Alignment, hitting bumps, and off center steering wheel

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I'm amazed there is that much toe adjustment in the rear end at all

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[mikehmb]

I had a feeling it could be an even deeper issue. My 2nd alignment I was told the lead tech did the alignment and did a training day with every one. That’s worrisome if this got worse on the second try. How did you get this roaming expert in house for you?

South SF is not legenday in their ability to communicate, so I’m not 100% sure. All the advisor told me (and this is after a ride-along with the lead tech and the failed 3rd attempt at alignment) was that the Roaming Dude was on-site and schooled the team on how to do a tough alignment. Some of the trucks are, apparently, just a little trickier.

They told me several times “this is the 3rd try, we need to get this right for you” while I was at the SC.

They will absolutely make things right, though sometimes it requires the extraordinary patience to get there.

 

[FrictionlessLube]

3rd visit update: rear tires are bing replaced. They won’t replace the fronts that have half the original tread because it has even wear… I’ve asked for an official tread measurement but when I did it, I came up with 4mm when new has 8mm. Trying to fight it, but I may just have to go through Pirelli for warranty.

So far inspection has lead to a leaking rear half shaft that is being replaced. They are doubtful that is the cause of the shaking on bumps.

I got a loaner and it is solid. Wheel is centered. Extremely minimal drifting. Hitting bumps doesn’t cause the truck to shake. We’ll see what happens if they finish tomorrow.

 

[R1Tom]

3rd visit update: rear tires are bing replaced. They won’t replace the fronts that have half the original tread because it has even wear… I’ve asked for an official tread measurement but when I did it, I came up with 4mm when new has 8mm. Trying to fight it, but I may just have to go through Pirelli for warranty.

So far inspection has lead to a leaking rear half shaft that is being replaced. They are doubtful that is the cause of the shaking on bumps.

I got a loaner and it is solid. Wheel is centered. Extremely minimal drifting. Hitting bumps doesn’t cause the truck to shake. We’ll see what happens if they finish tomorrow.

I wonder if shake could be a bad subframe?

 

[3121]

It is such a shame trucks are still coming off the line like this after over a year of reports on this issue. There are too many members on here reporting steering wheel off-center, pulling to the right, or Rivian aligned my truck and it's a little better but not perfect, Rivian says it's "Road Crown"... IT'S NOT ROAD CROWN!

I get this may not be a HUGE amount of trucks with this issue but it's certainly a substantial amount given all the reports here on the forum.

Why can't Rivian put out a bulletin to it's service centers actually take customers seriously and NOT jump to denial, or say it's road crown or the truck being a heavy vehicle or you are a dumb customer. Also why not have someone TEST DRIVE the trucks when they comes off the line. I can hop in a Rivian, drive it for 1 mile and tell if it's not aligned.

If this is truly a poorly cast or poorly installed sub-frame there should be more focus on this...even if it's only 1 in 500 trucks, that is a serious quality and build issue.

I am really disappointed in Rivian that their attitude thus far has been "you're an early adopter what do you expect"...or you're a dumb customer who is feeling road crown. That is legacy car dealership service department attitude and nonsense...not the Rivian brand. Car alignments is not an early adopter issue, that should be a one and done fix and an upstream fix on the assembly line.

I have taken delivery of two vehicles, R1T and R1S - and I went with my neighbor for his R1T delivery. All three vehicles had very obvious alignment issues. I was early to get my R1T and excited so I didn't test drive it and only caught it after driving a few days later. Rivian tried 5 times to get it aligned, including a trip to Irvine HQ. I finally took it to my friend who own's an alignment shop and sets up race cars for a living. He put it on his frame straightener and determined the sub-frame was tweaked in about 5 minutes. I sold the truck after Rivian refused to buy it back or replace it.

I refused delivery on our first R1S for the same alignment issue. They fought me saying the would "fix" it so, I gave them one attempt and it was exactly the same, they didn't even test drive it to verify the fix. Our second R1S tracks straight but I noticed the camber was off after 2k miles due to wearing/feathering the inside of the tires. I had my friend re-align it and correct that, no issues since.

My neighbor and I went to pick his truck up about a month ago and it was really bad. The delivery specialist got the shop foreman out to ride along and he kept saying it was road crown. We then hopped in my F150 Lightning (yes I have one of those too, replaced my R1T with it), and I showed him how it's not the weight of the vehicle or road crown if my Ford has no issue on the same stretch of road. We blew his mind and he admitted that HQ had been telling him this Road Crown nonsense but he'd never actually compared it with other cars.

I LOVE Rivian and I want to see them succeed. I get it does not bother some people, or I assume some people don't even notice, or they have a higher tolerance for the back and fourth with the service center. However, the alignment issue will wear your tires early which costs you money. Perhaps Rivian will pay for a new set of tires under warranty but that's costing the company money...and I want to see them successful, not burning money on tires and time in the shop doing 4 alignments and flying some specialist in to get it right.

 

[BourbonDog]

Similar experience, after 3 trips to the service center, steering wheel is now straight. I don't think it was ever out of alignment, but holding the wheel centered put me a whole lane to the right in 40 feet. After the third trip to the SC, it's fixed.

I also had a similar experience with the right front passenger door rubbing, initially over corrected, requiring two trips to fix.

Overall, these are little things in line with my expectations of having one of the first R1Ss out of the barn.

 

[FrictionlessLube]

Picked up my truck this evening and it is now perfect. The SC got my steering wheel centered and it is tracking as straight as ever. They said the alignment was so out of whack, that the alignment machine didn’t even detect the truck was on it. The chalked it up to the system not being tuned correctly that day and they even got in touch with engineering to resolve it. Because of that and it was my third visit within 2 months, they swapped not just the rears that were bald, but the fronts that had half tread too. So they swapped all 4 tires, which is what I requested, fixed the off center steering wheel, and corrected the alignment. They also fixed the discovered right rear half shaft that was bone dry from the leak. Hitting bumps is 1000% better and it’s like a new truck.

Hats off to Denver for making things right and getting things done. I feel the truck is absolutely perfect. Laughingly, they said they hope they never see me again and I agreed. I did thank them for putting up with me and doing everything honestly and fixed me up good.

 

[jollyroger]

I don’t know if I was just lucky, but when we picked up our R1T. I also noticed right pulling. When they put it on the rack to align it, then took it for a test drive. They noticed right piling still. Turned out that they had to get Hunter out to figure out what was going on. I guess the rack itself was damaged/misaligned somehow.

I won’t mention names but there is a bit of an impression among the folks there that these vehicles are impacting the the ability of the racks working properly over time. Mine was the first alignment post rack fix. And it felt pretty good there after.

I don’t know if the weight and the rack idea really true, but it sort off made sense to me.

 

[dleewla]

VIN 19xxx, pulls to the right with the steering wheel dead center. have a SC appt to look at this along with other stuff.

wondering if this impacts Driver+. the vehicle always drifts closer to the right side of the lane when trying to keep centered and now wonder if its because when the steering wheel is centered it drifts to the right.

 

[911.1 Guy]

It's easy and very accurate to check the toe settings yourself if you are willing to take the time and be meticulous. You have to build a "string box". We do this for track cars. It is more accurate than a Hunter rack.

 

[kyunam]

Here is my R1S alignment sheet in case it would be helpful to someone in this forum.

It pulled to the right when steering is centered. After the alignment last wwek at the service center, its aligned well.

 

[Rob O]

Took delivery of my R1T (on 22s) in late Feb, VIN 18xxx, and it was slightly out of alignment. Steering wheel is just tad off when traveling straight, and letting go the truck will pull to the right. Pretty much exactly as others have experienced. Not that big a deal, but I’m OCD *and* know it’ll result in uneven/premature tire wear.

Rather than deal with the SC multiple times, least because I’m 180 miles away from one, I scheduled an appointment with my local Motorsport shop for alignment. Happy to pay for professional, experienced, “this is what we do” service and know that it’ll get done properly. My appt is Apr 25 and I’ll report back after.

 

[Rob O]

Follow up after having alignment done by a motorsport shop that specializes in alignments, corner balancing, etc. They spent quite a bit of time on mine, partly because they'd never done a Rivian, partly because they didn't really have any factory specs to go by and partly because some panel remove was required (or they removed thinking it was required).

Anyway, below are my before/after ... both how the steering wheel looked and the numbers.

Did about 50 miles since, including on crowned highway sections, and it's straight as an arrow now. I still think the quad motor set up, how they're calibrated, throttle inputs, etc play into how the truck behaves with regard to tracking -- i.e., some of the above could be misconstrued as alignment issues. But as far as my steering wheel and how the truck reacts when letting go of the steering wheel, an alignment corrected my issues.

 

[ColoRiv]

Thanks for sharing. Your after results should be how they're coming off the lot.

Follow up after having alignment done by a motorsport shop that specializes in alignments, corner balancing, etc. They spent quite a bit of time on mine, partly because they'd never done a Rivian, partly because they didn't really have any factory specs to go by and partly because some panel remove was required (or they removed thinking it was required).

Anyway, below are my before/after ... both how the steering wheel looked and the numbers.

Did about 50 miles since, including on crowned highway sections, and it's straight as an arrow now. I still think the quad motor set up, how they're calibrated, throttle inputs, etc play into how the truck behaves with regard to tracking -- i.e., some of the above could be misconstrued as alignment issues. But as far as my steering wheel and how the truck reacts when letting go of the steering wheel, an alignment corrected my issues.

 

[922110]

Ridiculous seeing how poorly some of these are aligned from the factory.

I'd rip the service center a new one if they told me road crowning or because the vehicle is heavy. Totally unacceptable and would drive me crazy.

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