Compliance pivots causing alignment issues

[Sma]

Hello good folks of Prime!

Has anyone heard of our compliance pivots (51370-SL0-000, 51380-SL0-000) going bad and causing alignment issues? While driving straight ahead, by steering wheel is annoyingly about 10 degrees off to the left. The shop I went to said they kept setting the alignment, taking it for a test drive, and having it shift around. They isolated the trouble to the compliance pivots (see red marks on the pictures), and they need to be replaced. Before spend $2k on new parts, has anyone else heard of this problem? Is there a cheaper solution than a complete replacement of the pivots? Any way to refurb the pivots? Perhaps a set non-compliance clamps?

Some (perhaps) relevant info on my NSX:

• Car does not pull either direction when driving, and seems to handle ok still.
• 1992, 5sp
• 115,000 miles
• Lowered on Eibach springs
• Steering rack, inner & outer rod ends replaced by previous owner at 94,000mi in 2009. He says the old steering rack seemed to have excessive friction, so he ordered a new one. The new one had the same characteristics, making him believe the old rack was not actually an issue.
• This NSX has been in at least one front-end collision in the past.

?

51370-SL0-000

 

[NSXGB]

Were you given a measurement of what angle they are at the moment? When did you first notice the steering wheel being off?
It is my understanding that they wouldn't cause that issue unless there is a big difference between each side.
I had a similar problem a few years back and it turned out to be the tires. The tires were Goodyear GGSD3's of the same age, correct size, pressure, etc. But one seemed to drag more than the other for some strange reason. Had a few different shops check the alignment which was spot on, but magically my steering wheel straightened when I put new tires on.
It is concerning that you say the car has been in an accident but has the wheel always been off?
Can you try a pair of front wheels from another local owner?
BTW, are they saying the compliance pivots need replacing because they cannot adjust them? I would try unbolting them and freeing them up before spending that much $$$.

 

[darock]

on the second picture, the left bolt looks strange. Why is that not centered?

Post the printout of the allignment. Most of the time they mess up something they than blame some random part for.

If the car is properly alligned, the steering wheel points straight.

I had one bent rim on my daily civic which made the car pull to the left even with propper alignment. swapped rims and it was gone.

Bernhard

 

[Kaz-kzukNA1]

First, please double check the tyre pressure just before carrying out the alignment.
Then, check the side slip.

Unless you use dynamic alignment facility that some of the race teams use, most of the time, you are relying on the static alignment platform.
It’s measuring the static wheel angle against the virtual centre line/plain of the chassis.
It won’t compensate for the side slip.

Compliance pivot will affect the caster angle and strictly speaking, the wheel base length but won’t cause pulling.

Quite often, I see caster adjuster being seized when carrying out the alignment session.

It's always good practice to shake the front and rear of the chassis by applying force to bounce the car before carrying out the adjustment and look for the SAI figure especially if one's NSX has been involved in an accident.
SAI can't be adjusted without replacing the chassis frame parts and it will change everytime when you bounce the car so no single reference. It can tell the health of front end of one's NSX.


Kaz

 

[Sma]

Thanks for the input everyone! I'll try and answer your questions.

NSXGB: I first noticed the off-center steering wheel issue right after getting a fresh set of tires (Sumitomo HTR Z III 275/30R19 and 215/35R18) , wheel repair (TSW Thruxton), and alignment last year (attached picture is of that alignment). Previous to that I never noticed any alignment issues, the steering wheel was previously on-center. After last year's alignment I immediately took the car back because the steering wheel was off by something like 30 degrees. The shop apologized and got it closer to correct, but told me that after setting the alignment, it would "settle" once driven and continue to be off.

The shop seemed to be able to adjust the compliance pivots, but not able to keep them at adjusted points. Notice the red marks indicating movement of the part.

I might be asking a lot, but I could maybe try and borrow a set of front wheels from a local NSX owner. Both owners I can think of are great, helpful people.

Bernhard: I'm not sure what's up with that un-centered bolt. I could check it out tomorrow. It's pretty plausible a rim is bent again, I seem to always hit the bad potholes extremely hard. It probably doesn't help to have such low profile rubber with the 19/18" wheels and lowered setup. I don't notice any gratuitous shaking or other signs of a bent rim though.

Kaz: I'm pretty confident it's not the tire pressure, thanks for mentioning it though. I check the pressure very frequently. I'll be extra sure next attempted alignment though.

How/where would I check side-slip?


Thanks again for the help! I'm pretty new to alignments.

 

[duncan]

Your car dos'n't pull to the left or the right.
The tracking print out is in spec, but your steering wheel is 10 degrees off centre.
So it's just that the steering wheel isn't dead ahead when you're driving in a straight line.
If that's the case, just go back to your tracking people, have them set the steering wheel to dead ahead and then adjust the tracking; wind one side in and the other side out equal amounts.
Or am I missing something?

 

[Jinks]

Correct me if I am wrong here anyone,but the non compliance "pivot" assembly is made specifically to pivot right?Which is why you have grooves in the pivot assembly, so it can move. That should be normal from looking at the pics in my opinion. But I never really looked at mine that well. It just always baffled me as to what it truly does as no other car seems to have this.:smile:

 

[docjohn]

bump for an interesting bit of engineering by Honda for nsx....

 

[asylum]

The problem comes from the fact that before the alignment, he had a very very bad rear toe setting : highly negative on the left, highly positive on the right. With the right alignment, the steering wheel is not centered anymore (he had to turn it to the left now, which is logical as it was ok with negative toe rear left and positive toe rear right). Just align the steering wheel !