Tracking And Alignment For Cts

[Lee_G]

Hi guys, I'm afraid i need to call on your wisdom once again.....

I'm expierencing a slight pull to the left on the steering wheel of my CTS, in its resting state the wheel feels weighted to the left ever so slightly. I can cope with it but its a little annoying...

Driving straight on flat ground....the car pulls to the right. Any ideas of how this can be corrected (e.g alignment or tracking) and if so any ideas of cost for the CTS....I think i would prefer a dealer to do the work but a little unsure???? HELP!!!!!

[rolley]

Hi guys, I'm afraid i need to call on your wisdom once again.....

I'm expierencing a slight pull to the left on the steering wheel of my CTS, in its resting state the wheel feels weighted to the left ever so slightly. I can cope with it but its a little annoying...

Driving straight on flat ground....the car pulls to the right. Any ideas of how this can be corrected (e.g alignment or tracking) and if so any ideas of cost for the CTS....I think i would prefer a dealer to do the work but a little unsure???? HELP!!!!!

Whats the tread like on your tyres? Check the outside wall, the middle and the inside of the fronts. If its uneven Mr T will recommend a Geometry Check. Basically an alignment and visual check and adjustment of the suspension. As for price on it! It can vary. Had two Mr T garages quote me one charged £80 another was nearer £150!

Mine had really bad outer wall scrubing, was the result of the tyres toe-ing. Can't remember which way in or out. All I know is a brand new set of boots on the car now and they haven't done it yet!

[Lee_G]

Hi guys, I'm afraid i need to call on your wisdom once again.....

I'm expierencing a slight pull to the left on the steering wheel of my CTS, in its resting state the wheel feels weighted to the left ever so slightly. I can cope with it but its a little annoying...

Driving straight on flat ground....the car pulls to the right. Any ideas of how this can be corrected (e.g alignment or tracking) and if so any ideas of cost for the CTS....I think i would prefer a dealer to do the work but a little unsure???? HELP!!!!!

Whats the tread like on your tyres? Check the outside wall, the middle and the inside of the fronts. If its uneven Mr T will recommend a Geometry Check. Basically an alignment and visual check and adjustment of the suspension. As for price on it! It can vary. Had two Mr T garages quote me one charged £80 another was nearer £150!

Mine had really bad outer wall scrubing, was the result of the tyres toe-ing. Can't remember which way in or out. All I know is a brand new set of boots on the car now and they haven't done it yet!

Thanks for the speedy reply rolley. To be honest i've just had all the wheels off recently to spruce up the calipers and cannot find any uneven tread wear??? I'd though about the geometry check anyways to be honest - on the other hand i was thinking of lowering springs and bigger wheels shortly - so my question now is do you think it would be better waiting until i get these parts to have the geometry check??? thanks again.

[T128]

£80 and £150 you are joking dont take your car in toyota dealer's to sort out alignment, just take it to anywhere have 4 wheel's computer alignment machine when they are done you will get a print out before and after alignment been adjust it shouold cost around £45-£60 max.

if you are going to lower the car wait till you done that before you go for a alignment otherwise you might have to get it down twice.

by the way i think everyone with E12 COROLLA should take note the rear alignment CANNOT be adjust no matter how small or large your rear alignment is out by.

[T Sport 1978]

Hi guys, I'm afraid i need to call on your wisdom once again.....

I'm expierencing a slight pull to the left on the steering wheel of my CTS, in its resting state the wheel feels weighted to the left ever so slightly. I can cope with it but its a little annoying...

Driving straight on flat ground....the car pulls to the right. Any ideas of how this can be corrected (e.g alignment or tracking) and if so any ideas of cost for the CTS....I think i would prefer a dealer to do the work but a little unsure???? HELP!!!!!

T128 is right, i have just had tracking and alignment done for 24.99 along with 4 new Toyo Proxes (£51 each from Mytyres.com)... All done for an absolute bargain.

[rolley]

Yeah even Mr T can't do anything about that rear alignment!!!

A bit strange!!!

[T128]

24.99 thats a really good price do you know if is 4 wheel's computer alignment and your toyo are good price too i pay 80 include vat for my toyo t1-R 205/16/50 about 14 month's ago.

Yeah even Mr T can't do anything about that rear alignment!!!

A bit strange!!!

since i aint got warrnety on my car anymore and i am trap with this car i might aswell let the cat out of the bag

ever wonder why our E12 rear steps out during hard cornering even after the car been lower,it is because toyota cut cost by using soild rear beam and not independent suspension's which is why our corolla get beat (even after it has been lower) by stardard celica cornering all day long ,simply because celica has independent suspention setup.

we all now need to spend big money to sort out the handing on the rear .

[T Sport 1978]

24.99 thats a really good price do you know if is 4 wheel's computer alignment and your toyo are good price too i pay 80 include vat for my toyo t1-R 205/16/50 about 14 month's ago.

The proxes are great tyres aren't they? Grips very well in the wet. The original Bridgestones were quite hopeless in the wet.

The tracking was fronts only mate.

Yeah, my 195/55/R16 87V were 51 each including delivery... The internet has put an end to me getting ripped off!

[T128]

The internet has put an end to me getting ripped off!

:D :D :D :D :D

yes toyo are the best all my friend's have them the semi-slick are pretty good too so my friend's tell's me

T Sport 1978 aslong you are not a old man you should come out and hang it'll be nice for me seening another cts.

[T Sport 1978]

The internet has put an end to me getting ripped off!

:D :D :D :D :D

yes toyo are the best all my friend's have them the semi-slick are pretty good too so my friend's tell's me

T Sport 1978 aslong you are not a old man you should come out and hang it'll be nice for me seening another cts.

Haha, like a car gang? terrorising corsa's and escorts?

[T128]

Haha, like a car gang? terrorising corsa's and escorts?

not quite a gang cos we aint cheap boy racer's we are just people who have different car's talking crap's and take the p out of each other :D :D :D .

[Zuban]

As stated the rear alignment cant be done, and if its out, then something is broken, the rear alignment also wont be affected by lowering the car.

What is not correct is that the rear suspension design is some kind of problem, it is a compromise in favour of space over anything else, allowing for a low floor etc. Independent suspension designs such as the double wishbones on the last gen celica, are never truly independent, each side is connected by an antiroll bar, so the force on one side, will affect the other.

The corolla does not use a solid rear beam axle. It uses an H beam design, basically a set of trailing arms, connected by a solid beam just less than half way from the trailing arms mounting point to the wheel hub, both sides are semi independent.

The cts has handling problems due to soft springs, soft antiroll bars and a high ride height. Simply using lowering springs may give the impression of better handling over smooth surfaces but the chances are thanks to the resulting mismatch between spring and damper, and the fact that the stock shocks are to long in design to be effective with much lowering, the handling will be worse when pushed hard.

A cts on coilovers, with uprated antiroll bars will be a good match for a celica with the same mods, and would make a mockery of a stock celica. The celica is always going to have the ultimate edge when both are tweaked like for like, but the majority of drivers will not be able to exploit any small advantage.

As for tyres i'd also reccomend toyo T1r's for road use just dont take em on track :!Removed!:

[T128]

As stated the rear alignment cant be done, and if its out, then something is broken, the rear alignment also wont be affected by lowering the car.

if rear alignment are out dont mean something is broken just cos the alignment computer say is out,the real way to know is look at your rear tyre's wear,if the rear are showing uneven tyre wear's then it need's to be repaired if it dont then you dont need to worry about it.

i dont think i said corolla use "solid rear beam axle" if i want to get technical i will copy from a book,all people need to know is our corolla is not using indepedent multi-link rear setup this is why we cant adjust the rear and toyota use soild beam type rear suspention setup to cut cost.

lets face it celica owner dont need to spend £1500 to get some sort of reasonable good handling and i dont care what anyone say when it come's down to it indepedent mutil-link suspention setup all round are much more superior then the soild beam crap we've got and it can never be as good no matter what.

[Zuban]

I wasnt having a go at you T128, my apologies if it seemed that way, there was no need to get defensive, i merely wanted to give my opinion based on what i learned during my time as a cts owner.

if rear alignment are out dont mean something is broken just cos the alignment computer say is out,the real way to know is look at your rear tyre's wear,if the rear are showing uneven tyre wear's then it need's to be repaired if it dont then you dont need to worry about it.

I'm not sure what you mean by that, its confusing, and sounds like your agreeing with me.

i dont think i said corolla use "solid rear beam axle" if i want to get technical i will copy from a book,all people need to know is our corolla is not using indepedent multi-link rear setup this is why we cant adjust the rear and toyota use soild beam type rear suspention setup to cut cost.

You didnt say "solid rear beam axle", that was a mistake on my part using the word "axle" on the end. Solid rear beam could conjure up images of a design which is basic and innefective. Which the design on the corolla is not, it is carefully designed to flex and behave in a certain way, it is still independent. What you lose over a multi link setup, if we take the celica for example is dynamic toe control, where the rear tyres toe in or out depending on loading, to effect turn in and stability under braking. Whilst it is correct the corolla setup is never going to be as good, the multilink on the celica was used more for the better driver experience it provided than cornering speed. I suggest if you want to get technical you dont copy from a book, as if you dont understand it, your likely to copy the wrong information.

lets face it celica owner dont need to spend £1500 to get some sort of reasonable good handling and i dont care what anyone say when it come's down to it indepedent mutil-link suspention setup all round are much more superior then the soild beam crap we've got and it can never be as good no matter what.

A set of coilovers and uprated rear antiroll bar for the corolla could be had for around £700, the handling would be transformed dramatically, to the point where the majority of people will not be able to exploit its full cornering ability's on a public road.

The corolla suspension design I agree is never going to be as good as a multilink design, but in practice, it is never as much of a problem as people make out, the stock shocks/springs and rollbars on the cts are simply shocking, people blame the design of the suspension instead, but they tend to be people who have not been in a cts with coilovers etc.

[T128]

i dont think i was being defensive :)

i have look in to this for almost 15 month's with toyota GB and and a independent expert and elite wheels and alloys they all check out my car regarding the rear alignment what i wrote is what option i had from toyota GB which is no tyre's wear no need to fixed and everyone seens to agree.

700 for shock's and spring to buy and who is gonna to fitted for us for free ?

once the above is done what about front and rear strut bar's ,after that will need will to change front and rear bottom bar's the cts will be able to take corner's and bend's that people are looking for i work out about 1500. :)

[Zuban]

What your suggesting there for 1500 would be just about the ultimate setup, but a set of tein's could be had for about 500, an uprated rear roll bar for about 100, ok it'd be tight to get those fitted for 100 :P I am lucky as my mechanic charges 25 quid an hour, 4 hours is plenty of time to do fit those, I did my own it wasnt a hard job.

Just the coilovers and antiroll bar alone make such a massive difference as to tottally transform the car, without changine anything else, apart from it looking the same you'd swear it wasnt the same car.

I agree though ultimatly you'd want to brace it up, with strut braces and lower tie bars to allow the new suspension to work at its best.

[T128]

i believe is all about balance when it come's to handling.

25 quid an hour thats really good price you are lucky to have a mechanic who charge you a honest rate.

[linty264]

Has anyone got any suggestions and websites for anti roll bars for the CTS? any help appreciated

[Zuban]

Has anyone got any suggestions and websites for anti roll bars for the CTS? any help appreciated

Any whiteline dealer should be able to get you an antiroll bar, such as fensport.

One of the problems I found on my cts was under hard cornering, even with coilovers, the back end would roll to much, squating down on the outside rear wheel, this had the effect of lifting the inside front wheel, reducing front end grip, a rear antiroll bar should sort this nicely

[linty264]

Yeah saw those didnt know much about the make tbh. thx will consider them

[Snert]

Coming late to this thread guys, sorry, but thought I should throw in my 2p worth.

Wifes MX5 was wearing the outer edge of a tyre and she reported she nearly 'lost it' on a roundabout so I took it for a run. It didn't feel right so I went to the mx5 forums and asked for advice.

Geometry check was the reply, not allignment as done by Kwik Fit etc, so I booked it into Star Performance locally and the guy took 2 hours to set the car up. Cost £80.

Result, amazing, totally different car to drive, the proverbial go cart feeling. The mx5 has almost fully adjustable suspension all round meaning I could specify how I wanted the car to respond, understeer, oversteer etc

I take onboard the trailing arm on the TS not being adjustable comments but I know where I'll be taking the TS for a geometry check if anything un-toward appears in the handling.

£25 for a tyre services spanner monkey to play at being a mechanic with my allignment or £80 to get the job done by a specialist? sounds like a no-brainer to me.

This is an interesting site for suspension geometry if you're interested http://www.wheels-inmotion.co.uk/

Snert