jeanmarcboilard

My car has recently started pulling fairly hard to the right when I let go of the steering wheel. It was doing it slightly before but I'm noticing it more since I hit a big pot hole with the front right wheel. Is it likely my front right wheel got toed out a bit?
Is this something that would require a full alignment from a shop or an adjustment I can make at home? I'm good with a wrench but a novice when it comes to alignments.

"02996ttx50

lot of stuff can be done in a home garage, but alignment is best left to those with the proper equipment i would think. yeah, lousy roads, potholes etc, will take it out in a heartbeat.

i would take it to an alignment place for sure.

r6vr6

I would venture to say the tire suffered some damage. You might want to inspect it before getting an alignment done.

jeanmarcboilard

Never thought of that. I'll give it a good inspection.

Fishey

You can check front toe with a tape measure to see what kind of toe numbers toy have. Simply measure in a grove in the front of the tire to a grove in the far side tire. Do the same in the back of the front tire and the difference between the two will give you a toe number. The larger number is up front it's toe out and in rear is toe in.

jeanmarcboilard

Thank you for that explanation. That should also tell me if one wheel is toed in or out more than the other.

911mhawk

A good alignment is nice to drive and one of the best values IMO.
You can certainly measure off the tire tread in front and back of the front wheels and adjust the tie rods. I've done this on lesser cars when I was young and they drove fine.

Fishey

To be fair it will only give you total toe. You can't tell how far off center each side is so yoy can't determine individual toe per side.

Macster

Must have been some pothole. Hit one the other day with the Turbo's left front tire and thought I'd hit a brick wall. I waited for the sounds/feel of a blown tire or a bent wheel but the car was just fine.

Hit an even bigger pothole with my Boxster one night and the car suffered no aftereffects.

If the pulling got worse after the pothole impact the alignment is suspect. I assume the tire pressure is ok?

Best get an alignment then. Tire wear will deteriorate and road noise can increase. Besides, I can't stand a car that pulls to one side or other other.

(After just bumping the front tires against a low sidewalk curb at a hotel parking lot one night. The next day I gave the car a bit of a road test and it didn't pull or act or steer funny so I thought I dodged a bullet. But after some 300 to 400 miles over the next couple of days the road noise got so bad I thought a wheel bearing was bad. I diverted to the OKC Porsche dealer and had the car checked and the tech reported the noise was from the front tires. And he pointed out the wear patterns which I could feel with my hand. The nudge affected the toe of the front tires. I drove home 2K miles and as soon as I could when I got home had the car aligned and after a few hundred miles of "scrubbing in" the noise was gone and tire life was unaffected.)

Oh, let me add if you have the car aligned, be sure when you take the car in for this the fuel tank is full. The manual also calls for the spare and tool kit to be present and properly stowed and the car empty of dead weight (junk).

jeanmarcboilard

I've booked an appointment for an alignment at the nearest Porsche dealer for next week.
Thanks for the tips.

Macster

Be sure to ask the steering wheel be centered -- for some reason this appears to be something that has to be specifically requested vs. just being done as part of the alignment -- and I always like to get the *before* and *after* printout that gives the before and after wheel alignment numbers and shows the settings graphically.

The couple of times I've not gotten one of these the alignment sucked. Read for sucked the rear tires were gone in around 8K miles, worn down to the belts on the inner edges.

Which reminds me I always ask the tech for an alignment that is conducive to good rear (and front) tire life but not at the expense of making the car feel wierd or squirrely on the road even a *high* speed.

The tendency is to give the rear tire toe in vs. a bit of toe out I think. While toe in can seem like the way to go the rear wheels are pulled forward by the motive force being transmitted through them so with a bit of toe out the wheels/tires move into a more straight ahead position when the car is underway. This reduces tire scrubbing and rear tire life can reach even exceed 20K miles with strictly street driving.

(I sometimes engage in spirited driving on mountain roads in the area in which I live but I still avoid driving in such a way I break the rear tires loose. With this engine that is easy to do even with those massively wide rear tires but I don't fancy going through nearly $1000 in rear tires all that often.)

With toe in and the car underway the rear tires/wheels move even further out of alignment and scrubbing of the inner tire edges is the result.

Talk this over with the tech doing the alignment to be sure you get the best alignment based on your wants/needs.

powdrhound

Advising someone to set static toe OUT on the rear wheels is sheer lunacy on our rear engine cars. Very dangerous as the car will be incredibly unstable under hard braking. NO disrespect but where do you come up with this?

Macster

You are right. I mispoke.

I get my toe in (positive) and toe out (negative) reversed.

I just checked an alignment print out from 2013 (the one I had done after the curb bumping incident I mentioned above) and the rear toe setting was set to 10' at each rear wheel. This is the center setting. The range is 10' +/- 5'.

993GT

LOL, I want to drive that car!
Jean-Marc, taking it up to London? IIRC, they can also do a corner balance if needed/in-question.

jeanmarcboilard

Yeah Rob, Porsche of London. Funny thing is, today, I did my first open track day, and afterwards the pull to the right was gone. It stays nice and straight now. I might still keep my appointment, if only to get the current alignment numbers as reference for any future changes.