Who's the best alignment shop?

[bubba]

^ You're talking about Tires Plus.

[slowvo]

if you take your Audi to tires plus and expect them to have the Audi steering wheel holder, your pretty stupid.
And on the BMW, if you can adjust the rear ride height, how do you align it? If you change the setting, wont the camber be effected? Do you have to realign it?!?

also, why do some places charge differently depending on if you want the front or both axles done? how the hell do you do an alignment without doing the rear?

[MisterCMK]

ticklemedaly;166400 wrote:
how did yours turn out? :icon_king:

Both of our stores (Fargo and Moorhead) have the same 3-D aligners, but the Moorhead store has it set up with the inground hoist, so there is almost no angle to drive up. Ours in Fargo kinda sucks for very low/ground effected vehicles so to speak.

and CMK, what was wrong with your alignment from TP?

As for alignment packages, as long as everything is adjustable, normal price for 4 wheel is $69.99, 3yr/36K is $149.99, and a lifetime (as long as you own the vehicle) is $199.99....but that is Normal prices. We have coupons out there everywhere. Any additional adjustments that can be done that require additional work (i.e. strut grinds) typically run an additional 1/2 hour labor each.

It was not the TP up here rather the a couple of them down in the cities that I have had bad experiences with. From what I have seen here you guys do good work, but knowing what happened to me before has scared me off for now.

[Gundar1]

So if i went to valley imports to get my jetta realigned and camber realigned would they charge one rate or by the hour?

[ticklemedaly]

Gundar1;166448 wrote:
So if i went to valley imports to get my jetta realigned and camber realigned would they charge one rate or by the hour?

it all depends on if the camber is adjustable, which I dont believe it is. I havn't adjusted a VW for such a long time. If it is adjustable from the factory (no special tools, loosen bolts and make adjustment anotherwords) then there are no additional charges involved.

2 wheel involves only adjusting front. Many vehicle have no adjustments in the rear (trucks, suvs, vans).

As for the Audi, we get 1 Audi in the shop a week. Audi specs call for a good 2 hour alignment with special tools that the Technicians are required to purchase (we are not like the dealer where the tools are available on hand). If I see one a year for an alignment, why would I purchase a set of $500 tools for one set of vehicles? If you truly wanted the full Audi alignment, no shop in town other than the dealer would align it to 100% specs, but at a huge cost to you, not the $45 toe set that most vehicles are in need of.

End rant.

[MisterCMK]

yay for solid rear axles. I finally figured out how to do my own alignment and I can usually pull it in to spec or at least very close

[KA-T_240]

My alignment from TP doesnt come with a lifetime warranty. or a warranty of anysort.

and my car made it on the fargo rack with no problem.

[slowvo]

shit, i totally forgot that those rear axles arent adjustable....dont see any that are not on the European side of cars.

[ticklemedaly]

slowvo;166477 wrote:
shit, i totally forgot that those rear axles arent adjustable....dont see any that are not on the European side of cars.

there are some german/vw ones that have sold "beam" axles that arn't adjustable. It all depends on if the manufacture made them adjustable or if there are aftermarket parts available to adjust them (like replacement control arms). Some solid rears are able to be shimmed.

[ticklemedaly]

KA-T_240;166468 wrote:
My alignment from TP doesnt come with a lifetime warranty. or a warranty of anysort.

and my car made it on the fargo rack with no problem.

I believe you got a 3yr/36K alignment....at least im pretty sure because Andy did it the first time and got credit for it while I had to readjust it all and got nothing. Yours is pretty low and is among the lowest that we are able to get on without damage to the lips/underbody.

[wa2fastcamaro]

So who's the best shop, or can any of the guys on here do it. I need it done next week, I need a 4 wheel alignment and everyhting on the car is adjustable.

Mike

[KA-T_240]

I would say either valley alignmnet. or bring it to TP in fargo and have Ryan do it.

Off topic, I saw the fiero today... If its the blue one.

[wa2fastcamaro]

KA-T_240;166502 wrote:
I would say either valley alignmnet. or bring it to TP in fargo and have Ryan do it.

Off topic, I saw the fiero today... If its the blue one.

Well I don't know Ryan, and if I took it the the fargo tires plus he better be able to do it and damn good, because that place has fucked up so much of my stuff it isn't even funny. They couldn't even change tires without screwing up something on my car.

Oh ya, you saw I had the fiero sitting out front. Its comming together, I want it aligned now before I assemble more of it, because it would be much easier. Another month or so and it will be ready for paint.

[inspector01]

I can't remember the shop up here in GF that did my old car, but they seemed to do a really good job. But we had to pull the front bumper off cuz it wouldn't have made it up there with the lip on.

I may have mine done by Ryan next time because i really don't trust most of the d-bags that work at these shops to drive my car.

[Raider]

"what is the best shop" thats not what u need...most shops have new align racks and equipment including Lunde's, but if you have some dumbass that doesnt know what to do or what to change to correct the issue then what good is it to you

I stand behind my techs and if your not happy on the alignment then I will realign it and take care of it

[ticklemedaly]

Raider;166527 wrote:
"what is the best shop" thats not what u need...most shops have new align racks and equipment including Lunde's, but if you have some dumbass that doesnt know what to do or what to change to correct the issue then what good is it to you

I stand behind my techs and if your not happy on the alignment then I will realign it and take care of it

exactly. there are many "best shops" out there. you need to find yourself one. We can all suggest going to place A or B or 1 or 2, but you need to go somewhere that you know someone you can trust. This day in age, it is just plain rediculous how people dont have a personal Technician that they know/trust. When something is needed or a major repair is a must, they start to ask questions as to who to trust. That really shouldn't be an issue at that point, it is a matter of getting it fixed correctly the first time (which doesn't ALWAYS happen due to many scenarios). If you dont trust a shop because of a past experience, then you need to go somewhere else. Im not saying that I cannot align it for you. It is just in my experience that if someone has had a bad time once, they will never be happy again with that place and will go elsewhere. If you EVER have a bad time, you need to talk with a service manager to get it straightened out. Dont go in pissed off looking to kill someone. They wont take you seriously. Go in calm, explain your problem and ask, DONT DEMAND, ask to correct it if they can. 9 times out of 10 they will get it straightened out for you.

To give you guys an idea of how many alignments that I as well as the others do there, we do Gateway (Nissan/Hyundai), Advanced Auto Body, Quality Auto Body and many many MANY other shops alignments. This is either because they dont have the time to do it (too many on their own), dont have anyone who knows what they are doing, or dont have the $30,000+ in alignment equipment. Ive got 4 years of alignment experience as of now, I hate doing them but it is my job and I do it with pride. I complete each of them to specs as much as possible (depending on adjustments available or if additional work needed that the customer is willing to do). There is absolutely no money in alignments for me. So dont go thinking that us charging $50 or more for an alignment is a rip. I have other work that I actually make money off of that I (as well as the other Technicians) would much rather do. We do them to keep our customers happy and to keep coming back. If you dont come back because of a bad experience, is it because of the shops or because you didn't do anything about it?

Again, end rant/lecture.

[ticklemedaly]

inspector01;166523 wrote:
i really don't trust most of the d-bags that work at these shops to drive my car.

This is very true due to the high amounts of high school students that work at many shops that do oil/lube/tire work. Again, need to find someone you trust that isn't going to go burning the tires off your car and crashing it into a parked car.

[wa2fastcamaro]

ticklemedaly;166546 wrote:
This is very true due to the high amounts of high school students that work at many shops that do oil/lube/tire work. Again, need to find someone you trust that isn't going to go burning the tires off your car and crashing it into a parked car.

Well I will tell you what, you have made a good arguement, SO whens a good time I can schedule to get my fiero in? i want it done next week, as I cannot really even test drive the car with everyhting off so much. I would have to trailer the car over there, cause as it sits half the body is missing. I plan on running the car on the race track some and have some expensive tires for it and don't want them wearing funny. Should be a easy alignment, because my suspension is all brand new all aftermarket performance parts.

Mike

[thrash]

slowvo;166444 wrote:
if you take your Audi to tires plus and expect them to have the Audi steering wheel holder, your pretty stupid.
And on the BMW, if you can adjust the rear ride height, how do you align it? If you change the setting, wont the camber be effected? Do you have to realign it?!?

I didn't expect them to have it, but I did ask on the off-chance that they did, or that they'd at least heard of trying to center-lock the steering rack and might be willing to try eyeballing it. No on both counts.

You should refrain from questioning the intelligence of others when you neglect to differentiate between the various homophones of "you're".

On the subject of the BMW - as I stated, setting the rear ride height affects the rear camber - the two do not change completely independantly, and the measurement of rear camber has to be done with the key on the ON position and the appropriate weights distributed to the correct seating locations. The ride height needs to be measured and corrected, and then the camber measured. The camber isn't separately adjustable on the car, but can be modified with eccentric adjusters.

When I go to a shop not capable or not interested in doing the job completely and correctly, I expect them to tell me that. I don't expect to have to explain to a professional mechanic how my suspension works.

In the case of the Audi, not understanding that the front camber is adjustable was pretty lame. The ball joint receiver on the control arm is slotted, and most 80s era Audi suspensions work this way.

I completely agree that you can't do the job properly for $50 or $70 bucks. So where should someone go when the job needs to be done properly?

[MisterCMK]

Dude, you are talking about having a European car with too much extra bogus suspension shit aligned. Take it to the fucking dealership.