When one takes there car to an alignment shop do they have to align a car per a factory spec or do they align it to the current cars conditions.

Reason I ask is because when you change tire width and wheel size should it not play a role in affecting the factory alignment specs and or with new or changed car height suspension changes.



~1996 Cavalier LS 2.4L (auto)

There's two schools of though on this. An alignment has nothing to do with tire/wheel/suspension combo, it is only based on the contact patch of the tire to the road. That's it. Even when you change wheel width and ride height, the angles are still relevant to each other and the road.

One- Since the alignment angles are only based on contact patch, yes they can do it to factory spec.

Two- If you have wider wheels/tires/lowered suspension, the factory spec may not be optimal, or even do-able. Most off the shelf lowering kits will still allow factory specs.

So, yes and no. Unfortunately, some shops will charge more if you tell them its lowered, and they're not doing anything more, just cashing in on consumer stupidity. You should never have to pay extra for an alignment like that. Some shops will even allow you to tell them what you want for angles, which is what I normally do.
.

So I guess this begs the question. If I "forgot" to tell the shop it was lowered would they align it properly? No one around here will touch a lowered car if you tell them it is. Idk why.

Coming from a guy who worked in a shop for a long time, its because people usually @!#$ it up rather than doing a good, clean install of aftermarket parts. So you NEVER know what you may be getting into and like already mentioned, if you try to charge extra even though it took you longer for whatever reason, they will cry foul. As the mechanic, it's much easier to avoid the situation altogether, trust me. only time I would ever work on a car that had work done like that was if it was a friends and I knew it was done right.


"In Oldskool we trust"

What tires are you running? That will tell you what camber you want to run. For me with the star specs 1* is perfect as verified on the auto-x course with chalk.

But, if you go into an alignment shop and give them a sheet with the exact alignment you want on it and they wont do it you dont want that shop touching your car anyways, or if you dont care , just take it to sears and get life time alignments for like $70 bucks and dont tell them it lowered. My car is a low as I'd ever drive it and people still ask me when its going to get lowered so you should be fine just taking it to a shop and not telling them its lowered if they want to be all gay like that and you dont care about performance.


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this year i installed new KYB struts front and rear got the whole kit spring and strut assembly, car actually sits higher, i can get under it and change oil with out lifting it lol.

the wheel and tire im have is 17" neon srt-4 wheels on nexen 3000 tires 205-50-17.

im going to take the car back to firestone cause after last weeks alignment now my car pulls hard to the left and it didn’t before.

Does anyone know if when you get lifetime alignment which is what I have do the mech’s still get paid same if I were to pay normally.

I feel like since I have lifetime alignment they half ass job it every time I take it there.



~1996 Cavalier LS 2.4L (auto)

Most places want to charge you extra for doing special alignment and then they don't guarantee the work after it's done so again, you really don't know if it's to spec or not. What's wrong with that picture?

This is why I've done my own alignments for the last 25 years and it's not that hard to do.
Good luck though and hope it goes as you want.



Misnblu.com
Newbie member since 1999
Thank you Dave and JBO!

i found a shop around me that does lowered cars for $100. myself and all my friends have been going to him for years. now we notched my eibach camber kit to line it up the same as he did.

your part right on the contact path cause if you lower a car your TOE will not be afected but your camber could be our cars have no adjustment on camber other then using the lobe bolts or ovaling 1 hole on the strut to allow it to be adjusted if you have AGXs you have this oval hole and your camber can be tweaked.

i had my alignment done camber and toe (since i got new tie rods) after i did my struts



JBO since July 30, 2001

i took the car on 12-11-10 and i took it again last night cause it was pulling to the left. the 1st visit they said the front right they were not able to get it adjusted. they needed more. i had them install -1^ to +1^ camber bolts too and I guess that was not enough.

after driving for a while it started to pull left so i took it back but to a different firestone shop as you can see they did a better job.

my question is now do every shops techs and machines vary? why did this time he was able to adjust things better and closer to spec? also I have a lifetime alignment on the car.

he did try to tell me that the rear is off alignment and there’s no way to adjust it. he also blamed the wider tires. my factory’s are 195-65-15 and i have on now 205-50-17.

12-11-10 visit


12-22-10 visit




~1996 Cavalier LS 2.4L (auto)

James Cahill wrote: . Unfortunately, some shops will charge more if you tell them its lowered, and they're not doing anything more, just cashing in on consumer stupidity. You should never have to pay extra for an alignment like that.

I disagree with this, this isn't common but I've had to remove the front bumper on a few GTI's and R32's to get the front heads to be able to see each other because the cars were so low. I sure as hell didn't do it for free.

they had to get ramps out for mine and it took a good 20 minutes to get mine up on their lift so it was worth paying the extra and seeing them take extra care on it as well.

Letxen3 wrote:my question is now do every shops techs and machines vary? why did this time he was able to adjust things better and closer to spec?

Yes. Sometimes they want to get it in and get it out as quick as possible. I've even seen techs who will have one guy hold something in the proper range and have his buddy hit print so you get a print out of whats correct, but its not actually set that way.

Letxen3 wrote:he did try to tell me that the rear is off alignment and there’s no way to adjust it. he also blamed the wider tires. my factory’s are 195-65-15 and i have on now 205-50-17.

He's wrong. The rear can use shims (up to a point).

I know some of you guys are upset with me for my views on this, but it ticks me off when shops try to charge extra for things like this. I realize some things NEED to be done (such as taking off a bumper cover as mentioned), but to charge extra simply because a car is lowered just isn't right. If you read the instructions for J alignment (either in the factory manual or on the built in rack instructions), it will tell you exactly how to do it. Not enough camber adjustment up front? You need to slot the strut holes. Rear toe out? Gotta put a shim in. This is all part of the alignment, and should be included in the price regardless. If the shop feels it needs to charge more, it should raise its base alignment price. Do I have an issue paying $80 for an alignment? No. But to go to a shop and have them try to tell me they can't or won't do it because of whatever (not enough adjustment, no room for tools, etc), or they want more money that the advertised price, I'll walk.
.

James Cahill wrote:

Letxen3 wrote:my question is now do every shops techs and machines vary? why did this time he was able to adjust things better and closer to spec?

Yes. Sometimes they want to get it in and get it out as quick as possible. I've even seen techs who will have one guy hold something in the proper range and have his buddy hit print so you get a print out of whats correct, but its not actually set that way.

Letxen3 wrote:he did try to tell me that the rear is off alignment and there’s no way to adjust it. he also blamed the wider tires. my factory’s are 195-65-15 and i have on now 205-50-17.

He's wrong. The rear can use shims (up to a point).

I know some of you guys are upset with me for my views on this, but it ticks me off when shops try to charge extra for things like this. I realize some things NEED to be done (such as taking off a bumper cover as mentioned), but to charge extra simply because a car is lowered just isn't right. If you read the instructions for J alignment (either in the factory manual or on the built in rack instructions), it will tell you exactly how to do it. Not enough camber adjustment up front? You need to slot the strut holes. Rear toe out? Gotta put a shim in. This is all part of the alignment, and should be included in the price regardless. If the shop feels it needs to charge more, it should raise its base alignment price. Do I have an issue paying $80 for an alignment? No. But to go to a shop and have them try to tell me they can't or won't do it because of whatever (not enough adjustment, no room for tools, etc), or they want more money that the advertised price, I'll walk.
.

see thats where we see different, they have to take extra precaution and more time to even get my car up on the rack. i saw them take a car drive it up right on in less than 30 seconds, it took them 15-20 minutes to get it up there so that the front didnt scrape and the sides cleared once it came over the peak. so i paid extra for that care and its worth it to me. most shops dont have or want to take the responsibility or damage the vehicle.

what gets me too, is its $80 for one time alignment and i paid $180 for lifetime, and i wonder if every time i bring it in for lifetime if they do the same quality type job as if i were paying for it every time.


~1996 Cavalier LS 2.4L (auto)

Letxen3 I would have the shop try to get the camber in the front end closer to matching. Also get them to install shims into the rear for the toe as the difference there is promoting a dog tracking condition. If you look at it both of your rear wheels are causing it to shove the rear end left as you are driving down the road. If you can get them to do it as well try to get your front camber numbers closer together as well.