Ok heres the deal....2002 C5...installed new tires a few months ago and had car aligned....started drifting to the right a bit. No unusual tire wear and everything suspension wise looks good. It has gotten worse so I took it to another place this past week and the guy said the toe was off by 1 degree and he made the adjustment..car was in spec. I took it for a drive still drifts right. Guy made an adjustment and it still drifts right.

Mentioned the possibility of a bad tire "radial pull" and since anything is possible today I swapped the front tires side to side as an experiment and went for a short drive....no change ao I put them back as they were.

At this point I am thinking possible suspension issue maybe a bad shock although none appear to be leaking.

Tuesday I am going to my buddies shop and we are gonna put it on the lift and give it a closer look. We are also going to put on a totally different set of front wheels (same size) and see if it behaves the same way.


Thoughts? suggestions? stupid replies?

 

4 wheel....never done a 2 wheel on any of the Vettes...valid question though

 

 

nope...

up until this time we ran Toyo Proxes R1 on it and they stopped making them so we went with BFG KDWs like I have been running on my 99 for years...

this place did the last alignment no issues....we even skipped the alignment with the last set.

I find it hard to believe that changing brands of tires could cause this issue

 

Care to post the alignment numbers? "Within spec" means nothing on a C5. You have to be both within spec and equal on both sides. Big difference compared to just getting within spec.

 

i wouldnt be beyond questioning the quality of the alignment shop here, either. after getting 3 alignments all resulting in 3 different negative results, i had MTI give me a completely manual alignment using just tools and no Hunter machine, no wireless transmitters, etc, and its NEVER felt like this before.

i was so impressed that i went and bought the same tools just to double check alignment results. i dont intend to do all of my alignments from now on (kind of a pain getting it in the air, on ramps, rotating, etc for the price) but i DO intend to double check numbers.

 

So today I took it to Powertech Performance in St Pete and had my buddy Joe put it on the lift to look for any worn suspension issues or something I was missing and to go ahead and install new front tires. During the inspection we observed nothing broken leaking or otherwise out of the ordinary however we did find the cam bolts in the control arms to be very loose...so loose that it took Joe 5 turns of the torque wrench to get them properly tightened

So I drove the car home and it is already worlds better but still a little off. I called the place that did the work and said I needed to come back in first thing tomorrow so they could fix the problem and the girl said could get there at 7:30. Fine. Not 5 minutes later the manager called me back and started with, "we need you to leave the care here because my alignment guy doesn't get in till 8:30 and he has other stuff to do besides deal with this issue all day ...."

I told him I was NOT leaving the car there all day and if his guy would have done the job correctly the first time I wouldn't be coming back at all...he started in again and I cut him off advising him that his guy didn't even tighten the bolts properly and I was giving him a chance to fix the problem or he could refund my money and I would go elsewhere.

Silence.....then he said " fine come in tomorrow and I will cut you a check.....so you can go to the dealer...."

In other words we don't stand behind our work.

I won't be going to the dealer I will be going where I should have went in the first place. Its just 30 miles as opposed to 5 miles from home.

I already called them and got a 9:30 appointment.

 

So who is doing it? Mine is due after lowering at PowerTech.

 

wish i could say im surprised. in the last 5 years ive spent ~$8000 at shops in work that was either wrong, had to be redone, or went to work resulting in legal matters to recover costs. ill literally wreck my engine before taking it to a shop these days, because at least where i am, no matter the reputation, im better off doing it twice: learning the first time and doing it right the second!

Reese *** @ MTI swears that alignments are the most fraudulent maintenance item that exists for cars. he said 85% of the alignments you get will be off .1-.4 on all measurements! im a believer after he handled my ride.

 

I will PM you...I took my 99 there last time I needed it done and I should have just went there this time.

 

Never mind, re-read your post and you already swapped the two front tires. Missed it the first time.

Maybe borrow a set of tires from someone else and see if that fixes it????

For the alignment I took it to the dealership. They have a corvette specialist there and I preferred a specialist.

 

I used to have a service writer years ago at the dealership that I trusted with my cars to make sure my car was taken care of but no more after he left on one occasion I heard them romping on my car on a back street behind the dealer on a test drive (hey jackass the car has a cam, blower and Borla exhaust I know what it sounds like) and it was their "Corvette Specialist" doing the driving.

 

I was having some warranty work done to a fan on mine a few years ago. The service area was in the back, but I found a spot that I could see what they were doing. It went pretty well until they were done. Then they did a burnout and parked it.

I complained to the service manager and she told me that is how they check to see if the fan rubs the housing or not. Complete BS! When the service tech and the service manager both think this is routine I never went back. I hate the stealerships.

 

Got here at 915 they took me right away..hopefully an hour from now I will be good to go

 

One more thought, my tire guy told me that if the car is aligned with a bad tire on it can affect the alignment. So even replacing the tires *may* not fix it, if a tire is the problem.

 

alignments are done to the spec of the wheels, not the tires. if the alignment was done on a moving vehicle this would be valid. correct me if im wrong, but i dont see it.

 

I was skeptical also, but it's what he said. It may or may not be true.

 

If I'm not mistaken, the tires are off the ground when the alignment is performed.

 

Pretty sure you're mistaken; it would be difficult to gauge where the wheels are position in relation to ground, when they aren't on the ground.

 

No, the tires are not off the ground. the full weight of the vehicle is on the tires, which could cause a small error I suppose if there's some play in the suspension.