is this just a general rule of thumb? what is the logic behind it? i put eibach springs on last weekend and only had the car out a short while. the only thing i might of noticed is a little pull under braking but thats it. haven't driven it enough to check more.
info? thanks!

 

Yeah, I think you're supposed to get an alignment when you change shocks and stuff. When you work on the suspension, the geometry changes bc you are fitting new parts.

BTW, go to a good alignment shop. Not all shops know how to align cars properly. The Goodyears that I went to actually forgot to tighten my tie rods so the alignment got all f-up in 3 wks. This happened twice at the same shop and costed me a set of tires.

 

Yeah definatly get it aligned soon after. Go some place that does them all day like NTB

 

The deal is that although you may not notice any pull or change in aligment, but you may now have a different camber which will lead to uneven (usually excressive) wear on your tires.

That being said, I did my Eibachs seven months ago and I still haven't done my alignment ;-) ... I'll will do it, however, in the next two months when I install the nylon busings, stiffer sway bars all around, and some Koni shocks.

 

Two places I definitely would NOT bring the car to get aligned. A dealer and a national chain (such as Sears, NTB, etc). They will screw it up. I brought my car to Apex Auto a place out in the suburbs of Boston where the owner is an avid Miata enthusiast, Master Mazda Mechanic, and a local AutoX competitor. He changed out my shocks/struts and springs on my last RX, but still had to look up the correct alignment and geometry from the workshop manual. Did a great job though, the car literally handled like on rails after the work. I'm guessing that national chain places do a bunch of Taurus and SUVs, not a whole lot of RXs, doubt if they even have a workshop manual handy for lookin stuff like this up. And yes you do need to get a 4 wheel alignment (some of the national chains will tell you that 2 will do with RWD cars, that's what NTB told me about my Mustang and I ran away). A good shop that knows what they're doing and won't rip ya off will charge between 150 and 200.