combination.

My TW tracks fine and has never had the need for a wheel alignment.

The only adjustable points front and back (sedan) are for Toe-in, everything else is pre-determined by the mounts & the condition of your suspension components unless of course you have camber kits fitted to give some adjustability.

It wanders even at low speed

My other car is a Ford BF2 XR6 turbo, which at one time exhibited the same behaviour. It turned out that I had severely knocked the rear end out of alignment when I ran over the edge of a curb at some point in the past. The front end was fine, but the mis-alignement in the rear caused it to track all over the place.

I didn't pick this up for ages because Ford service had not bothered to do a four-wheel alignment at service when I thought they had.

Guys
thx for the comments
further information

Running standard wheel and trye size for TL VRX Limited edition ie 225 50 17
Toyo Proxes being run on the front with heaps of tread - running 34 psi

Have put front pressure down to 28 psi - feels pretty much as was -

Looks like only 2 wheel alignment was done - therefore will look in to this for solution as next step

thx again to all who have replied

hey VVRRXX I hate to sound like a smartarse but I believe your car is just a VR not a VRX?

Run 36-38psi, for starters. Quick tip, stay away from servos or etc with handheld things. They have been dropped at least once, and as soon as that happens they are no longer accurate.

I also have a bit of play around the straight ahead on my Ralliart, but my alignment is dead on and it doesn't drift. It's not a struggle to keep straight either, which i put down to a little bit of toe in.

Where did you have it aligned?
Were they using a newish machine, IE laser & wireless based?

If not, find somewhere with one of them and ask for some more stability in your alignment.

Thx

given rear is adjustable I will start there since not done since spring change

Aligned at local TyrePower - can't recall what equipment he has but in past no problems with alignment he has done on our other cars as they all track straight

a little toe in sounds good; are you referring however to front only toe in, or front and rear

also find it quite poor under brakes if road is anything other than flat

ALso check that you do not have tyre drag issues, have seen this before and can stump you, perhaps get the tyres from your sons TR if they are 15" or larger and go for a quick drive with them on, will rule out this.

Madmagna - what is tyre drag? Googled it but no answer.

Have had it myself before, had me stuffed, had the car wander and pull to one side, had brand new Pirelli tyres so ignored them at first.

One tyre will cause more drag than the other and cause the above to happen. How I worked it out was I did check all 4 wheel allignment and all steering gear, was all fine, I changed the wheels and tyres only because I did not want to chop out a new set of tyres, intended to do this until I found the issue, when I drove it next, car was perfect. I took the car back to the tyre place who at first laughed as apparently Pirelli are a too good a tyre for this to happen, they stopped when I swapped L to R and had the oppersite effect, ie pulled the other way on the road. They replaced both with another pair of new tyres and problem was fixed. They had done the wheel allignment something like 3 time by that time and had decided I had a bent chassis as they could not come up with anything else lol

Maybe that's similar to what happened to me with a pair of cheap Chinese tyres I had fitted to the front of a Commodore - when turning left or right, the car tyres would rumble and give the same steering feedback that you get when driving over cobblestones. Initially it was diagnosed as faulty front wheel bearings (@$400ea), then discs/pads with absolutely no change. By chance I happened to enter the tyre brand into Google and found this brand had been banned in the USA due to the tyre not have a 'bead breaker' or something like that which went between the tread and the steel cords...this allowed the tread to move independantly of the carcass...only a few mm but enough to create a rumble when stressed.
You learn something new every day!

I've got a rumble when I turn right from a 2,000 km old Goodyear, I have been blaming wheel bearings but I might just swap tyres front to back and see if the rumble goes away. Might be a dud tyre, thanks for the idea!

Reminds me of a set of Steelcats I bought many years ago. They grew in tread width as they aged. The steel belts wore through while the centre of the tyre had plenty of tread, there was a gap of at least 2 cm between the edge of the belt and the shoulder of the tyre. Quality stuff!

Tyres can definitely do some funny things. I've had a few cases where well known quality tyres have gone noisy or gone out of shape causing problems. Rotating them can certainly help isolate whether they are a problem or not.

I had a car once where I had the front end rebuilt and the car handled like a pig afterwards. The suspension place blamed the tyres being worn to the previous geometry as the cause and I was skeptical but sure enough they were right. Swapped the tyres around and everything was fixed. You don't realise how much the suspension can change as it ages, I learnt a lot from that experience.

our KJ AWD had fairly vauge steering and excessive play when we bought it a few months ago , thought we'd be up for a reco steering rack so factored that into the price. cause was just a loose clamp bolt on the rack splines. easy fix , phew!

Gents

front and rear wheel alignment now done

It was out a bit; springs may have needed some settling in

steers straighter now with a bit of toe in dialled in

Given the car sits on Lows (Kings), the guy doing the wheel alignment suggested getting some camber bolts for rear adjustment as the rear wheels now have slightly different camber on them

Any one tried this on a TL before and can offer any suggestions regarding the value thereof

He reckons he can do it for about $150

After owning and driving a TP and TS wagon with solid rear axles, I was surprised to drive my wife's Lancer on twisty roads and discover how much steering the rear wheels actually do. In the third gen, with independent and adjustable rear ends, I imagine rear wheel alignment is important in handling and straight line stability. If you have lowered suspension or even wider/larger wheels, I would go for the camber bolts to get them back to factory specifications.

What's your rear camber currently at? If it's only slightly off factory spec, it might not be worth correcting. However, mine was at -2° before I installed my camber kit (factory is 50') and I have King Lows too. If it's that severe, it'd be worth doing for handling and to improve tyre wear.

How does your wheel aligner plan to fix the rear camber? No-one in Australia makes a rear camber kit for Magnas. I ordered mine from the States (it was for the US-spec Diamante).

Thx for the replies
Re the questions from Red Valdez
currently sitting at -2 deg on one side and -1 deg the other

I think the wheel aligner suggested the camber bolts based on experience with other cars rather than necessarily looking at the ins and outs specifically for mine

Can I ask how much the rear camber kit was from the States

My kit was made by Ingalls Engineering - part # 35860. There's only one on eBay at the moment that'll post to Aus - here (http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Ingalls-Alig-Camber-Kit-Rear-Chrysler-Sebring-35860-_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQhashZitem1c130dcfaaQQitemZ12057 8756522QQptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccesso ries). It'd be about $95 including delivery.

If you're interested, they also make a front camber kit - part # 81250. Cheaper than the Whiteline equivalent.