smajicek

I am getting my front tires replaced and was going to get the front aligned for the $70 the dealer charges for car front alignment but the dealer tells me corvettes have to have 4 wheel alignment for $200?
Is the dealer pulling my leg or is this SOP on corvettes? Has anyone here had just the front wheels aligned

Kevova

Yes and no. Ideally a 4 wheel should be done. The front alignment is based off rear, if rear is out ot can effect front. C7 has adjustable rear caster which adds to the cost. If tire dealer offers free alignment check and rear was all " green" ( results are color coded red bad green good) and rear toe is equal on both sides; you could just do front. Many shops push 4 wheel alignments on everything. With IRS it should be at least checked every year or if tire wear is abnormal. With a straight rear axle you should only need front alignment, if the back is out something is bent.

subieworx

I would never do just a front alignment. What you do in the front affects the rear and vice versa. Do the entire thing.

Foosh

It is absolutely a 4 wheel alignment. Camber, caster and toe can also be adjusted on the rear. In fact rear caster settings have an incredible amount of impact on how well the car handles. Tragically, most dealers don't know how to adjust it, and don't even have the necessary tool.

Below are the DSC Sport alignment specs that I use.

speedlink

I would always do a 4 wheel! Foosh answered above. I would follow the specs outlined from DSC.

Avanti

Yeah, do 4-wheel, but that doesn't mean you have to have it done a the dealership. In fact, unless they actually service a lot of newer Vettes I wouldn't let 'em touch it. Take it to a competent alignment shop, assuming you might have one. You have any other local Vette people to talk with?

Now, as for the cost, I've no idea what your alignment check might run, but unless I missed the boat in elementary math $70 X 2 is NOT $200. "Hey, we got a 'new' Vette t'do." "Great; jack up the price; he won't care!" "Yeah, he probably spent more than that on latte's this week!"

PatternDayTrader

Do the 4-wheel alignment. Make sure wherever you go has the equipment to adjust the castor setting in the rear.
Decide how you are going to use the car and adopt settings accordingly.
Note the DSC specs clearly state "occasional track" in bold print.
This means tires are going to wear as they would for a car set up for occasional track use.
A good alignment is worth a lot more than 200 bucks.

subieworx

I see a lot of people talking about strange wear, but I get none. I aligned my car in between the occassional track and track settings and have 5k miles on my MPSS and they are wearing perfectly even. Lots of highway and some fun roads.

rsvette12

All 4 please

smajicek

This is Socal California math, for Corvette dealer charge $130 front alignment, if rear does not need it or 4 wheel $200. It costs more in California, gas, homes, everything

smajicek

Thanks Foosh, I printed this out and taking my car to a car shop that does alignments, this guy does a lot of hot rods and lowered cars like mine. He will do the front for $79 and if the rears need to be done he will do all 4 for $129.

rsvette12

$129 is a no brainer all four good price

HogwildC7

James Wood in Denton Texas charged me $217. And they didn't do anything.

Bill Dearborn

You need to talk to him about measuring and adjusting rear caster. It isn't just dealers that are having a hard time with rear caster. There just aren't many cars that have that adjustment and 3 of them are low volume GM cars. Most alignment guys will tell you it can't be adjusted but they will be wrong on the C7. It isn't a function of the typical alignment machine. A special adapter is required to fit in the rear knuckle and a separate gauge is held or magnetically attached to the adapter to read rear caster. The readings have to be hand written on the machine printout because alignment machines don't know about rear caster.

There are ways to do the measurement without having the special tools but you need to have the mechanic tell you how they are going to do it if they don't have the tools. One way is installing 3/16 bolts in the holes in the knuckle and using the iPhone angle app to read the angle by laying the iPhone across the two bolts. You also have to zero/calibrate the measuring device to what ever slope the car is on so that slope is read as zero. Otherwise the measurement will be in error. This has to be done on both sides of the car.

Bill

bearphoto

$89 for 4 wheel alignment in my town for my C6 Z06. They wanted the young 20 year old to test drive the car for the alignment and I said NO WAY. They said they would not guarantee the alignment then and I said fine but no way was a kid going to drive my GT1 Z06. Alignment was great too.

montanaman

Holy cow that's a lot to take in. New owner here and trying to learn about the car and maintenance items. I can't remember the last time I had to get a wheel alignment on a car. I guess I have been lucky. Are these C7's prone to getting out of whack and what should I look for besides steering pull or tire wear to determine if needed? Is this something that should be checked periodically when up on a rack? Thanks for the great info.

joemessman

This is the model number of the tool the adjuster should have in their tool bag.
CH-47960-10
If they don't have it find a shop that does. They are out there, but far and few in between.

Foosh

I had DSC Sport align both of my C7s, and I've been running their street/occasional track settings (with slight negative camber) for 3 years and more than 20K miles on both cars with no uneven tire wear. I measure w/ a precision, digital treadwear gauge and not just eye-balling it.

Those who drive very conservatively probably won't feel any difference w/ a precision alignment, but if you drive a lot of twisty roads, pull Gs in corners, and/or do track sessions, you'll notice a huge difference.

Jims66

Most reputable tire/alignment shops around here (Maryland) charge $89.95 for a 4-wheel alignment.

Foosh

To do a C7 properly, will be somewhere between $200-300 at a really reputable performance alignment shop. Anyone who says they'll do it for $89.95 isn't doing it precisely, and certainly not doing anything w/ caster because an alignment rack can't measure that.

The GM alignment specs for the C7 are a broad envelope of allowable settings. The difference between an $89 alignment and a $200+ alignment is that the former will just be a measurement to see if it's anywhere inside a broad range of a parameters, and the latter will be a precise recommended setting such as the DSC specs.

And BTW, the precise DSC specs I published above are inside GM's published range of allowable alignment settings.