Geometry adjustment questions

[TomekGnomek]

Hi, my car was often leaning to the right since delivery day.
After 5-6k kms my dealer did full suspension geometry (you can do that under warranty up to 10k kms).
It showed some red values before (out of factory) and all green after.
The car was super stable after that and I think the consumption was a bit better.

However... the steering wheel was left off center, meaning it was slightly turned when driving straight.
I went to correct this, they lifted the car and adjusted something manually without re-doing the geometry.
The steering wheel was centered but the car started leaning to the right.
So they did a reset of "steering wheel angle sensor" - whatever that is, it was off by 0,5 deg.
After this the steering wheel is center and the car does not lean to the right.

However... it does not keep a straight line as it used to and require some minor wheel adjustments.
It's very very subtle and it's hard to detect during city driving but becomes noticeable at higher speeds.

Is it possible that centering the steering wheel this way changed the geometry, should I insist on redoing it? What's this steering wheel angle sensor, at first they did not reset it and were surprised it's required.

Problem is it's very subtle and a lot of this process is left to driver's impressions (like is the wheel centered or not? does the car lean or not? it could be windy, the road is not leveled, some effects you notice only driving 140km/h on highway etc). The dealer is helpful but I get the impression they don't see the problem. What i'm thinking is perhaps due to the weight of the car it's more susceptible to these issues and test driving it for 5 mins on city roads during traffic is not conclusive.

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[sloubere]

I’d check that tire pressure is spot on between left and right wheels.

 

[TomekGnomek]

Thx that was my first thought and its ok

 

[dgkhn]

Tomek, if I may help with American English: by "leaning to the right" I believe you intend to say "pulling to the right", and by "geometry" I think you mean "alignment". That said, over the years, I too have had frustrations with alignments messing up a car''s straight ahead behavior, and being told there's nothing wrong. I suspect that if you are feeling it, subtle or not, it's probably real. My suggestion is you insist on a new alignment.

 

[ColdCase]

I would also check how the tires have worn. When the alignment was off, it could have worn one tire unevenly. And after the realignment, and it being spot on, the uneven tire could pull a bit. Perhaps it will straighten out, but my experience is that once a tire wears unevenly there is no fixing it short of shaving it..

 

[TomekGnomek]

Update for those interested...

I went back and asked for a full re-alignment. They test drove the car, did notice the steering was a bit off. After the re-alignment was done correctly steering was still not perfect so they kept the car overnight and did some experiments with other set of wheels.

Finally they switched my tires left/right and after this and the re-alignment steering is Porsche-perfect. Now the steering precision and stability is soooo good I'm smiling

I've learned some things on the way that might be helpful to you:
- the alignment procedure and the steering calibration is a bit different on this car, not sure how but it was not what they were used to and apologized for the problem
- any alignment problems will very quickly mess with your tires given the weight of the car; the uneven wear in my case was after ~3000 kms on brand new winter tires (some of it on highways with speeds over 140km/h)
- it's important to have NE0 certified tires; if I didn't have them, this wouldn't be handled under warranty; in fact some dealers flag cars with non-certified tires so that when you come back with this kind of problem (or suspension issues) you may be denied coverage
- if you have any alignment issues this is fixable under warranty up to 10.000 kms and apparently it's quite common for brand new cars to have alignment problems due to transportation; so given this and the fact it quickly messes up your tires it's best to have it check if you suspect any issues

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