Hit potholes during road trip, and steering wheel started to feel floaty/loose. Can the front right camber be fixed by local wheel adjustment people?

[tm1v2]

So..moving forward. What kind of car could replicate the super stiff steering from my incorrectly-delivered model 3? I'd like to know because that felt *awesome*, and I would love to drive a car that handles just like it

@fredjan Any old school car with manual steering. My '93 Saturn SL (base model) had nice hefty manual steering, with tons of feedback through the steering wheel. "Speed assisted steering" I would call it. It had barely any grip and terrible handling, especially by the time/mileage I drove it, but the steering sure was talkative, and I found it genuinely fun just to drive around town, in a way that fast cars aren't.

Among sports cars, I think the Lotus Elise is the newest used sports car available with manual steering. It's a very hardcore sports car, it's only worthwhile if you're going to take it to the racetrack. IMO. It's super tiny, I can't even drive it with regular shoes (let alone boots), very raw, very poor visibility for street use, very low, etc. Feels right at home on a racetrack, not so much on the street. Even as a weekend fun car I wouldn't get one, unless the weekend fun was track days, in which case absolutely.

Some cars with power steering have better feel and feedback than the Model 3. Most don't really stand out to me though. Mazda RX-8 is probably the best feeling electric power steering I've experienced. Sweet handling car as well with upgraded dampers (I never drove a 100% stock one).

Subaru BRZ / Scion FR-S have pretty nice steering for a modern car. I've only taken a 1st gen for a brief spin, that's all, but it felt like a proper sports car, one designed for good fun on the street. Not too hardcore for that like a Lotus Elise. If I was in the market for an affordable sports car on the side (as an extra car), that's probably what I would get.

 

[tm1v2]

@fredjan It's also worth test driving the Model Y and latest Model S (Palladium). Neither has raw manual steering of course, nothing like that, but in my very limited experience with each recently they both had better low-speed steering heft than the overboosted feel the Model 3 has now.

At the same time, the 2023 Model Y's steering response was vastly inferior to my (modded) Model 3. Not even close.

The 2023 Model S steering response was surprisingly good. So was its suspension tuning overall. I was impressed. It's not as outright sporty as my modded M3P of course, and it's a bigger heavier car, but I felt the two main active suspension modes were very well tuned for what a Model S should be. I'm a longtime Model S owner with an early P85. At some point the Model S got too heavy and floaty, for example the P100D felt like an overloaded boat around turns, but this newest Model S is really well done. Best driving one yet, better even than the P85+ I think (been a long time since I drove one of those). Aside from the stupid controls of course.

 

[Jordan325ic]

Model 3 and Y only really have toe adjustment front and rear. Theoretically you can get a tiny amount of adjustment in the camber but the amount is so small it’s generally easier to just find the worn/bent component.

 

[fredjan]

Model 3 and Y only really have toe adjustment front and rear. Theoretically you can get a tiny amount of adjustment in the camber but the amount is so small it’s generally easier to just find the worn/bent component.

The tech went into service mode and was surprised that steering offset is being applied. I think my car currently has about 2.9 deg offset, which is still in the green region (though it's close to the orange region)

 

[fredjan]

Following up on this -

I took my vehicle to a specialty alignment shop to get my vehicle aligned, and also showed them the Tesla tech's notes of the (presumably) worn RH rear lower control arm. They couldn't find any damage. Not sure why the Tesla tech claimed their was an enlarged hole in that part.

Anyways, I'll probably get an alignment once a year or once every two years, and have the alignment technician check out that part just in case. Chances are it's going to be OK until I need to replace the suspension at 100k miles or sell my car by the time the battery warranty is up.

The "loose steering wheel" was due to the changes in power steering programming that others mentioned. Model 3s that I've test driven all felt the exact same way that my car does in sport mode.

 

[fredjan]

So far, everything is in spec, including the front right camber. I think this was really an issue of the Firestone shop not having the correct alignment specs or machine for Teslas. A different Firestone in my area messed up my alignment.
The only weirdness is that my rear casters are a little different. The alignment shop thought that was weird. That wouldn't really impact my daily driving, though, so it's nothing to worry about.