HELP, need a place to do a good wheel alignment in the Chicago area (western suburbs). Should I use a dealer? :banghead:

 

Duxler Firestone in Libertyville (847) 367-6710.
They do a great 4 wheel job on mine and will dial it in to your specs.
Be sure to ask for Bill to do the work and tell them that Jeff sent you.

Another place would be Addison Wheel Alignment, in Addison on Lake street.
Sorry, no phone number, have not been there in years but it should be close for you and they also do a good job.

Good luck.

 

Trying to figure out how they damaged a brake caliper doing an alignment. You do not remove the wheels to do an alignment.

Signed - the alignment guy

 

He hooked up the wheel sensor to my wheel and spun the sensor. It made contact with my freshly powder coated caliper and scratched a line across the top of the caliper. If you don't mind a straight line of scratched off powder coat then by all means go there and get an alignment. I am trying to warn others not to have their cars damaged by this shop. The owner has refused to pay for the damages to my wheel and caliper.

 

i wonder what he was using to hold the sensor to the wheel. did he add a bungee cord to help secure it to the wheel? in my 15 years of doing alignments, the sensor adapter hooks to the lip of the wheel and would in no way hit the caliper.

obviously it happened to you. just trying to picture how it happened.

side note, what happened to your first post? did you delete it?

 

Another suggestion would be to check with Speed, Inc in Schaumburg to see who they recommend using. They specialize in working on high performance GM cars including many Vettes, and are used to dealing with customers who demand quality work.

HTH

 

He used some old type of wheel alignment machine that he hooks up to the wheels and then uses some string that stretches between the wheels on the same side. When he attached the sensors to the wheels, something must have stuck through the wheel enough the reach the caliper. I watched him spin the wheel once he attached the sensor and it spun freely until it hit the caliper and you could see the wheel slow down. This is why I checked the wheels and calipers carefully prior to leaving the shop and lo and behold I saw the scratch on the top of the caliper and said something.
My last post was removed because one of the moderators said I was spamming. I am just trying to get the word out so that this doesn't happen to someone else.

 

Avoid using Addison Wheel Alignment. They damaged my wheel and caliper when I took my Corvette in for a wheel alignment and the owner is refusing to pay for the damages.

 

ah the old hunter 111 machines. Sounds like he used a bungee cord or similiar to hold the sensor to the wheel and that's what caught the caliper. Makes sense now.

 

I'm curious how he was spinning the wheels on the alignment rack. Most cars have to be driven for the suspension to settle to ride height as soon as you change the ride height of the car by lifting it.

 

You lift the wheels up via a jack to be able to compensate the sensors. Compensating the sensors measure runout from the wheel and adapter. By doing this, it removes measurement errors from amount of runout the wheel and sensor would have.

You lift the car with the jack under the control arms. This will minimally change ride height. When you let it down, the wheels are on turnplates. They slide around thus removing any ride height errors by allowing the tires to slide back into position.

Signed - the alignment guy

 

Yep, he is correct.

 

here is what turnplates and slip plates look like on a rack.

 

Thanks. 15 years and counting doing alignment/suspension work.

 

For fun, i took some pictures of the compensation procedure. picture of the sensor and adapter on the wheel. As you can see, normally there is nothing attached to the facing of the wheel.

The picture with the button is showing the 3 point compensation. Measures at 3 points to figure out runout of the wheel and adapter mounting. By doing this, you remove any human error from mounting the adapter and wheel variance.

Third picture is the amount of runout error.

 

The sensor they use at Addison Wheel Alignment is different than the one pictured but most likely works the same.


The owner of Addison Wheel Alignment called me today and said he will pay for the damages to my wheel and caliper. Woo Hoo!

 

I was going to suggest calling an auto body shop, but it seems you already have some suggestions.

Why an auto body shop? Not every job gets perfect results, and when a higher skill level is needed, they know who in the area to send it to. In my area, a wildly crowed area for cars, there are Three go to shops, with one at the top.

I took my car to the best guy, by chance on a minor holiday, and bypassed the wait, and got his son, in to pick up some work.

He asked me to sit in the car while he did the work, how many people will usually be in the car, what I usually carry around , is trunk load normal right now, and what kind of driving I expected to do. Told him the rear end walks a little bit on uneven pavement at about 85 mph. He discussed his solution , I had nothing to add, my skill set is low , even though I am a certified alignment guy, having gone to a seminar at a trade show, once, and gotten an SEC or whatever the initials are , certificate.

I do know weight in the car effects the angle of tire contact , and was glad it was addressed , since the corvette is designed for performance. He used the same manual calipers he uses at the track, and I was off the rack in about twenty minutes.
Then we went for a test drive. This is the final step , If you bring it back , you get charged. Once my old tires settled into the new wear patterns , the car works well .

In contrast, I was at a tire shop where the guy had a big suv setting in a slanted , lumpy driveway, with laser alignment devices hanging from the wheels. The alignment rack was occupied. He had to monkey around with the apparatus a bit , but after a couple of tries, he got the digital readout he wanted, and hit print. Job done, pay up.

 

If it uses strings, it's about a decade older than mine.

Glad to hear they are going to make it right.