Rep Power: 0

i went to firestone today for an alignment...they had no problem as long as my car made it on the ramp.

but then after waiting over an hour the dude comes back out and is like:
"the car is too low...the instrument that reads that measures the distance or w/e doesn't have a clear view across."

now i've had my alignment done before w/ this setup at two different shops but i had 17" rims. I now have 15" rims and 195/55/15 tires(i got them from my friend's integra). could this be because these tires are slightly smaller in diameter than stock?

i was kinda pissed off but i'm not too mad since i don't really care about tearing up these tires. but i was wondering if this is possible. and if i buy the stock sized tires will I be ok? i'm on tein s techs and blues just in the front(stupid bolt won't come undone!).

also i'm gonna attempt to string up my alignment. how do i loosen up the tie rod nut? and what is a good surface to put the wheels on? um also...other than the tires is there anything catastrophic about screwing w/ the toe?

i was messing w/ the alignment today and couldn't figure out how to get the tierod nut loose so i just adjusted the camber bolt in the front and it changed toe quite a bit. i was able to even out the toe so i was no longer drifting to one side or the other....this is good for now but i'd like to get 'er closer to normal. i have a lot of questions today....last one...when i'm accelerating there's a humming sound from my front tires is that the toe or the camber? or both? my rears are fine since i haven't touched them ever...'cept for that damn bolt.

 
Rep Power: 423

Oh jeez, don't do alignment work without the gauges unless you know what you're doing, which it doesn;t seem like you do and the square string thing is a lot harder than it looks. You can't eyeball alignments, it never works.
The danger is your car doesn't turn at all (too much toe in either direction) or you end up with uneven toe and the car goes one way and not the other.
Taller tires will raise up the car, but there's easier ways to get the car on the ramp (like putting 2x4s at the edge of it. )
If I remember right the tie rod nuts are left handed, so it may be righty loosey, but just look at the threading you should be able to figure out which way is off right away. You need to grab the tie rod end with a wrench and hold it still so you can loosen the nut, which is probably siezed in place from corrosion and dirt. Breaker bar is good.
And can't read across the car is bullshit, the laser rack reads from the front of the car, sounds like they just don't want to do it.

 
Rep Power: 327

^^^^^

 
Rep Power: 327

Ohhh and on some cars and some alignment machines there needs to be line of sight beneath the front bumper. sometimes a low body kit /and or slammed car makes it difficult. I've had some cars that the front bumper needed to be pulled off to be able to do the alignment

 
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k thanks... i guess i'll go back to the shops i went to before

 
Rep Power: 423

Just out of simple curiosity since I know you do this for work.... what do you do if someone brings in a car like a Corvette, Ferrari or any of those other low slung sportscars that just has no front clearance? You can't align it?

 
Rep Power: 327

Supprisingly enough say a new corvette for example has plenty of clearance. On our old machine that we have 2 of now collecting dust, we couldnt do a lot of cars because of the low clearance. But on our current machine you can adjust how low the head actually hangs on the clamp. Most machines made say in the last 10 years? can be adjusted this way. But some of the older ones you were kind of stuck. As an example on my civic, prior to our new machine i had to pull the frt bumpper to be able to do an alignment on it. We dont have issues with the rack because we have a pit that we do our alingments on. I've done some VERY low riding cars on this new machine and its rare to NOT be able to get one to work.