ok my car's alignment is off and i went down the street to some stupid shop and they where originally going to charge me $48 then he upped it $50 more b/c my car is lowered and had been in a wreck, on top of that he was a rude ********, so does anyone know how to do alignments or steering work, i need help bad, is this something i can deal with myself? nothings bent under the car (that i can tell) so i should be able to fix the ******

 

I would say take it back to the "rude ********", $50 is fairly cheap, there is no way you can do it yourself.

 

$48 originally plus 50!!!!! $98, not to mention the fact htat I KNOW this guy is selling sometihng, he going to try a pull the " ok well once we got your car up we noticed this had to be fixed too" i dont have alot money right now and i know this is a minor case, but it has to be fixed i dont want to waer out my tires

 

1- You need to understand the three adjusments, 2- You need measuring euqipment designed to do the job, 3- as above, $50 IS cheap.

 

sure ya wanna know how to align your car - no prob!
just go down to your local jobber and ask them for a simple four post alignment rack, then ask them for the heads, module, computer and cd's with OE spec's
then go to trade school and learn about camber, caster and toe
then simply install the rack and do the alignment all to the tune of ~$30,000

or simply begin to understand that:
1. a lowered car is more difficult to put on the rack
2. after a car has been hit it usually takes a hell of alot of work to align
3. $100 is more than we might spend on a weekend of binge drinking and a good deal on aligning a lowered and previously smahed RX-7

sorry for the negative tone of this reply but seriously dude, just suck it up - its a fair price and as far as the "he's trying to sell me more than I need" its called making a living and if you can't afford whatever extra stuff he says it needs then just say - NO

 

yeah ok

 

$100 for a standard allignment is BS. I could understand if it had coilovers. Dont you have a wheel works or something near you?

 

Are you a freakin IDIOT!?! He said $48 PLUS!!!!! $50 for the 3rd time already!! If you CANT ADD, that is $98 freakin dollars for an alignment. More than I have EVER spent on an alignment, RX-7 or NOT. And Ive had cars that had been in accidents prior to it and STILL did not cost that much!

Look around more...there are other places that will do it much cheaper.

 

It usually costs me ~$70 to have my vehicles aligned ($50 if I have the monthly coupon) at Tires Plus. I don't think I'm going back there again after this incident with my ball-joint though. That ****** popped out when they were test driving it (funny that they didn't notice it was loose when it they did their inspection).

On top of that, they couldn't get it started again because they flooded the living **** out of it, which only happens if you redline it then power down less then 5 minutes later. Now it has been a month while I wait for a damn steering knuckle, and I have become rather bitter about the whole thing.

Where do you guys normally take your vehicles for alignments? Instead of ragging on this guy for not wanting to dump the $100, how about we get some suggestions for better places he could take it to?

How good are the Firestone and Bridgestone shops?

 

theres probably more than one shop within driving distance of you dude...

 

I pay $160 at a local wheelworks for unlimited 1 year allignment on my coilovers. (not really unlimited, but I could get away with once every 2 months if I wanted).

 

It's not complicated at all, you just need the right equipment, as classicauto said. And being wrecked and lowered could make for quite a hard time getting it back to factory alignment specs.

 

take it to a shop that guarantees their alignments, i usually just go to Sears or Les schwab or something similar, they usually offer 30 day alignment guarantees and are fairly cheap. i wouldn't say they are the most knowledgable about cars but they should be able to get it right if not then just take it back. you can post the scan of the alignment here for people to judge how they did and whether you should take it back.

you can't do a good alignment without a alignment machine.

 

Remember, a lot of shops just set toe and call it an 'alignment'

Theres a place by me that tunes the car to the specs you tell them with you sitting in the car, for the tune of $65 or so. They give you before and after specs too. Theres tons of shops around here, they're the only ones I know of that I'd take my car to.

I wouldnt take my car back to that guy, if he can't be decent with you, he doesnt need your money. But theres gotta be another shop within 150 miles of you :-p

 

my car isn't lowered anought to make it a problem, i seriously think the springs are stock or less than 3/4" drop (they could be either eibach of tokico as well) and i have Tokico HP blue struts . . . they shouldn't try and pull bullshit on that

 

Let's just say you got off easy with 98$. I just got my allignment repair bill 0f 2200$! yeah you heard right. Needed new control arms, tire pan rod (or somethin like that), and 2 625$ bearing pieces on each side of rear end.

 

Uhh $2200 sounds like a huge rip off to me, you could've probably just get some good condition used control arms for fairly cheap, tie rod ends are 62$ each, and rear end bearings are $73 each plus $10 for each seal.

 

I think bridgestone/firestone shops are usually good but it all depends on the tech. I do my own alin. But I am also a ase tech in suspension and steering. As for the ball joint prob if I would have missed a ball joint that was that bad something is really wrong. Just find a good shop with a good rep. What part are they tring to sell you?

 

No one on the Internet can tell you what it’s going to cost to align your car. This is especially true based on the information you’ve given. An alignment shop can’t give you firm a price unless they inspect the car first. What they can tell you is the absolute minimum they will charge you to do a basic alignment. Unfortunately, wrecked cars rarely need a basic alignment.

Lets look at the car. Why do you think you need an alignment?

Does the car pull to one side? Suffer from high speed wobble? Are you experiencing odd tire wear? If so, is it front, rear, or both? Please be descriptive. Strange vibration? A combo plate? Something else? Has the car hit anything since the last alignment? When was the last alignment, and did it hold? The more information you give, the easier it will be to diagnose. How old (years and miles), and what type tires do you have? Many Yoko’s are notorious for tracking, but that can be corrected to a degree. What size tires are you running? What sized wheels (please include the backspacing figures)? How much air pressure do you run? How old are the struts/shocks? What type? How old are the bushings? How are the brake rotors? Are you running aftermarket sway bars?

Has anyone ever taken a tire temperature reading? If so, which part of the tread is the hottest spot? Are the temperatures on the same axle close? Are the fronts hotter than the rears? Are the tires out of their heat range? I believe a couple of years ago there was an article on tire temps that was run at Rotary News. You may want to scan through their archive. Tire temps can tell you a lot about how your suspension works.

Lastly, I used to own a house in Gilbert, and met my wife there. Nice place.

 

I have always been happy with their service.

I bought a LIFETIME alignment from them for $160. It is good at any Firestone dealer.

Well worth it considering I change something on my suspension several times a season.

Last years alignments followed:
First, 5-lug conversion
Second, rear steer bushings
Third, shocks and springs
Forth, new wheels and camber plates
Fifth, tried new settings for autocross

That’s just one year. This will continue until I roll the car over a tire barrier at the Glen.

Get the lifetime alignment; it is worth it.