I had an alignment done wednesday because my HHR was pulling to the left. The dealer said they had to elongate the left strut to correct the camber, but the alignment still isn't fixed, in fact it may be slightly worse than before, and now the steering wheel doesn't center itself like it did.

There are about 9170 miles on it, and the tires were rotated in May about 1k ago. I just called the dealer to report the status, and they said either my tires need to be rotated or my tires are bad... sounds like BS to me.

Any insights out there? I'll be taking it back on monday.

 

@Dracos, I’m sorry to read about this. I would talk with another dealership about this as to get a second opinion.

I hope you have a wonderful New Year’s Eve celebrating and be safe.

Michelle, Chevrolet Customer Service
I’ll be out of the office from 4:30pm EST today through 01/01/13.

 

I would take it to a different dealer to be honest.

But I have to ask has the car hit any curbs or been in an accident? With such little miles the camber should not be out.

 

The camber is not adjustable, must be something wrong in there, I would take it to Firestone, but I'm out of warranty.

I did adjust my camber, but I installed a camber cam bolt to do it.

 

As said, to adjust camber you need a camber kit, which is not a big deal to install. If it were mine I would take it to a good frame and front end shop. Hopefully there is one near you, there is one about two miles from me, that has been run by the same family since the mid-fifties, in the same location. They are reasonable, honest, and can deal with almost any front end or frame problem.

 

What caught my eye, was your statement:"they had to elongate the left strut" WTH! If they elongated the mounting holes,you should be p----d. Not the way to correct this.
First action should have been to determine why it was out of spec. Second should have been to try to use a camber bolt kit.
Sounds like they don't know what they're doing. No way I would take it back to that dealer. I would find another shop to handle this.
I would also look at getting that strut replaced and let the original dealer pay for it.

 

Agree with Laco and Fireman....

Determine the amount of DAMAGE the dealer did to the strut in "elongating" it. If need be, have a new strut installed and have the camber kit installed, then a new REAL alignment. If no damage was done to the strut, omit the new one BUT install the camber kit with an alignment.

Shame on the original dealer. GM makes a camber kit for this kind of job. Apparently they had no knowledge of it (or were just lazy). But that is no excuse for an alignment from a "professional" alignment tech at a dealer.

By the way GM's camber kit is about $25.00. Aftermarket kits start at about $15.00.

 

I have driven 3 different HHRs and all of them wanted to go to the left. Not really a pull more of a persistent wander (not torque steer). I had my new 2011 re aligned at Carmax and I think there is a bit of a difference, at least the steering wheel is now almost straight. All 3 of them also had the steering wheel turned about 4 degrees to the left, just enough to annoy me.

I am waiting for the explanation of "strut elongation". Did they do a body pull? Maybe they meant they elongated the hole to install a camber kit?

 

They elongate the hole to adjust camber but it is an obsolete method now that camber bolts are so prevelant.

 

My steering wheel would center before I took it in, now it's 4 to 5 degrees to the right and the car pulls to the left a little more than before.