Alignment Expert Needed: Axle offset?

ACAR wrote:
> On Feb 14, 12:52 am, jim beam > wrote:
>> ACAR wrote:
>>
>>> FWIW, my best alignment experience has been with a collision repair
>>> shop that operates their own alignment system, complete with frame
>>> straightening equipment. They claim few cars are really straight from
>>> the factory but nearly all are easily put square.
>> you got real lucky there - i've yet to find a place that good in my neck
>> of the woods.
>
> Here's the trick; find a shop qualified to fix an Acura NSX. Only a
> very few shops in my area are. Your insurance company will know these
> shops as should any Acura dealer.
>
good idea - will do.

btw, in a fit of nsx enthusiasm, i dug up this article:
http://philip.greenspun.com/materialism/cars/nsx.html

my favorite quote is:
"Oh, and by the way, I loved the comment about the NSX being engineered
by "people who went to college." However, that's not quite accurate.

Japanese education is a meritocracy, with entrance exam scores allowing
you to get into a good Jr. High, High School, and University. Once you
get into your college or university, though, you have nothing to study
for four years. Instead, it is the Japanese citizen's one chance to kick
back for a while and goof around. The passing of entrance exams into a
given rank of college is the indication of the graduate's mental
ability, dedication, perseverance, etc.

No field-specific knowlege is really picked up, so you will find job
applicants coming into engineering, for instance, with degrees in
everything from biology to English to History.

This may be a good thing. New engineers come in as complete neophytes,
and soak up their company's particular style, method, and priorities.

However, perhaps the bigger strength is that employees in Japanese
companies are not engineers for life, as we do in the US. Workers will
be moved from Engineering, to Sales, to Personnel. This may sound
wasteful of talent, but the result is that most of the senior management
of a Japanese firm will have the big picture.

As Philip's article starts out commenting, people at the top will tend
to think that the solution to problems is more people like themselves.
This is true in Japan as well - but it doesn't mean "more MBAs." It
means more generalists.

And that is the main strength of Japanese firms, and their products,
such as the NSX or Supra."

i hope honda get back to that "generalist" thinking, because they sure
did lose it a few years back with over-enthusiastic bean counting and
under-enthusiastic engineering.

what u need to do is take a measurement from the center point of the front rt.
wheel to the rear and then do that same thing on the other side this will tell
you which side is the offending side then u can use that info to see if the
suspension has worn/ bent parts causing the dog tracking make sure the
centerpoint of measuremnet is exacton both sides

TomC wrote:

> Vehicle 2000 Accord 4dr. V6 Automatic 81,000 miles, bought new. New Tires
> and alignment just done. However, the car's rear wheels do not track the
> front wheels; slightly offset to the right looking at the car from the
> rear. Slight oversteer in a curve to the right. Tire shop says the axle
> offset is 0 according to their alignment equipment. So, they say nothing is
> wrong. The car's original tires lasted 60,000 mi. (Michlens). I replaced
> them with Traction T/A's and they were horrible; poor wear, noisy (I missed
> rotating untill about 12,000miles and by then they were ruined). I believe
> part of the problem was this axle offset issue. How it came about is a
> mystery. Prior to replacing these tires, I tried to get the alignment
> issues fixed at a Honda dealer, but they seemed more intersted in selling
> new tires and cabin filters. So, they were little help. How do I get this
> axle offset checked and corrected ?