Learned a few things last week. While this may be common knowledge to those that track their Vetts regularly and are more savy than I in this area, I wanted to pass it along to the rest of the average Vett owners like myself.

I own a 2007 3LT with 16K miles on it. About 4 months ago, I hit a low curb at low speed with the front right tire. No noticeable steering problems followed that upsetting event. Still it bugged me so, I took it to Butler Tire in Duluth GA for an alignment and a high speed tire balancing. There are not a lot of places that know what they are doing with alignment and balancing. Butler Tire is a performance wheel and tire shop and, hats off to them, they do a great job on Corvettes.

The R front surprisingly was fine but the steering wheel was off center; the caster and camber all around were off, not badly, and reset. I had all four wheels high speed (130mph) balanced off the car and then balanced at 80mph again on the car (as fast as the machine will go). The tires (stock run flats on stock rims) were aired with nitrogen.

After alignment and high speed balancing, the difference in run and handling at higher speeds was markedly improved following this relatively low cost investment considering the cost of 4 new tires. There's a huge difference going 130+ with well balanced suspension/tires and without. With air at higher speeds, I got fairly wide variation in tire pressures (sometimes as much as 5 pounds) at start to stop on driving and all four tires would usually read different pressures. Nitrogen varied about 2 pounds from cold to hot and tire pressures were uniform on all for of them.

Bottom line: there's no question that tire life is going to be extended with this simple process probably performed annually for normal road driving ... more often if you track regularly. The ride at higher speeds with well balanced and aligned tires is pretty nice too .... the car drives like it should and that I had not yet experienced that since I drove this new Vett off the dealer lot two years ago was a little troubling. Kudos to Butler Tire. Its always enjoyable when you find someone who cares about what they do and delivers quality service.

 

Factory alignment is not precise. Some are good and some are really bad. Thats why there is +- in the specification. I agree that an alignment when properly done will add a lot to your tire life and handling of the car.

 

Thanks for the info...I did almost the same thing two months (hit a round cement protector for the light rail track) and have been bugged by my steering wheel being off even though I don't notice any alignment issues when driving. Will definitely go for a re-alignment now.

Any recommendations for shops in the Houston/Galveston area to do the work?

 

I need an alignment too...I think after lowering about 1/4". You guys think a dealer is a good place for a 4 wheel alignment?

 

My factory alignment let me get only 17K on first set of GY. I had the following alignment done and replaced the GY with Firestone WO RF have 13K on them and they still have about 60% tread. It should be noted that this alignment did not change the handling of the car. Note: I do not track or auto cross.

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