Wish you were here in Virginia or I was there in Florida...I just cannot find a good alignment shop here...guess I could take a vacation trip there and stop by at your shop

 

come on by. we'll take good care of you and the car. maybe go out to lunch while you are here.

 

Thanks for the tip, I'm in Stoney Creek Peter, I might end up there....I'm gonna check out a few guys around here.. Had a really good alignment done a few years ago at Dream Tire in Burlington, one of the owners had a C5 and was a forum member, but I don't think he's there anymore....

 

Managed to get back into the original shop that did mine this afternoon. They called me a few hours later and said they simply couldn't get it any better. I had a very short commute home and it still pulled. They didn't charge me for this service and they did drive me home and pick me up later. I still believe in this shop for other regular maintenance items on my GMC Envoy, but I have learned my lesson that the Corvette requires special shops.

I'm going to be gone for business the next two weeks, so I guess when I get it back home, I'll get it to a specialty shop. Maybe I can check my local Firestone and see if they are as good as Racebum's.

There were comments earlier about the caster adjustment somewhere on the lower control arms. I don't suppose this is something an average DIYer can do in their garage can they?

 

The lower control arms has eccentric bolts on them. Both bushings on the front and the front bushing on the rear arms. On the front the lower ball joint can be moved in and out and front to back. On the rear the ball joint can be moved in and out only since caster doesn't really matter.

There is enough adjustment they could get it right unless the car has some kind of frame damage throwing the upper arms off. They were already fairly close, just tweak the right front and the rear a little. So, they likely just didn't want to work hard enough to get it right.

You could do it at home but you'd need to get the car in the air so you could reach the adjustment bolts without unloading the suspension. I can't see it being very easy to do without a drive on lift.

 

i have to babysit the tech at my local firestone sometimes and walk him through what i want. but, all the other techs there know what they are doing. i always have the car aligned with me sitting in it. this helps to make sure you numbers are accurate with you in the car. if they make it even with no one in the car it's all off the second you sit in it. what you need is a dead nuts accurate alignment rack. the reason i mention firestone is that they often have $50,000+ alignment racks. corporate doesn't skimp. their lifetime alignment is a good deal too. less than 200 dollars and you can have the car aligned again whenever you want. this is helpful as hell when you change tires, lower the car, get mad at how it's driving etc.




this is what a c5 alignment looks like. it may be a bit hotter than you want. this alignment is designed to turn in quick with street tires. you can slow it down by increasing the front toe from .02 in each side to .04 and adding a bit more caster

i have had no uneven wear at all with these camber settings and i have 7000 miles on the tires since i did this alignment. sometimes too little neg camber actually will make the car drive worse, it can wonder and won't have the cornering performance. the rear toe in is not actually stock but it will show as within spec. having a slight toe in out back like you see here adds to high speed stability and helps the car track straight

the short story on toe is this. toe in increases stability and makes the tire want to keep going straight. toe out increases turn in speed but makes the car more darty. in autocross specifically toe out up front is used because the whole course is tight low speed turns. that fast turn in is golden. on the highway and a high speed road course you generally use toe in to some degree both front and rear

 

Corvettes don't require special shops to do an alignment. Just a competent person with adequate training and a brain you do it right. not someone with barely any training that just gets into the minimum to make a quick buck