I recently had a front end alignment but was not happy with it. The owner of the shop was kind enough to give me my money back. I want to take it somewhere they will make me happy. Where can I go besides the dealer. BUT if necessary I will take it to the dealer (May be my best bet).
Thanks in advance to all who reply(you guys are great).

 

Many dealers do not have alignment equipment. If your dealer does alignment, I would ask for input from local vette owners about their satisfaction. If the dealer does not do alignment, I would ask the service writer at the dealer where they send their vettes for alignment.

 

is there a local Vette club in your area?
if so, its a great source of info on such things.

If not, search the forum for forum members near you and shoot them an email.

next, are thier any car shows, cruise ins etc near you? check there for info.

Anywhere you take it, ask a lot of questions. My 1st one would be.."how many corvettes have you done" :D

 

Also, I don't think you can only do a front end alignment on a vette. Service manual calls for you to align the rear first, followed by the front.

Remeber, if the thrust wheels are out of alignment, it will force the car to do weird things. Get a four wheel job, ask for the before printout( they are supposed to check your car first, then align it to spec) and the after printout (shows what they changed, and how much. This way you can compare the before with the after, and compare both of those to the stock alignment settings.) Hope you can get your car setup to your satisfaction.

J :seeya :steering: :steering:

 

I do my own. See the instructions on my website in my signature below.

 

Mez.. Nice web site :cheers:

 

:iagree: Nice work on the site :cheers:

 

I can say with confidence, "DO NOT, under any circumstances take it to Pep Boys." Can't advise beyond that, but would recommend you find a shop with a Hunter machine. Stay away from Visualiner machines.

I took my car to Pep Beotches for 4 wheel align, and they royally screwed up the alignment. Their 2nd attempt was a little better but they didn't tighten camber rods on rears and a bunch of negative camber creeped in after driving it.

So, if you let Pep Beotches align it you 'll fell like this afterwards:

:banghead: :cuss :mad

 

Yeah, the dealer will probably just align the front end to factory specs which, IMO, have WAY to much positive camber. My tires always wore on the outside. Just adjust the camber specs to 0 or up to 1 degree negative. But this is just my opinion.

Yeah, about Pep Boys, I had an alignment there as well. They just did a "toe and go" and didn't even look at the camber. Stay far away with your C4. They have no clue. OK for ricers, however.

BIG JIM


[Modified by BIG JIM 54, 9:37 PM 1/11/2003]

 

My fronts have a hint of positive camber-- don't care for it. I wonder how much it will effect caster to remove one shim off each bolt, both sides? As for toe change, i can adjust for that, but I don't think it possible to measure caster without benefit of a machine.

 

Lt195, corvettes require a four wheel alignment :yesnod:

Find other corvette owners in your area and ask them where to take your corvette for service such as this. If you don't know any other owners, go to a couple of parts stores and ask the guy at the counter where to take it. They will steer you in the right direction! :thumbs:

 

In order to help I need to know 2 things:
1) Do you remember, or can you find out, if the alignment machine was the type that points lazer under the car or down the sides?
2) Explain what it was that you did not like.

This is why I ask:
In General, Corvette's, and other cars that are low to the ground, can be a PIA to align on a machine. If the lazer heads have the arm that swings
down under the car, it must have a clear shot to the arm on the other side.
On the C4 the radiator and shroud is in the line of vision. If the car is
lowered the end pieces on the front spoiler are in the way as well.
If you slide the heads down on the brackets in order to get a reading, what
readings you get will not be accurate at all. I personally verified this.
So.....if you want it done by a shop, look for one with Hunter machine that sights the lazer down the sides of the car. (electronic version of the string and jackstands method).
Assuming we have a shop with the 'good' Hunter Machine if you look at the
stock alignment specs, there is a very large range of "accdeptable" settings.
Significant improvements can be made in the handeling and still say within
the stock range. But this is a very personal thing and different drivers will
like different settings. A good consertive place to start is "0". 0 toe
up front, 1/16 toe in rear, and 1 to 1.5 degree negative camber all the
way round. I don't worry much about caster as long as there is about 4
degrees minimum. 1 degree negative is not a lot of camber, in fact looking at
the car you will hardly be able to see it. It shoud not dart with these
settings and the tires should were even with agressive driving. If
you are not agressive then back off to 0 to -.5
I always set my car the same left and right and live with the slight
drift on crown roads.
Most people who autocross and race do their own and the old string and
jackstands method can be very accurate if you take your time. One very
helpfull thing to ask is: How much does the toe change with 1/2 turn of
each tie rod front and back? There are many camber gagues on the market
search the internet for "alignment".

Get back to me.

 

:iagree:

My car is lowered and I also road race and autocross with it. I use -1.5 degrees of camber up front with 0 toe, and try to be between 5 and 6 degrees on the caster. For the rears, I use -1 degree of camber with 1/16" toe in. This is a very solid setup and your car will thank you for it. :D Of course, you might wear the tires a little sooner, but it's worth it to me.

Good luck...

Mike


[Modified by luvmy92, 7:09 PM 1/15/2003]