‘Dogtracking’ Honda Urgently Needs Repair

Question: My daughter has a 1986 Honda that does not seem to be tracking correctly. The rear end is about two to three inches to the right of the front end. The car looks like it is running sideways on the road. This is not unusual, since I have seen many cars on the freeway that seem to do the same thing. So far, I haven’t been able to get an explanation of what the cause is or what needs to be done to correct it. Do you have any information about this?G. L.

Answer: Your car is “dogtracking,” a definitely unsafe condition that indicates the car’s frame or unibody has sustained serious damage.

When a car’s frame is properly aligned, the rear wheels (and most of the time the front wheels) must be parallel to its centerline. The car should match factory specifications to within a tiny fraction of an inch. Otherwise, its symmetry has been lost.

The dogtracking condition means the car could be unstable in unpredictable conditions. Because the wheels are not parallel to the frame, the car’s center of gravity has been altered, and it will no longer turn or brake as intended.

Also, the frame has lost its original structural integrity and may not withstand road stresses. As the car ages, the frame could bust up, much as some old airliners have failed because of metal fatigue.

Such a condition does not automatically cause the tires to wear abnormally. As long as the rear tires are parallel to each other and the front tires are parallel to each other, they should wear normally. Often, the wheel alignment on a vehicle with a bent frame can be corrected, but the underlying defect remains.

You do not indicate whether the car was recently purchased used, but I would suspect you are not the original owner. Most likely, the car was involved in some type of major accident that bent the frame.

Such dogtracking problems are often found in vehicles that have I-beam frames, typically pickup trucks. Often, a collision causes one beam to shift forward or a cross beam to shift to one side.

Your Honda has a unibody, which means the sheet metal of the passenger, engine and truck compartments constitutes the frame. Such a design provides a strong, lightweight frame, but it also can be quite difficult to repair.

To straighten a unibody frame requires an expert body technician with a special rack that holds the car in place while heavy chains pull on the frame to straighten it. The frame measurements and the location of the pulling force must be precise.

Your Honda also has a solid rear axle assembly. It is possible that the rear suspension was damaged in a relatively minor accident that caused little or no sheet metal damage.

Possibly, the car fishtailed into a curb, knocking the axle to one side. Or it may have been in a major accident, after which the body shop performed an incompetent repair job.

You should take the car to a garage capable of performing a four-wheel alignment or to a good body shop. It should be fairly simple for a technician to determine whether the frame is bent and, if so, whether it is worth repairing.

I often encourage people not to bother fixing certain types of problems, but this is clearly not one of them. Although the car drives adequately, it is unsafe.