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Just had an Alignment done at Firestone, I am beyond confused

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chico904

15+ Year Contributor
1,348
5
Feb 9, 2004
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Hey all,

So, I had my alignment performed at Firestone, and I was out of ways to express my disbelief at the results. I have a 1996 Eclipse GST, lowered on Eibach Pro-Kit springs with Yellow Konis with RRE's camber kit for the rear(longer bolt and washer style) Upon picking the car up, they don't have the readout for the front end (fantastic) and this is what I was given for the rear. I might as well kiss my tires goodbye with almost 1.50 in toe, so the car will sit for now.
Now, when I asked why everything was so far out, I was given the response that they need to have a "Eibach spec sheet" at what the settings should be. They told me however that they "think" that even though the readings appear that they are way off, they might be fine depending on what it should be with the lowering kit. I know I have been out of the car game for a while, and have forgotten things, but
A: Shouldn't they still adjust it to factory settings unless I tell them otherwise?
B: If there is a so-called Eibach spec sheet, where would I find it?

Thanks,
Charlie
 

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Regardless of what kit it is they should always resort to near basic oem specs, yes its lowered but without a custom setup for a perticular setting like track,drag,autox etc then everywhere should automatically take the oem specs and get as close to them as possible unless you go somewhere and the guy knows the better dsm setup for the road. When i always get mine done i get them to make sure the front have slight toe in for faster cornering and make the steering as central as possible and not counteract the road curve. Its not alot of anything just not oem spec thats all. Get it all in the green and you will be fine
 
Thanks Bobby,

That's what I figured, I just wanted to make sure I wasn't in the wrong here, as I am no suspension guru by any means.
 
Neither am i dude. Im still learning aswell but from the years of asking for my own tweeks and open days its always the basic rule of any car to follow oem specs as much as possible! I mean your only lowering your car its not like you want more or less toe and caster on purpose right. So its common sense to adjust the adjustables to spec! Oem spec LOL
 
Toe should've been adjusted. They didn't do their job.

I'd go back in, make them give you specs for the front at least and have them adjust for toe. Or if you get front camber specs, adjust the rear camber to be about half the front (your camber is a bit too low for my liking), and then take it back and have them adjust toe. You do not want to run the car with the toe out that much.
 
If it were me, I'd be taking it to a better shop that deals with modified cars.

My guess would be either they didn't try to adjust rear toe or they added so many washers to dial out negative camber in the rear, that they couldn't get toe in spec. Like Brian said, will depend on what kind of camber you have up front (somewhere around -1.5 is not a bad start for a street car) but I would be looking for something like -1 or abit more negative in the rear. Toe zero, all around. If the reason why they couldn't get toe in spec is too many washers, remove some of the washers to get more negative camber & they should then be able to get toe in spec (unless you have suspension damage).
 
Thanks for the help guys. I wouldn't be surprised if like mentioned the bolts are super rusted. Question, I have the lifetime alignment there, is that something that shops typically charge extra for if the bolts are seized?
 
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No more charges for the alignments but they will still charge you for any parts or additional work like freeing up rusted bolts, etc.

Go home, free up everything and go nuts with the anti-seize, then take it back in.
 
Little late to the party, but just happened to see this. As an alignment tech I find that outrageous that they even let that roll out of the shop looking like that. I wouldn't have paid a dime for it. You have very little camber for the amount of toe that the car has. Even with seized up toe arms you should've been notified that there was an issue and that they couldn't properly align the car.

Something to note- the lifetime alignments seem great to the customer, however, if you want a custom alignment done or something that requires a greater adjustment than just a "set the toe and go" car they really aren't that great. The alignment techs get paid .1 hours for lifetime alignments instead of the 1.2 hours for a regular alignment. Unfortunately what that generally means for the customer is a quick and sub-par alignment. Best thing to do would be to either talk to the tech on the side and see if you can bring him a pizza or case of beer etc to get the alignment done properly, or find a shop willing to do custom alignments for a fair price.
 
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