R thread: Talked to a shop about aligning my 928. They won't do it - UPDATE
 

Here's the post on another website:

"I e-mailed the local Hunter rep a while back to find shops in my area with the Hunter alignment machine that we need for our 928's. One of the shops he told me to go to is the local Toyata dealer. I go to the dealer and speak with the service manager and tell him of my needs. He tells me that they can't do my car because they only have the software to do Toyota cars. He says that with all of the different kinds of cars out there it is not possible to have the specs for all of them. I would think they would be able to download specs for other vehicles without much difficulty. Guess I will keep looking."

My thoughts: I did an alignment at the Porsche dealer in Orlando in 2003, and I replaced the tires a year later. The alignment was BAD! They didn't provide me with a paper "receipt" of the alignment, since I figured that "A $180 alignment done by the company that produced the car would be as correct as possible. Wrong. Wrong! And wrong in a big f*cking way. My ride height is perfect, and my suspension is in good shape. They just screwed it up. Well, I enjoyed burning off the silly Yokohama tires I had at the time, and shortly AFTER installing the new Falken RT615's all around...I had the car aligned at Sears, on a Hunter DSP4000 unit.

The Falkens went on two years ago, and they've worn VERY quickly. Then again they have a 180 treadwear number, meaning that they are pretty soft for street driving. But that isn't without results: On the rear I went from a 275/40-17 to a 255/40-17. The car "hooks-up" so much better with the Falkens that it is nearly unbelievable. The first time I drove it out of my neighborhood, it was like driving a different car.

2500 miles later...they are about half used, but that's my "less-use-of-brakes" normal driving style I think.

My theory? Better tires with a good alignment and PROPER ride height will give you decent grip and better tread life.

N!

read it and made this observation:

I too, had a conversation with Hunter rep doing install of brand new laser/computerized alignment rack going in at my local tire store.

I did several things after my S4 suspension/brake upgrade:

put car on ground, let it settle, and then tightened the attaching bolts that hold the lower control arms to the body. the lower arm bolts were just finger tight, and then properly torqued when the car was placed on the ground after settling. (tape measure adjusted the toe)

filled gas tank to 3/4.

made sure tire pressures are same one side to the other.

made sure ride height was same one side to the other.

drove about 50 miles prior to alignment.

did not jack up car to get on alignment rack (it is a drive on rack), nor was it jacked up while on the rack. (JACKING IT UP IS WHAT SCREWS UP THE ALIGNMENT.)

put 150 lbs of weight in driver's seat during alignment.

aligned car to factory specs.


I have about 500 miles since alignment and no visible or measured tire wear to speak of---even after two DE events at TWS.

I am told that corner balancing will help as well.

Hopefully this helps------------:D

Some brand new tires have defects that make them wear poorly etc.

Suspension parts age, and degrade slowly over time, and get replaced only when problems become obvious.

Suspension repair is also the most incompetent and fraud ridden segment of auto repair, so I have a chip on my shoulder coming in the door.

Tires, suspension, and alignment need a single person you can point a finger at if its not right, so if I can, I have one place do all the related work. We just put new tires on our Lincoln, Kumho I think KR21, and they are great incredibly quiet tires. The shop that does all our domestic work, wanted to sell us the tires, and I told the owner I like the shop too much to buy tires from him, which I know are going to have issues, but I gave him a shot.

Issues so far;
Clip weights on my chrome wheels when I picked it up.
Vibration over 65 MPH showed up the other day, and mechanic thinks a strut is bad, but so far a rebalance fixed the issue.