I've been having handling issues since I bought new tires (I've posted about it before but can provide more detail if anybody's interested) so I took it to a different shop this afternoon, one recommended by my golf buddies who are longtime Huntsville residents and should know the "right" places to go.

The shop owner said he will work on any car except a Corvette (not sure if that's literally true ... Viper, Ferrari??) because the alignment is so precise on a Vette that it's hard to do satisfactorily. Not sure if that's a mechanical issue or a finicky owner issue. So, I will take it to a local dealer next week and see if they can fix it.

Anybody else have a similar issue?

 

Took mine to the local Tire Barn on recommendation from others. They had no problem and even let me drive my Vette up on the lift. They have several Vettes and a Lotus for customers-----They didn't seem to have an issue at all.

 

Go to a Firestone store. They have all the specs. Lifetime alignment for $159

 

My local Goodyear shop told me they couldn't lift it and work on it, so did one about 30 miles away. So much for Goodyear being part of the equation for run flats in So. MD.

So it doesn't surprise me that any given shop would be unable to work on all or part of it.


lisa

 

Wonder how many newer model Vettes he has worked on? C2s and C3s could be miserable when adjusting the rear toe since the adjustment mechanism could be severely rusted and very hard to work with. C5s and C6s are a dream to work on compared to the old ones. I haven't worked on other cars but I have been doing most of the alignments on my Vettes since I took delivery of my 97 in May of 97. Just too costly having the dealer switch the car back and forth from street to track and back to street. Vette alignments don't have to very precise. The tolerances are wide so it doesn't take much to get them into spec.

Biggest issue is getting the cam bolts tight enough so they don't slip. Forget the torque wrench, this is one place where the old statement that tighter is better is correct.

Bill

 

He was old enough to have worked on earlier Vettes, and the shop's been there a long, long time. He might've gotten spooked when I told him I'd had the alignment done 3 times in teh past 2 weeks and still wasn't satisfied. Probably didn't want to see me in there every day.

I have 2 new Super Sports on the back, and 2 1-year old SS's on the front, and changing lanes is an adventure ... it jumps over, and follows crowns and grooves in the pavement. It didn't do that before I put the rears on a couple weeks ago, and I was mixing regular tires on the front with GY runflats on the back, which should have been a terrible combination. The correct tire setup I have now should be ideal, yet it's much worse. Either the alignment is off, or one of the new tires is bad.

 

Long drive but Bob's Tires in Attalla will do you right. If the alignment is close enough they wont charge you anything to check it. If its not they will fix it and wont charge much They are car guys

Talk to Brian or Steven and tell them Bert sent you

 

Thanks. I may have to give them a try. Lots of time smaller towns have the best and most ethical service.

 

Call Brian and tell him your situation, he will make you an appointment you show up when they open and you will be headed back home by 9:00 and probably still have time for a round of golf....

Alignment techs name is Dean.

Do you have the alignment specs you can post ?
If so some of these guys like Bill might be able to spot the issue

 

Yeah, that would be my guess too. Saying that "the alignment is so precise on a Vette that it's hard to do satisfactorily" just doesn't make much sense.

 

After my harmonic balancer replacement, I took the car to the local place where it was aligned 45,000 miles ago. Small town places are great...They wanted me to drive the car onto the rack and then I was under the car with the tech while he checked everything. He adjusted the toe and all else was fine. A full four wheel alignment on this nice Hunter machine is now $79. It was $69 back in '09 when they did it the first time. I just took in the printout from the last time and told him that for 45,000 miles the tires had been wearing perfectly so lets just make sure it's the same now as it was back then. The whole thing took an hour from start to finish. After being under there and watching what he did, there is absolutely nothing particularily more difficult or precise than any other car. He even said that some cars are much more difficult to align than mine is, and he's talking about Subaru and the like, not Vipers and Ferraris.

 

RocketDawg: I haven't found shops in SoCal to deny based on precision; My experience is that they will try; The thing I run into the most is that they have a difficult time getting the car onto the lift. I started doing my own alignment.

Bill: I'm using string to do toe. Do you account for front/rear offset?

-pp

 

You first have to find a shop that has a low profile lift that is low enough to get it on the lift to begin with.

Next is either having jacking pucks in the car, or a shop that has them instead (for these reason, I have 4 jacking pucks in the car just for this). Without using pucks, the large lift pads can cause fiberglass damage to the car, even if the lift pads are set in the correct lifting points of the car.

Lastly, between a sensor in the steering wheel that you have to plug into the OBDII to make sure that the steering wheel is straight and stays that way for the alignment, and the fact that the all 4 wheels are fully adjustable, it is labor intensive to get the alignment to spec since as you change one setting, it will change the others (read, could take the tech a good hours or more to get it set to hold spec's on the numbers).

Combo these up, and it either comes down to the shop no having a low enough lift/pucks to get the car in the air, or a Tech good enough to get the car aligned in a set amount of time that they don't end up aligning the car at a lose to them instead.

As for spec's, here are Pfad, and most of time for a DD, its the street specs that you want to have the car aligned to (have them hold to these numbers, and not just in a wider close range instead).
http://www.pfadtracing.com/docs/camb...t-settings.pdf

So on that note, first call around to find a shop that will align the car to begin with. Once the alignment is done and before you pay for it, get a copy of the alignment read out's, including verification that the steering wheel sensor was maintained at zero to the alignment as well. Until you get these (printed copies, and not just someone's word for it, then do not pay for the alignment until they get them to spec across the board and have the printed read out to prove it).

 

just for info another great place in ATL is Grand Turismo East....they had four vettes there when I took my 13 GS to them...took time to discuss my driving style...(mostly highway with occasional spirited mountain runs)...then had me set in the car while they did the alignment....here is a link....
http://www.granturismoeast.com/

 

The factory specs have a very wide range of tolerance - i.e., they are not very precise at all.

Like Bill, I do my own alignments - it's very easy to do with simple tools, and you can be quite precise and get exactly what you want.

I don't like the my local Chevy dealer alignments - it seems like it's just a side item that they do, and not a primary service. So...they're not expert at it.

I guess that's not true with all dealerships, because actually my Ford dealer that I take my pickup to does an outstanding alignment job. I've watched them check it every time I'm in for service, and I've seen them using their sophisticated equipment to do alignments.

My Chevy dealer has an okay alignment rack, but it just seems like it's an in-n-out kind of job to them.

Anyway - I recommend a shop like others have mentioned that specialize in alignments.

As far as specs, Pfadt may be out of business, but so far their alignment specs are still available - and they have good reviews here on the forum.

Here's a link - just be very sure that if you hand this sheet to an alignment tech and say "give me the street performance alignment" that you go over that note at the top of the page with him. HIGHLIGHT the note, and make sure he understands what it means when it says "negative toe measurements indicate toe-in":

http://www.pfadtracing.com/blog/wp-c...-9.12.2011.pdf


On most all alignment racks/machines toe-in is measured as a positive number - so make sure the tech sees that note and does what he needs to do on his rack to get you toe-in (unless you're tracking the car - a lot of track rats like a little toe-out up front for better turn-in; you definitely want zero or toe-in for the rear - street or track, definitely rear toe-in for the track).

God luck, but there's nothing unusual or difficult about doing C6 alignments.

Bob

 

You have verified the tires are mounted so that they are turning in the right direction Eh?
Painting my wheelbarrels today and it struck me as a long shot but still a possibility...

 

Yes, I paid particular attention to that when they were mounted. Good thought though.

 

Not a fan of that Pfadt version, since it has too much wiggle room for the installer for a street alignment.

Here is one with more precise numbers for the street alignment to hand to the tech.
http://www.pfadtracing.com/docs/camb...t-settings.pdf

 

They were supposedly using the pfadt sheet I took with me. Pretty sure the first guy took the negative toe as toe out though. That could account for the terrible handling I had at first. Now, it's just above 50 where I seem to get a little drift and it kind of "jumps" when I change lanes, and it tracks road grooves.

Interestingly, the sheet I had from pfadt showed a range. It was the "street/performance" one from their website. I remember the toe range being 0 to -1/16. Never have seen the sheet without a range. I think I have toe-in on all wheels right now, and looks like 0 is the preferred one. Can't remember the other specs and how they compare.

 

My son lives in Kennesaw so I might give them a try next time I'm over there. I see they're not open on the weekend though.