Extremely sensitive to alignment and tyre pressure?

If the tire pressure dropped to 34 PSI after the ambient temperature cooled then you have set the cold tire pressure too low. If you set the cold tire pressure at 35 PSI the pressure at operating temperate should be 39 to 40 PSI, you should not adjust the tire pressure during your shift.

You should not adjust/reduce the tire pressure on the side of the car that is parked in the sun, the tires will balance in temperature and pressure shortly after you start driving.

If tire pressure is causing driver discomfort then maybe you have chosen the wrong profession.

I had another thought:

What about swapping tires (tyres) around to see what happens?

First step is to swap front tires. If the pull reverses direction, then the tires are at fault. If the pull doesn’t change direction, then there is something in the vehicle.

Follow that by swapping out one of the fronts for one of the rears (just for experimental purposes.)

Followed by the other side.

Making careful notes may help diagnose what may be going on.

You can test this by rolling a single tire. Looking ahead, lean the tire to the left like a right rear with negative camber or a left rear with positive camber. Push the tire, it will roll to the left.

If the right REAR has more negative camber than the left, the rear of the car will tend to move to the left. That steers the car to the right.

If the right FRONT tire has more negative camber than the left, the car will have a left lead.

I hate to say it, but it sounds to me like this car simply doesn’t track and handle up to your standards. It may be time to go car shopping.

If I were facing the OP’s situation I would inspect the tires and if no problems were apparent rotate them and road test. If the problem remained I would verify the prior alignment results and if correct push the caster out beyond the factory specifications and road test it.

I suspect the tires and vehicle are fine . Me thinks operator malfunction.

And I suspect that something in the suspension/steering is being overlooked or the alignment equipment is out of adjustment. With enough positive caster added to an otherwise factory speck front end the car will track like a big wheel. While I don’t suggest going to an extreme I have moved caster, camber and toe in beyond factory specs to give customers the results they wanted on RWD vehicles with great success. Maybe an OLD, WELL SEASONED front end man can throw some Kentucky windage into the set up and improve the situation… After a close inspection.

Re the wheel not being centered, I never had much respect for a front end man who would charge for alignment and deliver the vehicle with the wheel off center.

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That’s a sure sign of someone who doesn’t know what he’s doing.

I appreciate all the replies tbh it’s frustrating the crap out of me I’ve never had an issue like this before…

Countless alignments countless tyre swaps and still unstable… It continues to pull slightly left and when I hold the steering wheel centered drives to the right… So it’s a juggling act just to stay straight

And tbh I can’t get my head round it surely if there was any issues with suspension or worn parts they wouldn’t be able to align to spec ?

If a customer isn’t happy with an alignment he should return to the shop immediately and have the manager or mechanic drive with him and recognize the problem then find the cause of the problem and correct it then road test the car and verify that the problem is corrected. If it is not corrected 100% of all money paid should be refunded, It ain’t rocket science and failure is not a chargeable procedure.

One poster here mentioned (in another thread I think) that symptom is often associated with a toe setting that is pointed too close to straight ahead. Not enough toe in other words. You’ve got 0/12 total toe front, and 0/24 rear. What’s the spec range for those? If you are on the close-to-dead ahead side of the range, you might try setting a little more toe and see if that helps.

I have it booked in for another alignment check on friday as it must just not be centered properly… i went out this morning with a tape measure and measured back of the front left tyre to back of the front right tyre using the second groove in on both sides and it was 48 and a half.inches… i did the same for the front left tyre to front right tyre and it was almost identical

So there is almost zero toe i take it ? which would mean it’s the steering wheel position that’s throwing me off it isn’t tyre pressure or alignment settings.

could be so as i measured both the front and back of the front tyes and both came out 48 and half inches with about 2/3mm difference at best… so zero toe at front sounds about right.

Is that 2-3 mm difference or 0.6 mm difference? I’ve noticed this ambiguity in your other posts. It reads like 2/3 = 0.6 but I think it’s actually 2 to 3 mm. 0.6 mm is difficult to measure.

sorry i was actually measuring in inches… so if i was to be a little more correct i would say 1/8th of an inch difference.

So the front of the front tyres measures 1/8th of an inch more than the measurement at the back of the tyres.

and even then the accuracy of this method could be thrown off by the tire grooves being slightly uneven or such… but it was a good indicator that the front toe is pretty bang on would you not think ?

So when you say “2/3mm” is means 2-3 mm, not two thirds of a mm ?? there is a big difference…

sorry to be so technical, but I’m trying to clear up a possible misunderstanding.

okay scratch the mm thing as i may be wrong ( shit with measurements…)

i was using the inch end of the measuring stick…

So just go with a 1/8th of a inch difference

which is less than a half a centimeter according to google.

oh yes i just saw what you meant … yes i meant it’s around 2 or 3 mm not two thirds but i can see why you thought i meant that as i used 1/8 of an inch.

I went back to the alignment sheet you published. The rear toe is not even. That will cause a slight pull (Notice the thrust angle!)

In your case, your sensitivity is way beyond the norm and you need to have a vehicle that is relatively insensitive to toe. My best guess is that your vehicle has some bump steer in it. It would not be the first time a car maker didn’t sweat those kinds of details.