CrvtBB

Stock '11 GS. Ran an autocross yesterday -- nothing crazy. Didn't hit any cones or potholes or anything. No damage and only have 1700 miles on the car. Had a dealership do an alignment a couple hundred miles ago after having the rack replaced for a "dead spot" off-center.

After 3 pretty good runs, I headed home and noticed the steering wheel about 15 degrees off-center to the left and the car pulled to the right slightly. Otherwise, steering felt normal. No noises and looked under the car when I got home all appears normal. I drive the road frequently and never had any tramlining issues before or anything that would cause me to keep the wheel over that far to keep it straight.

Anyone experience anything like this before? Obviously have to take the car back in for an alignment, but wondering if I should be worried about another problem. This is the second autocross I've run and the first time I've experienced this.

Thanks.

AverageVetteNut

I had this happen to my 02 Z last summer.... But I'm running big A6 tires and a big bar up front.

I had the alignment done a week later and the left inside tire was shot. We THINK it was a control arm cam bolt that slipped a little. Couldn't find anything else that was creating the issue.

Those stock cam bolts on the arms are known to slip and you can't upgrade them in stock class ( SCCA ), so you just need to keep an eye out.

Hope that helps some.

acrace

Agree with above. It could be that a control arm eccentric (where you adjust camber) slipped. Make sure that the alignment shop really tightens it down (torque spec is really high) and I would suggest marking it, so if it happens again, you can reset it yourself easily.

93Rubie

Although I have a C4 and not super familiar with the C5/C6 suspensions, I've had my alignment, especially rear camber change because of lack of torque on the cam bolts.

Make sure your dealer is not "flat rating" the alignment. 4 Wheel alignment means just that, not a "toe and go", or a "set the toe and collect the dough". As they are called by some. If they cannot pull it off, find a good alignment shop that will do performance alignment for you.

Torque those bolts to specs. or they will move. FYI, rear camber bolt on a C4 is 187 ft-lbs. Yeah, its tight. I don't have to worry about lack of people doing their job anymore, I do my own alignments, now.

CrvtBB

Thanks. Something had to have slipped. I'm going to take it to a well-known shop where I had my C4 aligned for the track. Pricey, but never had a problem with my C4.

betelgeuse

I'm going in for a track alignment Wednesday. Does anyone know what the C5 torque specs are?
Thanks,
Greg

rfn026

I thought I had an alignment issue on my last trip to Homestead. Actually I did.



My left rear camber was all over the place since the polyurethane bushing had given up and disappeared. No more poly for me. This is my new arrangement.



Richard Newton

mountainbiker2

Torque them all to 125#. I only had one slip when the shop did it. Since then, I do my own alignment and never had one slip in 150 autocrosses later.

Steve A.

betelgeuse

Thanks.
Greg

AverageVetteNut

agreed! Thanks for hte torque spec.

I'll be checking mine shortly and marking everything. I actually need to get some toe taken out of the car since I'll be driving it to more events this year.

jvp

For what little it may be worth: the proper torque spec is all of it. The service manual has torque specs for the bolts, but it's safe (and advisable) to ignore them. Just crank them. HARD! Otherwise you'll be back in the alignment shop after a few trips around the track or autocross course.

jas (been there, done that)

el es tu

If you have to leave everything stock:
If you have it exactly where you want it (frame lined up exactly, alignment the same on both sides, and at #s you will be happy living with) you could pin the stock plates to the subframe; of course there's the downside of adding another hole to your car...



If you can go aftermarket:
you can use the pfadt or hardbar kits to lock the plates

http://www.pfadtracing.com/catalog/p...products_id/52


http://hardbarusa.com/hardbar/produc...da4d2fe82ae8fd

Bill Dearborn

!!!!!

Hard means hard. I only had them slip once but it was right after an alignment and both rear LCAs slipped on my C5Z. The handling became terrible and I couldn't understand how it got that bad until I looked at the rear tires. They were both toed so far to the right that I could see the problem. Took it back to the shop and the manager told the alignment guy to watch while he set the cams using two long wrenches linked together to get enough leverage to make sure the cam bolts were tight. No torque wrench just about 20 inches of lever and about 200 lbs of push.

Bill

VetteDrmr

Yet another

True story: a friend of mine had me do some work on his '02 Z06, and decided to take his car to a "race specialist" up at MSR-Cresson. He "does all the racers", etc.

Anyway, we're out on track, I'm about 100 yards behind him when he suddenly darts into pitlane. After the session is over I go find him and "something's broken in the rear." Sure enough the right rear has huge toe-in, positive camber, a real mess. Pulled the wheel, didn't find anything wrong, took it back to the specialist, who promptly challenges "who's been messing with your car?" Well, since I was the only one who'd touched the car mechanically, he gets up in my face. I politely tell him that adding a harness bar doesn't do much in the suspension, he jacks the car up onto jack stands, resets the right rear, tightens everything down with a 1/2" ratchet, and tells my friend "you're good to go."

I told my friend to take it to my house. Got the car up on the lift, pulled out the torque specs, and proceeded to put a full turn on just about every cam adjuster in the car, front and back.

Lesson: when you get your car aligned, either make sure the mechs torque the fasteners to spec, or get under the car yourself when you get home and torque them down.

Have a good one,
Mike

betelgeuse

Thanks guys.
The shop I take my cars to lets me watch him do the alignment. I'll make sure he gets them tighter than tight

I would love to run the aftermarket stuff....but showroom stock doesn't allow it.

Greg

Scooter70

According to Dave Farmer's C5 Torque Spec page:

2 GTOs

I have something very similar happen to my G8. Turns out the steering rack actually slid in the bushing at Pocono. Driving home the steering wheel was about 1-2 inches to the left. I don't know if something like that could happen to a vette, but could be worth checking.

Pfadt Racing

Sounds like after the last alignment the tech didn't tighten one of the eccentric bolts down tight enough. If you're running a class that won't allow you to move to a camber kit, take the advise of the other posters in the thread... you need to REALLY make sure that the eccentrics are really tightened down, that prevents quite a few of the slipping alignment issues we've seen.

That being said, the entire reason we designed our Corvette Camber kit was to eliminate the factory eccentrics and instead set the alignment with shims and plates. By eliminating the eccentrics you eliminate the possiblity of slipping the alignment on track. Just be sure that you can actually use the camber kit within the rule set of the class you're running in. Our camber kit doesn't really increase the amount of alignment achievable over the factory parts, but it does add piece of mind when tracking the car.

jvp

Not to belabor the point, but:

Again, do NOT torque them to spec. Specifically the eccentrics. Put enough torque into them to try and break the bolt (trust me: you won't).

I'm a big fan of paying attention to the service manuals and specs in it, but this is one exception to the rule.

jas

CrvtBB

Thanks for all the advice. Will definitely discuss all with the technician when I take it in next week. He's also thinking it could be a loose rack or steering shaft bolt -- makes sense. Regardless, I'm going to have everything checked out.