alignment off again two days later

[The motor guy]

I had my alignment done and they said my truck need a caster kit so I brought the truck back like they wanted. They didn't do anything about the caster being out of spec by about 1.5 degrees. I'm not sure what the point was of me coming back but whatever. They told me the toe was out of spec again after just a couple hundred miles of driving so they realigned the toe again. They said the ball joints were tight and they had no idea what would cause the toe to be out since toe and caster are unrelated to one another. Any opinions? I didn't see the point of spending the money for the kit if they didn't even know why the alignment was out. So now the steering wheel is crooked AND the truck pulls from the caster being out. It didn't pull before I just wanted them to fix the crooked steering wheel. So what do you think? I wasn't happy and the guy offered to give me my money back but I wasn't sure I wanted to do that yet. I paid for a lifetime alignment.

 

[demarpaint]

They may not have aligned it right the first time.

Over the years I had quite a few alignments done, some good some not so good. Several times I had to remind the tech to check the air in the tires before he started. Now I always fill my tires before an alignment because 90% of the time the tech forgets to check them.

Honestly if you're not happy take the money back and go somewhere else.

 

[yonyon]

You don't by any chance happen to have very smooth alloy wheels that are a bit slippery from detailing products do you?

 

[GSCJR]

I think they meant camber not caster. One you adjust the camber by installing a camber kit, the toe requires resetting. Standard procedure.

 

[cmorr]

Originally Posted By: demarpaint
Honestly if you're not happy take the money back and go somewhere else.


^^ This, sounds like you bought a "lifetime" of frustration.

 

[The motor guy]

I guess i'll try another firestone and see if they can adjust it. Unfortunately the same guy was there today so I didn't have much luck.

 

[demarpaint]

Originally Posted By: cmorr
Originally Posted By: demarpaint
Honestly if you're not happy take the money back and go somewhere else.


^^ This, sounds like you bought a "lifetime" of frustration.


Exactly, and odds are they have one or two guys that do alignments. So there's a 50/50 chance [possibly] at best the same guy will be doing the job again. That builds resentment, who needs it?

 

[The motor guy]

why would the toe be out again by like 8 degrees on both sides?

 

[CapriRacer]

Originally Posted By: motor_oil_madman
why would the toe be out again by like 8 degrees on both sides?


Like other's have said, this doesn't sound right. Could this have been 0.08 degrees? That would be a reasonable number for toe. 8 degrees isn't. Heck, even 0.8 degrees isn't reasonable.

 

[The motor guy]

.08

 

[yonyon]

It's a great big pickup truck with all the weight of a diesel engine up front. There's a lot of force acting on those front end components.

If you were to drive the truck forward a few feet, measure the toe-in, then drive it backwards two feet and measure again there's a very good chance you'd see a difference in the ballpark of your 0.08 degrees.

 

[The motor guy]

It's interesting how I've had this thing aligned a couple times now and never heard a peep and on the third time I bring it in for this lifetime alignment thing and they try to sell parts to me.

 

[ChrisW]

Originally Posted By: motor_oil_madman
It's interesting how I've had this thing aligned a couple times now and never heard a peep and on the third time I bring it in for this lifetime alignment thing and they try to sell parts to me.


A competent alignment technician should check basic suspension and steering components before doing an alignment. In the realm of single fee alignments, a comeback that turns out to be worn suspension components ends up costing time and money. I would assume that with the lifetime alignments, one of two things happen, the shop doesn't care enough and just gets it done, or they count on the fact that suspension components do wear and will try and sell you parts throughout the period of your alignments. (I may be off in some of my thinking, just my two cents.)

I'm curious as to what parts they are trying to sell to you?

 

[The motor guy]

A caster kit. The guy said it would be $140.00 cause it takes about an hour to install.

 

[Hokiefyd]

Please post a copy of the alignment sheet. Alignment geometry is holistic: that is, you really can't just look at one number and try to get comments on that, because other aspects of alignment may affect it.

Please post a copy of the alignment printout.

 

[Ken2]

There is a caster/camber adjuster kit for 4wd Rams, Moog #K100132, $12 from Rock Auto. You probably don't need it; you need a tech that knows his stuff.

Try a real alignment shop, not Firestone we-do-it-all.

 

[JBardin]

I know how You feel. I took my truck Sunday and dropped it off at a Firestone while I was going to do stuff. I bought 4 tires and had the alignment done. I had just replaced all the front suspension and steering the day before. Its a 97 chevy 1500.
I told them if it needed anything to call for the alignment because usually it needs the cam kit on the upper arms. They only called trying to sell me a brake fluid flush which I declined.
Went to get the truck, paid them 79.99 for the alignment. Drove off and noticed the truck pulled to the right. I had to turn the wheel to the left about 15 degrees to go straight.
I had to go to work so i took it back yesterday, and they said that it needed a cam kit. I asked why wasnt it done the day before and they said the technician didnt need one. So now a day later it needs it.
I told them to thats why I brought it to them on Sunday to have ready for me so i could drive to work Monday.
They wanted another 2 hours of my time and another $150.00.
I argued and got my money back, and will be taking it the the place we use for work trucks today and have them do it.
I will never use Firestone again.