heavy steering effort after alignment

[Skorpio]

Toe is fine, and the steering wheel is centered. Only passenger rear camber is off, by machine measurement (visually cannot tell). So, there's no adjustment for that? What about camber kits?

Rear camber kit is "in development". Btw, you can visually see the rear wheel camber. Look at the wheel/tire from behind. Focus on it. Now think of an imaginary line that is perfectly straight up and down vertically. Now look at your tire again. You should be able to see the top is tucked in more than the bottom, which most car chassis are today. It helps generate skid pad numbers but bad for (some) inner tire wear..

 

[katman]

I used to occassionally borrow the use of a hunter rack at my brother in laws tire place.
Here's what i can tell you.
The print out is a "snap shot' . It is taken when everything is lined up BEFORE things are tightened up. Things can go out of spec when they are tightened up.
I always checked again after tightening up stuff (even cars that I were not mine).
That's how you can get two different alignments even though the numbers are the same on the printout.
Caster is usually adjustable, even when they say it isn't and even when there is no caster adjustment!
Sounds crazy? Well, caster is the position of the wheels front to rear. Having the wheels closer to the front makes for more stable cruising. Closer back makes for quicker steering (maybe a little lighter steering).
How you change it? You have to loosen the bolts on the subframe and move it. Big pain in the ass. Some cars use non reusable bolts too.If a shop could do it, they'd charge extra. If it isn't in spec, demand the dealer take care of it. If they want to sub the work out to a frame shop or even a body shop, let them, they'll be more likely to have techs that know what they are doing.

 

[Skorpio]

I used to occassionally borrow the use of a hunter rack at my brother in laws tire place.
Here's what i can tell you.
The print out is a "snap shot' . It is taken when everything is lined up BEFORE things are tightened up. Things can go out of spec when they are tightened up.
I always checked again after tightening up stuff (even cars that I were not mine).
That's how you can get two different alignments even though the numbers are the same on the printout.
Caster is usually adjustable, even when they say it isn't and even when there is no caster adjustment!
Sounds crazy? Well, caster is the position of the wheels front to rear. Having the wheels closer to the front makes for more stable cruising. Closer back makes for quicker steering (maybe a little lighter steering).
How you change it? You have to loosen the bolts on the subframe and move it. Big pain in the ass. Some cars use non reusable bolts too.If a shop could do it, they'd charge extra. If it isn't in spec, demand the dealer take care of it. If they want to sub the work out to a frame shop or even a body shop, let them, they'll be more likely to have techs that know what they are doing.

Katman, I think I know what you're trying to say, and allow me to elaborate. I specialized in wheel alignments for quite awhile before I retired out of mechanics and still hold an ASE certification in A4 suspension and steering. In fact, for a couple years, front end and alignments were all I did. However, I haven't aligned a CX-5 personally, but I'm sure it's similar to all FWD car chassis. I have aligned thousands of others models from Ferrari to Yugo, however. Here's my explanation: Look at a wheel from the side of the car. The caster angle is the difference between an imaginary line drawn through the lower and upper ball joints or strut and then a line straight up and down/vertical. The difference between them creates an angle(caster), measured in degrees or inches. An easier way to look at this: let's think about a motorcycle's forks. The fork tube is the "line" like the ball joint line. Now, Let's take a chopper. See how the top of the fork lean back towards the driver? That would equal POSITIVE caster in a car's situation. Now, on a sport bike, the forks, while still leaned back a little, is much more upright and much more close to vertical then that a chopper's forks. That example is closer to NEGATIVE caster. More negative caster is harder to steer, but more stable at high speeds, where positive caster is quicker steering, but less stable at high speeds. HERE's a pic i found online-

Now, a car has two wheels in the front, so it has two individual caster readings and often they are not equal to compensate for US road crown. While a tech takes an initial caster reading, he should always remeasure caster anytime a change has been made to display the current reading. All other readings are "live", displaying changes as they're adjusted. But, for harder steering problem related to an alignment, the printout should have a lower caster (left and right) on the "after" reading than the "before" reading. Like I mentioned above, most cars do not have a FACTORY caster adjustment, but as Katman mentioned, a tech can SLIGHTLY change the caster on a non adjustable car with a shift in the sub frame/K member. However, on most cars it will not give a lot of caster change, as the holes of the subframe are only slightly larger than the bolt diameter. And, actually, it's not hard to shift it, it's usually just 4 bolts, but most techs won't do it because it's not specified from the factory. If any adjustments are not factory adjustments, mechanics usually will not adjust them. If an accident occurred, it's possible they (shop) could be liable because they went outside of factory instructions. However, I always shifted subframes if necessary if I needed to get the car in the "green". Usually it took an extra 15 minutes, but many times the subframe was maxed out anyways. I cannot tell what the OP's problem is without being there and looking at his readings, but I doubt the alignment is responsible for the actual issue he's feeling. The problem is probably something simple, like Beefy mentioned, a change in tire pressure, or it could even be a mind trick. I can guarantee that a rear camber being outside of specs will NOT give a heavy steering feel.

Btw, alignment readings are very sensitive to cars/trucks not being level. Any changed to vehicle height and even air pressure will greatly alter the readings. Also, if the equipment is not perfectly level, it will throw off the readings. You'd be surprised how many times I've seen the alignment rack become unlevel. Sorry for the long post.