went to a leschwab recently for an alignment check and fix, my car was pulling to the left. after “fixing” it, it quickly reverted itself back and so i went in again. they said it might not be the alignment that’s off but the “caster.” tried googling and didn’t understand what it was telling me.
help understanding appreciated.
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Caster is a dimension of adjustment that “alignment” should set. Caster is the angle around which the tire steers left vs right. It is what helps a car tend to return to “going straight”, measured in the “going straight” direction. Camber is the angle in the “left to right” direction.
The alignment should have set it to the manufacturer’s spec. If it won’t stay in that setting, something else is wrong in your suspension. If you have front struts, you might have a strut mounting problem or one might be bent.
Caster is what makes the car return to straight when steering left or right. Like shopping cart wheels. It’s an angle they can measure, but on most vehicles it is not adjustable without changing parts.
My English skills about technics is really bad so sorry if I’m not able to get all the words right but the suspension of your car has many many parts that have to be in the right angles and everything to make your car go straight. If one of these parts gets damaged or renewed with a part that is slightly longer or shorter they’re not perfectly aligned anymore and need to be aligned. But not every car has all parts „alignable“. Some manufacturers cut costs and complexity by making these parts „fix“. Under normal circumstances this would never be a problem because they’re usually always perfectly straight. But if these parts get damaged so they’re not aligned anymore they need to be replaced. Looks like that’s the case with your car
To explain this visually, look up these three terms, caster, camber, toe-in, and then look at images. Those are the 3 axes of a tire assembly. One pic will explain everything.
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