Don't Know What To Do Anymore.. (car alignment )

[EagleTalon24]

So i went yesterday to firestone to get an alignment, and they couldn't do it because my bumper was to "low" with a 1.25 inch drop on front and rear.. and they told me they couldn't get my car on the alignment rack.

So today I went to les schwab and now les schwab is telling me I need front camber kits because they will not align my car with a -2 degree camber on the front right tire and a -1.5 degree camber on the front left tire. I have ingalls rear camber. I thought I only needed rear cambers with a 1.25 inch drop...

I have an appointment with another alignment shop on monday.. This place is preferably good with places that have lowered cars. Its called tru-line. I am getting tired of wasting gas to different places and chewing up my brand new pilot tires.. Should I give them a try or just give up and spend 100 dollars on cambers..

 

[ivan98gst]

im not very experienced in alignment. i still to the moment have problems with the camber caster with my car. i have koni suspension that droped my car like 2 inches. i took it to may shops and they wanted to charge me like $700.
some shop said they could do it if i bought that kit, witch is four bushings for the uppr control arm. Road Race Engineering's Eclipse Suspension Upgrades

i installed them and no one can get it right

 

[p75dsm]

i had the same problem with my car a couple of months ago at the alignment shop in the area..its like the biggest shop around here and my car is dropped about 3 inches and was going through front tires like crazy and they got it on the rack by having one guy drive it slowly up the rack and one guy very dangerously lifting the car on each front fender with their hands but then couldnt do it cause they had no room even with the car on the rack so took it back off and actually did my alignment while it was off the rack and did a good job too. if they can do mine without being on the rack im sure they could with yours. i didnt need camber kit either..my toe was just off with a 3 inch drop.

 

[EagleTalon24]

so I just got my car back form les schwab and the guy told me my toe was off 1.5 negative degrees(?) no paper work showing the degree numbers ...

he told me my cambers were negative 2 on the right and negative 1 on the left (different then what he told me on the phone)

He recommended for me to get a camber kit to give me a 3 degree positive camber on the front ..


this is the only paperwork he gave me..

edit: i didn't pay anything

it feels like he is just saying this because of how i changed the camber on the rear so he doesn't want to touch my vehicle...

 

[97gst_spyder]

If your car has different camber from side to side you should either get a front camber kit or figure out why there different. As for an alignment. Camber matters but its not the biggest issue, toe is. I run -2* camber on my sentra, and -1.5* camber on the rear. All the toe is set to 0*. My tires last at least 20k to 30k.


Biggest thing is to fix the front camber to match with either the camber kit or replace parts.

 

[EagleTalon24]

If your car has different camber from side to side you should either get a front camber kit or figure out why there different. As for an alignment. Camber matters but its not the biggest issue, toe is. I run -2* camber on my sentra, and -1.5* camber on the rear. All the toe is set to 0*. My tires last at least 20k to 30k.


Biggest thing is to fix the front camber to match with either the camber kit or replace parts.

i know toe is the issue..

i just want a 0 degree toe and this guy is telling me to get a positive camber on the front

I will just try the other place on monday i guess . .

 

[97gst_spyder]

Do NOT get a positive camber...

Think of the game Jenga.

Positive camber is one block on the bottom center. Not stable.

Negative camber is two blocks on opposite sides. Stable as it gets, for at least Jenga.

Plus you'll be a lot more stable in corners.

 

[EagleTalon24]

Do NOT get a positive camber...

Think of the game Jenga.

Positive camber is one block on the bottom center. Not stable.

Negative camber is two blocks on opposite sides. Stable as it gets, for at least Jenga.

Plus you'll be a lot more stable in corners.

the guy was telling me that i needed to get a positive camber to get a 0 degree toe..?

wtf. .

 

[latintuch112]

Hey EagleTalon24 by any chance was you car bought used and do you know if it may have been in a small fenderbender....if it was that may be the cause of the difference for the camber on the two sides the frame may be a lil tweaked...get the body checked out on a frame machine. I hit a curb not to hard over the winter in the snow and it deff. tweaked my alignment!!

 

[EagleTalon24]

Hey EagleTalon24 by any chance was you car bought used and do you know if it may have been in a small fenderbender....if it was that may be the cause of the difference for the camber on the two sides the frame may be a lil tweaked...get the body checked out on a frame machine. I hit a curb not to hard over the winter in the snow and it deff. tweaked my alignment!!

i bought the car with an offset alignment (october) I had stock tires/rims until then. A grandma was the previous owner of the vehicle everything was stock. Recently I lowered my suspension with the offset alignment I had originally when I bought the car. I now have new tires and when im driving my car the steering wheel is always tilting one way and my car will never drive straight in a open road without me always moving the steering wheel...

 

[knochgoon24]

You can adjust the front toe on the car without adjusting camber.

And if the shop can't get your car on the rack, they're just too lazy to take the time to use pieces of wood to help get it the clearance it needs up the rack.

 

[9tsi0]

I agree, there being to lazy. its not hard to get lowered cars on a rack. as for them saying you need a camber kit, is because they can only adjust so much of of the stock but i honestly dont think you are that low that the factory adjustments wouldnt work. if you have a college by you with an auto shop take it there and have them do it. itll be cheaper then a normal shop because students will be doin it, but the teacher will over look there work. atleast thats how it was when i was doing it. it should only mayb run you about 50 buck. good luck.

 

[Rex2342]

I agree that these shops are just being lazy and don't want to put the extra effort into into getting your car straight. I do alignments on lowered cars all the time at the shop I work at. It is a bit of a pain to get them on the rack but some shops just won't bother with it. We have one of the best alignment machines in the area and can align anything from a 68 Charger to a 2009 Prius. What the shop is telling about your camber is BS. Your camber doesn't have to be set to adjust the toe. However with it being different on each side the camber should be adjusted. When you adjust for camber it affects the toe so the camber must be adjusted first. If you get it aligned and they just do the toe it will go straight down the road but you could have tire wear issues due to excessive negative camber. What I would do is find a shop that actually wants your business. Talk with them over the phone and expalin whats going on.

 

[delta448]

Do It Yourself Alignment Tips

 

[TheOctane]

any shop that is worth it will be able to print you the alignment spec sheet....if they wont print it say you wanna see the computer while your car is on the rack.

Yes your car will have messed up camber if you change the ride height. The camber kits are not much money if i recall ($20-30)

if you have a toe problem get that fixed ASAP....Tow issues will kill your tires faster than anything else.

There is no car too low, just need some alternate ramps....

 

[jdsoza]

I agree with latintuch112! I think the car may have bumped a curb hard or been in a little fender bender. The camber kit may be necessary to align it, but at the same time $100 bucks is cheaper than a $400-1000 tire set. If it isn't broken fix it anyways cause it may lead to costly repairs soon. Also you can do an alignment by the old tape and string method, but it will take you like 6 hours to do. good luck to you.

 

[IHeartMyHonda]

if you go to a newer firestone (one that has opened within the past year) they have in-ground alignment racks specifically for lowered cars. go out there and chat with the techs. usually you can find someone out there who is an import guy and will take care of you no problem. tipping them always helps, too.

 

[EagleTalon24]

if im not mistaken alignment shops only align the toe on the car not the cambers right? If i have an uneven camber on my front two tires i should get a camber kit..

I will check in with the other place tmrw morning, hopefully they will give me a 0 degree toe on all for wheels with a bit of negative camber in the front and rear.

 

[Rex2342]

if im not mistaken alignment shops only align the toe on the car not the cambers right? .

This isn't always the case. At my work, if the vehicle has factory camber adjustments we adjust them if the camber is out of spec. The only exception being if they are seized and simply won't move. If there is no adjustment or a camber kit or shims are needed, we charge extra labor to install them plus whatever the parts cost but the alignment is still that same price. If the shop your going to is only doing a "toe and go" type alignment find another shop. Chances are they either don't know what they are doing or just don't care. Also at my shop we are required to give the before and after printout sheets showing what we did to correct the issues. If they're not giving you spec sheets they're probably not even really checking it out.

 

[EagleTalon24]

so I did the alignment today at another shop.

I pretty much have a 0.00 degree toe after the alignment noticeable changes were a .43 degree to a .01 degree toe on the right rear tire..

however my camber is uneven on all four tires, I don't have the alignment paper with me but i think its something like -1.3 on left tire and -1.5 on right front two tires.. All toe on all four tires is set to almost 0.00 degree.. They didn't do much as in adjusting the camber they only adjusted my rear camber by a bit...

they told me I need camber kits to actually adjust the camber

however my steering wheel is straight and it doesn't move to the right like it did last time.

I hope these won't chew up my tires. but yet again if i get a camber kit my toe will be off again

 

[PieEyedPiper]

Sounds like you did well in the end. I'd not worry over not perfectly matching camber values. Your last post indicates they're all in the same neighborhood.

 

[97gst_spyder]

+1 on that !