Worst alignment ever...

[Nanan]

So after getting my Tokico shocks, Eibach Pro springs, Prothane Bushings, and new balljoints I hit up the local alignment shop who had done the previous alignment on the car. I thought I could trust these guys because they had done a good job the last time and the car tracked well and had minimal tire wear.

Well I guess these guys were only good at working on stock suspension cause they sure as hell suck at working on lowered cars. I asked the guy right off if he was going to have any problems with aligning the car after he took his innitial inspection, he stated that the tires were a bit feathered on the front but other then that no problems. So I drop off my car and go eat some food with my mother. I come back and the shop dude says he needs the alignment specs for the rear end??? Im like wtf shouldnt you know this? So I go home and hop on tuners and give him some specs to shoot for camber -1*+/-.2* and toe: toe in = 0.12*. The guy says no problem he will have it done before they close and will give me a call, they close at 6pm. Well 5:45 rolls around and no call, then 6pm, so I call them and I talk to the guy at the desk who says the alignment guy left and my car was still on the rack. I tell the guy ok have the alignment dude finish it up tomorrow and Ill come pick it up at noon, he says no prob.

Noon yesterday(thursday) I head over to the shop and check on the car, its now parked in the front of the store and the dude said it was done, I paid for the service and went home. I was stuck in slow trafic all the way home so I never got up above 30mph, the car felt a bit loose in the rear but nothing major.

Today my first day back to work after 3 weeks of vacation, its a quick 30 min drive almost all highway. I say to my self good I get to see how this thing handles now that Iv got a damn near brandnew suspension on the car. All was well untill I got into some open road where when I tried to get up to 65 the rear of the car started drifting back and forth violently like I had lost a wheel. I pull over and look at the rear wheels which seem fine, shake wheels pull in out etc... nada. I continue my drive to work going 40ish which seems to be just under the unstable point. On my way home I noticed that the car started to do the drifting floaty thing alot more even at low speeds so I took the backroads home to avoid high speed roads.

So now I am home and I had a chance to jack up the car and take come pics... Big pics for clarity.

I called the shop and they said that there isnt much that they can do for me as my aftermarket suspension was likely the fault... WTF

PS Toe
DS Toe
PS Toe damage

 

[jtmcinder]

When you picked up the car, did you get a print-out of the alignment?

- Jtoby

 

[Nanan]

No I did not which kinda irks me. That was one of the things I asked about today when I called to bi***. The alignment dude said the printer hooked into the alignment computer was broken, they do not have a disk drive in that comp, they cant access the internet, and no it cant get to desktop to where I could save the file to a usb drive.

By eyeballing it I can tell that the suspension is about 2.5* camber inward and about 3 deg toe out.

 

[Zex4g63]

Did you install camber kits while you had the suspension apart? Because camber is non adjustable from the factory. As far as the toe in the rear, the bolts gets rusted in the bushing making it impossible to adjust that without buying new arms. By no means does that excuse the fact that they gave the car back to you and said nothing tho. The computerized alignment machine has made people stupid. Essentially if it isn't on the screen, they don't now how to fix it. If you walked into most shops these days and asked what camber, caster, and toe are, then asked how they effected driveability people would look at you stupid.

 

[Nanan]

Yes there is an Ingalls camber kit on the front and rear of the car. As for the the suspension all the bushings are new along with the balljoints, the bolts freely move in the sleeves and they are well greased.

 

[Zex4g63]

Excellent! Looks like you have it covered. Time for a new alignment shop.........

 

[Nanan]

Finding an alignment shop that would even touch my car was the problem to begin with. It seems that most shops are deathly afraid of the AWD E/L/T cars due to their complex suspensions. Sadly I seem to live in a dead spot for import cars and tuner shops, most of the places around here only work on F bodys, mustangs and the ocasional civic. Even the big chain places like Car-X and Meineke turned me away because they did not have the equipment to work on my car. I am at a loss here and its really pissing me off.

 

[jtmcinder]

Find your local SCCA region (starting with http://scca.com) and then get on their electronic list. Ask where people go. Autocrossers live and die by alignment and will know which shops have their heads on straight.

- Jtoby

 

[Nanan]

Damn I am a retard, I know the Solo2 regional chairman. Thanks for the idea.