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Veering to the Right - 2015 Hyundai Sonata Long-Term Road Test

Edmunds.comEdmunds.com Member, Administrator, Moderator Posts: 10,315
edited July 2015 in Hyundai
imageVeering to the Right - 2015 Hyundai Sonata Long-Term Road Test

Our 2015 Hyundai Sonata sedan has a tendency to veer to the right on the highway. We took it to a tire shop to have it checked out.

Read the full story here


Comments

  • s197gts197gt Member Posts: 486
    edited July 2015
    it should be standard practice to receive a printout of the alignment readings before and after. the fact that it isn't makes me believe that a lot of people are getting ripped off on alignments. not saying that happened in this case. my mazda dealer wanted to charge me $90 for an alignment on our 60k mile CX-9. i declined but wished i would have asked him if i would be charged if they found it was still within spec?
  • kirkhilles1kirkhilles1 Member Posts: 863
    Agreed to the printout. Our Honda dealer gave us a nice printout with the figures and red/green colors with statuses. I realize most tire shops won't, but you know what? If you're paying $90 for an alignment, you deserve to have a written analysis. Our 40k mile Pilot was out of spec too when we got an alignment with new tires.
  • reminderreminder Member Posts: 383
    If a vehicle is "pulling" or "drifting" and you have to constantly correct it, you have a an alignment issue.
    Apparently the Boyz that put this new Sonata together missed the rear end.
  • thecardoc3thecardoc3 Member Posts: 5,742
    reminder said:

    If a vehicle is "pulling" or "drifting" and you have to constantly correct it, you have a an alignment issue.
    Apparently the Boyz that put this new Sonata together missed the rear end.

    A toe angle problem in or out DOES NOT cause a vehicle to pull or lead. Toe angle issues can cause the greatest tire wear when compared to other alignment errors but that isn't what has been described in this article. Even if the rear toe angle was incorrect by only one wheel out of spec the result is the vehicle dog-tracks to the centerline of the total rear toe (the thrust angle) and that results in a steering wheel that is off center, which again isn't what the article reports.
    s197gt said:

    it should be standard practice to receive a printout of the alignment readings before and after. the fact that it isn't makes me believe that a lot of people are getting ripped off on alignments. not saying that happened in this case. my mazda dealer wanted to charge me $90 for an alignment on our 60k mile CX-9. i declined but wished i would have asked him if i would be charged if they found it was still within spec?

    Pretty interesting that you have to bring up the concern about rip-offs and then turn around and in the same breath apparently want something for nothing. Now granted there are a lot of mismanaged shops (predominately chain stores) that make their people do "free checks" which usually means that the employee isn't properly paid for his/her time that has to be invested if at all. When you are ready to we can talk about the practice of such shops giving their employee's time away for free if they don't find something to sell.

    A print-out would be nice right now, but really not necessary. Rotate the tires back to their original positions and see what happens.
  • dgcamerodgcamero Member Posts: 148
    Wouldn't an alignment be free from the dealer since the car has less than 12k miles?
  • s197gts197gt Member Posts: 486
    edited July 2015


    Pretty interesting that you have to bring up the concern about rip-offs and then turn around and in the same breath apparently want something for nothing.

    HOW DARE I?!!!

    the business that doesn't feel the need to nickle and dime their customer is the business that gets my loyalty.

    i'm a born and bred capitalist... but greed is not good.


    Now granted there are a lot of mismanaged shops (predominately chain stores) that make their people do "free checks" which usually means that the employee isn't properly paid for his/her time that has to be invested if at all. When you are ready to we can talk about the practice of such shops giving their employee's time away for free if they don't find something to sell.

    A print-out would be nice right now, but really not necessary. Rotate the tires back to their original positions and see what happens.

    i get the sense you are one of those "my way or the highway" kind of guys...

  • s197gts197gt Member Posts: 486
    edited July 2015



    A toe angle problem in or out DOES NOT cause a vehicle to pull or lead.

    "Rear axle steer. The front wheels are with alignment specifications but the vehicle pulls to one side. The underlying cause may be rear toe out of specifications,..."

    http://www.aa1car.com/library/steerpul.htm

    "When the rear tires toe in or out unevenly, tracking will be changed. For instance if the left rear wheel toes out 1/8 inch and the right toes in the same amount. Total rear toe will be zero, but the vehicle will track off to the left. With a straight frame and unibody, rear alignment is always the cause of improper tracking."

    http://www.agcoauto.com/content/news/p2_articleid/175

    visual:
    http://www.agcoauto.com/content/images/suspension/wheel_alignment_toe.jpg
    ------

    where, exactly, did you get your doctorate?
  • thecardoc3thecardoc3 Member Posts: 5,742
    Let's see you found that on the web, and they can't put anything on the web that isn't correct. Right?

    Try these sites instead.

    http://www.hunter.com/training
    and
    http://www.ctionline.com/

    The original article linked to Tire Rack and they had thrust angle explained correctly as well.
    http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=4

    I mentioned thrust angle. A rear toe issue that isn't equally divided between the rear wheels will cause the vehicle to "dog-track" which from the drivers perspective results in the steering wheel being off center, but it again does not cause a pull or lead. Claims that toe angle issues cause a pull or lead from either the front or rear axle are a myth. The fact that you can find a quote from someone who should know better but got it wrong only means that the subject is more complicated and demands more training then most take it to be.

    BTW rear toe that is simply out of spec but equal side to side causes the tires to scrub when going straight ahead and get's really complex when turning especially if the vehicle is designed with passive rear wheel steering.

    From Tire Racks linked article An incorrect thrust angle is often caused by an out-of-position axle or incorrect toe settings. So in addition to the handling quirks that are the result of incorrect toe settings, thrust angles can also cause the vehicle to handle differently when turning one direction vs. the other.

    You used this link, http://www.agcoauto.com/content/images/suspension/wheel_alignment_toe.jpg

    For all of that effort they didn't draw the centerline of the car and show how the total rear toe causes a thrust angle which would tend to move the rear of the car to the left. The result is that straight ahead from inside the car also has the front wheels be turned towards the left as well. That would result once again in the wheel being off center and not a pull or lead. An alignment correction could be done in the rear which could bring the thrust angle back to the centerline of the car and then the front toe reset to specs with the wheel in the straight ahead position, or the front toe only could be reset leaving the thrust angle present (especially if the rear isn't adjustable) and that would end up with the steering wheel straight.

    http://www.cdxetextbook.com/steersusp/wheelsTires/alignFund/thrustangles.html

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