Hello,

I bought a chevy hhr 2010 about 5 months, I bought it with 82K now is 88k. I have started noticing that is pulling to both sides when I take an angled road or when I am on a highway 65 mph and when I am changing lanes. The movement is like it'd slide toward left or right (mostly to the left I think). I started noticing even more after I got the car to fix a flat tire and a Firestone technician told me about the uneven tire wear (mainly front passenger side) an recommended immediate alignment. Then I got the car to the firestone again for an alignment and they aligned but said it seemed the car had hit a pot hole. They said they just only were able to fix everything but the "caster". I just took a look to the lower control arm (front passenger side) and I do not see any that leads to think of a past collision. I measured also the distance from top of the tire and the bottom of the strut and there is a diference between the front left and right sides of about 1/4 inches. I am sharing the alignment numbers as well hoping to find some help here.

Alignment numbers:
before :
|Camber| |Caster| |Toe|
left front -1.2 3.1 -0.40

right front -1.0 2.8 -0.29

after :
|Camber| |Caster| |Toe|
left front -1.3 3.2 0.11

right front -1.0 2.9 0.11

Thanks in advance,

 

Those numbers are not bad. Normally you would want more caster on the rt side to compensate for road crown but you should be ok the way it is.

I assume that all they adjusted was toe because to adjust camber it requires a kit to be installed.

Have you looked at the lower control arm bushing?

Know that the toe is corrected does the car drive any better?

 

I removed your other post that was on a 3year old thread. It's better to start your own thread like this one.

 

Thanks for your response!

I just reviewed on internet and I found here

Wheel Alignment Terms

that the negative caster would explain why the car is unstable when I drive on an irregular road. This is exactly what I am experiencing right now. What is weird is that I was not aware about this issue 5 before taking the car for an alignment. Just after the alignment I started experiencing this. It is exactly as described on the link I shared above.

They guy from Firestone said it was a damage on the frame but I jacked it up and I am not able to see nothing, I asked for a second opinion to another mechanic and he did not find any damage to the frame either.

I also tried to inspect this afternoon if a bushing issue at lower control arm. I just visually inspected. I did not unmount the tire yet.

Thanks,

 

Welcome to the site! Please let us know how the lower control arm bushings are, the shouldn't look like the one on the right in this picture

 

The numbers you posted shows negative camber and positive caster. That is correct for an hhr.

An easy way to check the control arm bushings is to push the car on flat ground back and forth with the car in park or in gear if it's a manual with out the parking brake off.

It's better with a helper pushing the car while you look at the lower control arm. If the rear control arm bushing is bad you will see a lot of movement in the control arm.

 

Here is a video of bad control arm bushing. .

 

I am confused right now because what I'm experiencing is exactly what it is described when negative caster is present.

I will check tomorrow with another mechanic and will let you know.

Thanks Lucky for all your support.