Alignment shop questions

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I have a few questions about alignment shops.

Is Firestone Tire the only chain shop that offers lifetime alignments? Firestone Tire does not have a good reputation.

I've read that in order for a shop to generate a printout of an alignment the alignment had to have been completed, but I have also read that a technician can manipulate the numbers on the computer and printout the manipulated numbers without having done the alignment. Which is true?

I have been taking my car to Firestone Tire shops for years for alignments, but I don't know whether they have done the alignments. Is there a way to verify for certain that an alignment has been completed? Thanks for any replies.
 
Do your tires wear OK ?

If so , it is either fine to begin with or they are doing a good job .

Same question , does it drive / steer OK ?
 
Do your research and find a shop that is known for wrenching on your brand of car in particular or just a different shop that has a good rep. Chain shops are for scrubs.
 
It's a gimmick to extract money from your wallet. When you buy a car and it tracks good and shows no abnormal wear on the outside or inside shoulders, you don't need an alignment. I have never had an alignment done just for the sake of having it done. If you replace suspension components, you will need an alignment. Components don't include shocks. If you are in an accident or hit a curb or pothole you may need an alignment.
 
There's a chain here called Hibdon that also offers lifetime alignments, but I doubt you'll find them in California.

I bought one of their lifetime alignment deals for $90 or so, but the tech could never get the alignment right. I saw him drive the vehicle onto the rack and check the numbers, but then he acted like there some hurdle he couldn't overcome. I guess the rack wasn't calibrated or was just incompatible with my vehicle.

I found an indie shop run by a grouchy old school mechanic and they got the alignment perfect the first time.
 
Find a shop that specializes in front suspension repair. Not firestone or pep boys. getting the toe-in perfect is very hard. It moves when you tighten the adjusting sleeves. The guy doing the alignment will hit print before tightening the sleeves.
 
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Originally Posted by MParr
It's a gimmick to extract money from your wallet. When you buy a car and it tracks good and shows no abnormal wear on the outside or inside shoulders, you don't need an alignment. I have never had an alignment done just for the sake of having it done. If you replace suspension components, you will need an alignment. Components don't include shocks. If you are in an accident or hit a curb or pothole you may need an alignment.


In states that get snow and ice and have bad roads, hitting a pothole can easily knock a car out of alignment. Just because you haven't had to do one just means that you've been lucky. Not everyone has the same kind of luck. I've hit potholes that have bent and cracked my rims in addition to popping tires or putting a bubble in them.

To answer the OP's questions, Firestone is the only one I know of that does lifetime alignment. Goodyear offers 3 year alignments and NTB I think has 5 year alignments. Depending on the shop, you can actually see the car up on the alignment rack and it always seems to take about an hour for them to set it up and do the alignment. If you tell them that you feel the car is pulling in one direction or the other, they would pretty much have to do the alignment. Of course when I get them done, sometimes it's pretty obvious, either the wheel is a little crooked to one side or it just pulls to one side vs the other.
 
Originally Posted by Wolf359
hitting a pothole can easily knock a car out of alignment.


How so? The only way that would happen is if you damage the suspension or steering by bending or breaking something. You don't "knock" your alignment out. And you would have to hit a pothole pretty hard to do that.
 
Originally Posted by atikovi
Originally Posted by Wolf359
hitting a pothole can easily knock a car out of alignment.


How so? The only way that would happen is if you damage the suspension or steering by bending or breaking something. You don't "knock" your alignment out. And you would have to hit a pothole pretty hard to do that.




Exactly. I plowed one middle of the night on I 87so hard that I locked up the brakes and slid to a stop fearing the steering was going to go out. That was an 87 Honda crx and it did NOTHING. Never had it aligned ever. Same story with all my cars and it's been many. Keep an eye on your tires, notice if it pulls much of the time or wants to drift If the ain't wearing or it ain't pullin.......leave it alone.
 
In NJ & PA we have Pep Boys and Tires Plus that offer lifetime alignments for about $170-$225 including tire rotation.
 
Originally Posted by atikovi
Originally Posted by Wolf359
hitting a pothole can easily knock a car out of alignment.


How so? The only way that would happen is if you damage the suspension or steering by bending or breaking something. You don't "knock" your alignment out. And you would have to hit a pothole pretty hard to do that.

LCA in most cars are designed to bend easily. Ubiquitous front Mac struts make a for a very weak front end.

At least on my wife's Subaru, they box the LCA and the lower pivots seem more that 2 feet apart which adds up top more accurate location. On mid -sixties GM C body, they had a "braking reaction rod" that would take a strain load and keep the LCA from bending rearward during big impacts and hard braking.
 
Originally Posted by atikovi
Originally Posted by Wolf359
hitting a pothole can easily knock a car out of alignment.


How so? The only way that would happen is if you damage the suspension or steering by bending or breaking something. You don't "knock" your alignment out. And you would have to hit a pothole pretty hard to do that.


The toe gets knocked loose. Yeah, probably accounts for some of the bent/cracked rims I've had. That's about the only thing they really end up adjusting. And yes, you do hit the pothole pretty hard. You guys just haven't hit some good ones, some are bone jarring and you know there's something wrong. Some have been so bad where it pops the tire. Did that once and there were two other cars behind me that hit the same pothole and were on the side of the road replacing the flat tire.
 
My 1999 Camry came to me with no problems, went a year no problems, but in the second year it seemed to eat a set of tires. Rear toe had gone out. No idea why, as I had it aligned early on and then it needed another one. My guess? I probably drive harder than the last owner; I certainly drive it far more. So perhaps those twenty year old bushings are just wearing all the faster. [yeah alignment isn't the proper fix for that issue, but it is what it is--everything feels tight and safe.]

Originally Posted by CPB
It seems that most cars these days only have toe adjustment. No caster or camber. I have a set of toe-in plates like these https://www.amazon.com/Longacre-LON...;qid=1563375889&s=gateway&sr=8-3 to periodically check and adjust with. Do not see a need to take my vehicles to a shop.


Huh. Looking at the pics, this looks like something even I could jerry-rig. Just get two plates of metal. Heck two pieces of flat wood would work. Plywood I'm guessing, although might need multiple sizes so as to avoid any tire bulge. Maybe stack some bolts on, so as to touch the rim, just have to verify on a flat surface that it's truly flat.

Why didn't I think of this? I know I tried to measure from tire groove to tire groove, but this seems like a "duh" thing to me.

[Linked Image]
 
Originally Posted by CPB
It seems that most cars these days only have toe adjustment. No caster or camber. I have a set of toe-in plates like these https://www.amazon.com/Longacre-LON...;qid=1563375889&s=gateway&sr=8-3 to periodically check and adjust with. Do not see a need to take my vehicles to a shop.


Thanks for sharing, i'll have to invest in a set. Do you have any issues keeping the steering wheel centered while doing the alignment?

Where do you get the toe specs? Or how do you know you have it right?
 
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I have found a great mom and pop garage that did nothing but suspension work. They were in business for 50 yrs before they closed their doors. Didn't have anyone to sell it to and they all (4 employees, 3 family members) were ready to retire getting up in age. Stinks that they closed. They did great work and the price was reasonable. Wish I could find another shop like this but it seems they have gone the way of the dinosaur.

They were the last shop around that I'm aware of that actually trued tires. Man, with a fresh set of trued tired and balance my vehicles never rode so smooth. Tires lasted a long time as well.

To me places like Firestone are not that great since they seem to have a high turnover of mechanics. At least that has been my experience around here.
 
I have a "lifetime 4 wheel alignment". It cost me $149. I bring the car in once a year but the the T&C allow me to bring it in for alignment when a number of other conditions exist (like an accident).
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I worked at a tire shop. We had a Camry come in for an alignment re-check. It had 1.2 degrees of positive camber on the driver's front. Could be fixed by grinding strut holes or by ordering cam bolts. But we told the driver it wasn't adjustable. True, if you go by factory designs, but mechanics are supposed to fix cars. I made $13.50 on that job, just doing toe. Am confident the driver wasn't too happy that it couldn't get fixed.

Some of the other chain stores treat lifetime alignments as "comebacks" and barely pay the tech anything. Or they have loopholes about void if new parts are installed (or not installed) or for collision damage.

It's basically a thing where you give someone more money up front then fight to get it back. The house always wins.

There's a guy near me who just does alignments. Has his shingle hung out. His reputation is fantastic-- I used him once and he was dead nuts on.

I do my own now using a laser level.
 
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