All,

We recently purchased an '06 G Coupe for my wife and I've got a couple questions for you...First off, the car has staggered 20's, Toyo T1R's (245/35/20 and 275/30/20), aero package, no sport package and the OEM suspension.

When we bought the car 1 month ago (26k miles), it was pulling pretty hard to the right...I took a look at the tire wear and noticed that they obviously had not been rotated in quite some time, and that the camber was setup pretty aggressively.

I took the G over to my tire guy and he did the normal rotation, balance, and alignment...Well, he mentioned that the car was setup 'Toe-In,' and he adjusted it as much as possible but could not completely straighten the wheels out.

Nonetheless, after having him due his job, the G is still pulling to the right, but at a much lesser degree. My question to you...is there a problem? Hell, all I want the car to due is drive straight! Thinking about taking it to an Infiniti dealer and having them adjust the suspension/wheels back to OEM specs. I'm okay with the camber and toe just as long as it drives correctly.

Any input?

Thanks

 

You can not rotate a stagger fitment, well just side to side. If your tires are directional try flipping them on the wheel so you will have the better thread on the inside. Or check if any of your wheels are bent. Balancing barely helps when your car pulls from right or left, balance is just for countering the weight of wheel and tire to eliminate vibrations. When balancing, dynamic balancing is always better then static, and try to avoid counter balancing. Also I do believe that G's/350z come w/ a negative cam. from factory, maybe you just need to get your alignment stats checked. Another reason maybe your tires are bad (work w/ tires from YEARS, I love Michelin (Yes I know its pricey, you pay for what you get))... Number of reason could cause this issue, you just need to isolate it.

 

Let me clarify a little...I did not do a standard rotation. We pulled each tire off the wheel, swapped sides, re-mounted, balanced, etc. So tires are going the correct direction.

Thinking best way to solve the problem is take it to the Infiniti dealer and have the alignment set to OEM specs.

 

do out have a print out of the alignment he did?

If the car is on stock suspension there should be no problem getting it back to stock specs

 

Yes, I do have the print out.

I believe the problem is that I do not know the factory settings and the tire shop tried to adjust the toe to 0%. I now know the G's come Toe-In...and I'll have to review the printout, but I remember him saying one side still remains negative (approx. -1.x% and one completely straigtened out. This could be the reason....

 

can you post the scan out or the numbers?

 

I do have the printout, but not here at work...I will post it when I get home tonight.

 

maybe is the tie rod is bent?

 

Just reviewed the alignment printout...here is the data (all in degrees):

Front Left:
Camber- -.5
Caster- 8.6
Toe- -.10

Front Right:
Camber- -1.5
Caster- 8.4
Toe- .16

Rear Left:
Camber- -1.4
Toe- .02

Rear Right:
Camber- -1.6
Toe- .05

Thrust Angle: 0.0


Any insight from this data???

 

you sure you are on stock suspension?
you should have more than -.5 camber in the front driver side.
front pass side looks good.
camber is not adjustable from the factory. it is what it is.

caster looks great.

front toe needs some work, and is most likely where your problem lies, you have the driver side being -.1 and the pass side being +.16. you need to get them to about .05 on both sides.

rear camber and toe look ok. i would try to get them even though. like -1.5 camber on both sides and .05 - .1 toe on both sides.

from the looks of your numbers, something in the front might be messed up on the driver side. like it was mentioned, one of our rods might be bent. i would take it to the dealer and have them look it over.

 

this is not my alignment, and i would change a few things about it, but it is pretty good.

 

Toe will not cause a car to pull. Your camber is set to pull to the left. The LF tire is at -0.5, which is almost upright. The right side is -1.5, leaning in at the top towards the left.

There are lots of variables here such as brake drag, setback, and such. Assuming the car has never been wrecked and the car doesn't pull under braking, I'd have to say you have what is called a radial tire pull. The cords inside the tire are woud ina way to cause a pull. I just had a car in my shop that had three bad tires. We'd swap tires side to side, front to back and the car would change from a left pull to a right pull.

I know you have directional tires, before going to the dealer and being without a car for a week, swap the front tires left to right and see if the pull changes direction. Don't leave them like that cause they will suck in the rain....

 

start simple and make sure that you have the same air pressure 2 pounds off will cause a pull and if your toe is off that can lead to a pull as well then try the caster thats where your pull will come from those spec,s mean nothing if anything is bent when being aligned make sure they are laser aligning it and not useing the camber&caster gauge there not always correct

 

Thanks for all the input. I'm going to have another shop look at the alignment and try to figure out what's up with the front left...Going to check to make sure everything is straight and will have the camber and toe evened out. If this doesn't do it, it has to be the tires.

 

Also check the ball joints and Hub bearing...they could be bad