Rep Power: 0

Hey i just went to get my car aligned.. all 4 wheels. It's been a year, and i'm sure my car is out of alignment. So i drop my car off and come back in about 20 minutes.. and to my surprise the car is sitting outside. The guy told me it would take an hour ! by the way.. my car is lowered on neuspeed race springs. So i pay for it and he tells me.. well your car isn't aligned all the way.. "you need a camber kit to do that" then i said.. I HAVE A CAMBER KIT! Then he says..o well you can only adjust one so much. blah blah blah.. He told me to try to get "additional parts" for my camber kit and all this other bs. I have ingalls camberkit and the people that installed it said its the best quality you can get. My question is.. is it true that you can't get accurate alignment with a lowered car? the guy said the tires will still wear weird and stuff.. and i'm just like , why am i paying for alignment when my tires won't be aligned? I thought that was the whole purpose of the camber kit. the people who aligned my car last year didn't say anything about it. There is a copy of my alignment paper on the attachments, can someone who knows about alignment tell me if they were telling me the truth. I have a feeling that they didn't adjust my camber kit or something cuz they said i didn't have one. thanks guys

 
Rep Power: 412

Dude, you got ripped. The rear is close to spec but slightly out. Ingalls should be able to handle more than that. I think you need to find a race alignment shop that knows how to deal with lowered cars. He could have definitely done better than that.

 
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They said no one could do better then they did or adjust the camber more and if i found someone that could, i could bring it back.. should i ask for a refund? do i deserve a refund?

 
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Rep Power: 412

I don't know what to tell you. I am sure there aren't many racing shops in DE, but I am 99% positive that they could get less than -1.7 and -1.8 camber in the rear. I have -.8 and I have plenty of room. The only thing that could possible confuse them is if the camber kit was not "set up" properly to begin with. The two arms of the camber kit should have been about equal length when installing the kit.

 
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with the specs i have now, will it really make a difference if i try to fix it? Will the tires last any longer?

 
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robb i looked at your pictures

 
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even if they didn't adjust it the best possible, did they adjust it a lot from the way it was before? did i need alignment?

 
Rep Power: 412

Well I am running close to -2 camber in the front and -.8 in the rear. As long as you rotate your tires every 2-3 months you should be good. You will probably see some wear but you aren't that far out of spec. I just hate it when the stupid guys don't know what the fvck they are doing. Obviously the camber kit isn't a stock camber kit and they know that but they dont know what the fvck to do with it. That is why I suggest a race alignment shop. YOu can always change it to add less camber and then bring it back to them for minor tweaks, if they don't know what to do. It isn't that hard to do your own alignment but it should be tweaked for more accurate specs by a shop.

 
Rep Power: 412

Not really. They changed some of the toe, but it wasn't anything to worry about. They actually didn't change that much at all. Where is says BEFORE is what it was on the rack before the made adjustments. Where is says ACTUAL is what it was after they were done. Anything RED is outside of spec, and anything GREEN is inside specs. You can see they didn't do ****.

 
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how do you do alignment yourself!

 
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and i have directional tires, so does it make a difference rotating them front to back every 3 months?

 
Rep Power: 279

That printout is off of a Hunter machine....anyway, the alignment guy doesn't show **** if thats what you got. You don't have to go to a race shop, but find a shop that knows what they are doing. My main alignment guy is excellent, the best I have ever worked around. We do a lot of custom stuff for the hot rodders around here. What is this shop?? A reputable shop, or a Sears kinda shop??

I think you got hosed....

 
Rep Power: 412

I do it

Your camber up front is only -.4 and rear is -1.5, so yes it will make a difference.

There are a few methods, one being the string method. The other is just counting the number of turns or just eyeballing it. Like I said, you can make large movements to push the rear camber from -1.5 to say around -.8 by eyeballing it and then have them do the small adjustments. I would bitch them out and have them give you another alignment for free.

 
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national tire and battery, should i go back and tell them to do it again?

 
Rep Power: 279

^^ So, basically Sears......you could either make them do it again, or take it to a reputable shop, pay them to do it, then take both print outs back to NTB and tell them you want a refund...that's probably what I would do.

 
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robbclark said its not a big deal and it won't really make a difference..
so if that is the case i'll just keep the alignment the way it is and never go back there

 
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do places that are just alignment places do better jobs then a sears or ntb?

 
Rep Power: 281

dude i do alignments for pep boys, and ill tell you if anything comes in that is lowered or has any suspension mods, we usually kick it out the door. alignments only pay the guy who is doing it a hour of labor time, basically, doing a alignment on a lowered car is gonna take longer then that to get it done right, hense, a regular tech like me dosent want to spend 2 hours on your car if it only pays me one hour, see the dilemma. basically, take it to someone and tell them you are willing to pay the cost to get it dont right, if you want it done right

 
Rep Power: 298

i also do alignments. the way that your printout looks, it seems they adjusted toe on front and rear. and it looks like they used a hunter machine. the machine tells the tech that there isnt any rear camber so they probobly didnt bother to look and just did you toe. i can do a civic with front and rear camber kits in about 30 min if everything moves easily.

 
Rep Power: 416

take it back.. its pretty clear to me they didnt even touch the camber...
him telling you you need additional parts and you saying that you do and him saying oh well we already adjusted it as far as we could should have already told you that he's sh*tting you..
^run on sentence but eh, sue me...

 
Rep Power: 279

We do alignments on all kinds of lifted and lowered stuff, and most are no different if the people who did the lift or lower know what they are doing. We will get it as close as whatever adjustments allow us to. Very rarely does it take any longer than a stock vehicle.

 
Rep Power: 416

i need to take my car to your shop... the shops down here suck a$$ or charge too much.
only if i was in norcal...

 
Rep Power: 279

^^^^ find a Tirepros dealer in your area.....

http://www.tirepros.com/locator.asp

 
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the guy told me that it takes 30 minutes to "set up" the car on the machine and only 5 actual minutes to do it! How many miles will my tires last with this alignment if i rotate them every 3 months... and how many will they last if i get it redone and its done right? If its not going to make a big diffrence i'm not going to bother with it!

 
Rep Power: 416

the thing is, you paid for it to be done RIGHT.
but eh it really shouldnt be that big of a deal. its just camber and it isnt off by a whole lot since -1.5 is spec. you can always flip the tires around so that the good side now starts wearing out.

 
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i have directional tires.. so i can't flip them on the other side of the car

 
Rep Power: 412

Just get it done...then you don't have to worry about rotating. I order you to get it done again and stop being indecisive hahaha

 
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FINE, i'm going to get it done

 
Rep Power: 416

eh i do too, thats why i had to dismount/mount them again. Paid $10 a wheel for it... So i guess in a sense, its just worth it to take it back to them