Who is everyone using for their alignments? Chevrolet Dealers here want $149.99 for one. I have an "in" at a local Firestone store that will charge half that. Question is, does the ZO require anything special, or is it just like any other car to align? Thanks.

 

Chevy Dealer here hits me for $99 for four wheel align. And they don't do that great a job the first time.

 

About $100 around here.

 

Nothing special needed, if you car is lowered you may need so wood to get you on the lift.

 

I have a local Corvette place (individually owned) that does my alignment. It's a one-man shop and the guy only works on C4 and C5 (maybe C6 too in the future). He's also very passionate about Corvettes and he has a few college degrees, but he's retired.

I just love having him work on my car since he takes his time, he actually knows what aspect of alignment will affect the car what way. He also used to race Corvettes too which helps with selecting alignment specs. Another thing I like about him is that he will work with me with the specs. Having the car aligned by him is like going to a buddy's house

 

Believe it or not I use a Tire Kingdom store. Have used it for 7 years and they always do a great job. Last alignment is 10k miles old and the tires are perfect, except of course for wear. The trick is finding a place that has state of the art self testing equipment like a John Beam machine and a mechanic who knows what they are doing. I asked my mechanic to take out some toe in to save the fronts and he took off a bit which did not effect my driving and saved a lot of inside wear on the front tires.

If your town has several tire stores, ask which is the newest store or at least when was the alignment machine last serviced? Machines go bad. Several years ago my 95 Vert had about 6k miles since last alignment, but I took it in for some other reason. We put it on a Bear machine and it showed it needed major changes to toe in and camber. Based on the condition of the tires (absolutely flat and no cupping) he said to leave it alone (which I did for another 4k miles!) Tires wore down to min thread. Later I found out that the machine was rebuilt a few weeks after I was in. Imagine the number of cars that received bum alignments. The mechanic's experience at the observing the tire condition rather than relying on a machine reading made the difference.

I got the 5 year alignment for $150 in 02 and used it several times to keep everything true

 

Thanks for all the replies.

 

I spend more than that for an alignment - but I have also had the car "four corner weighted" - and I want it done ... right.

While there is nothing particularly difficult about aligning your Z06, it is a performance vehicle and I would make sure that whoever does it:

1. Talks to you about how you drive the car and takes that into account on how he aligns the car.

2. Either has you sit in the drivers seat during the alignment, or puts weight in the seat to approximate your weight.

3. Is familiar with the (high) torque values required when tightening the alignment bolts (I saw a car run off the track when an improperly torqued vehicle slipped off the camber, causing loss of control, and the car was totaled).

Any shop that doesn't do all 3 above would not get my business, regardless of price.

Les