01Defense

Took Z in for an alignment, which took 5 hours and the technician logged 45 miles on my car. I intermittently questioned the service adviser as to why it was taking so long for an assignment and he said mine was way off. The car is lowered on stock bolts and was pulling to the right. SA said tech had to road test the car each time between pulling back on the rack to make adjustments. The last thing he did was a relearn procedure for the steering wheel. I got in the car, drove off and then noticed the mileage. I shortly returned to the dealer and addressed the mileage concern and noted to SA that the in/out mileage matched, which was incorrect. SA hand wrote the correct out mileage and agreed to correct in the system. Anybody familiar with this process, please chime in and let me know if this is normal mileage needed to properly align a vehicle. Also, does it take 5 hours for an experienced tech to properly align a vehicle. Note, I do not drive my vehicle much and very careful with the operation/care of my baby.

Thanks!

pewter99

I once had a guy take several hours to get a car right but when it was done it was done right. I'm sure he would have rather got it done quickly but I appreciated the fact that he did it right. It wasn't the first time I had a car there and they do all kinds of nice cars so its not like he was joyriding a Corvette. So, is your alignment good or no?

01Defense

It's no longer pulling and appears to be ok. I drove it 50 miles back home and parked it. I brought it there bc of the pulling and just wanted to make sure the car was aligned properly. I have had alignments done on a number of nice cars and it has never taken 5 hours.

YO-EL

Did they give you a print out of the before and after specs?

01Defense

No Sir, but I have gotten those in the past.

Doctor Mark

It seems rather odd but the best advice is to forget it and move on. Raising a stink will not alter what has happened. Might think twice about using that shop again.

dvilin

Sounds like it is fine, so the problem was taken care of why it took 5 hours not sure. As for the 45 miles maybe he had to make several adjustments and consequently test them out, again not sure. I would move on your Vette alignment is taken care of no damage no big deal.

carcrazysammy

Any damage to the car? If you have the PDR did you have valet mode running?

Unless the car is damaged or you have proof of abuse forget it. More than likely the tech got the chance to milk the test drive in a car he dreams about. Just to make sure the alignment was perfect. Something I would do even today.

Jeff78

I align cars for a living. A few times a year I will have a car or a customer that can be very challenging. In those cases I feel it best to get the car out on the highway to duplicate the owners drive. This may require bringing it back in, tweaking it and road test again.

I can almost assure you the tech was not getting his jollies driving your car but instead wanted to make sure you were happy with the final product.

If you don't mind what did this five hour alignment cost you?

z51vett

Higgs Boson

I agree. A tech that will go abuse a Corvette does the same thing to Cobalts, just no one looks or cares when it's a Cobalt.

If an alignment is done at the posted labor rate of $200 on average the alignment should have costed $1000. I also wonder what was paid.....

Bill Dearborn

Given the travel limitations of the rear toe links getting a proper rear toe setting could have been a challenge with the car lowered as much as you say it was lowered. Especially, if you gave them some specific settings you wanted. Adjusting the rear camber and caster settings to the DSC recommendations can be a challenge since they are so touchy then once you have them the rear toe setting becomes a real challenge due to rear toe links lack of travel. A simple 1 hour job can easily turn into a 5 hour job on a car that isn't lowered. One of the reasons why shops that do track alignments to the DSC specs get $400 for an alignment.

Bill

Zjoe6

This is a case that would not bother me. I'd rather have him do it right than still have a problem. Sometimes that's what is needed.

01Defense

Paid 150.00 at a dealership that specializes in Corvettes. There is no way I would pay over 200.00 for a wheel alignment.

01Defense

I ran this concern by an old friend who did alignments at a dealership for a living years ago. He shares the same concern because he said an hour and half is sufficient because of the technological advancements. He asked was I provided with before and after specs, which I was not. 45 miles equates to about 45 minutes driving the car which he said was excessive, along with taking 5 hours to complete an alignment at a Corvette specialty dealer. btw, they I got the "street" alignment bc I don't do road course racing. I noticed today there are marks on the faces of my signature forged wheels from the alignment equipment...wtf. I will request the specs and have them reviewed by the old friend. He said he will be able to make sense of this using those.

01Defense

Nothing noticeable in the way of damage. My new wheels have marks on them from alignment equipment though. Hopefully they wash/buff away

01Defense

I will bring awareness to the dealer if determined the alignment should not have taken 5 hours. This only helps the dealer improve services and if I owned a dealership, I would want my customers to provide positive/negative feedback.

ZMMMMM

I take newspapers, and, set up camp right outside the service bay #problemsolved

You never know if the tech(s) at the dealership down the road will be twice-as-good, or, twice-as-bad.

Lasco001

We do a lot of alignments on Corvettes
For the street / For club sport and also for races
Perfect alignment with the C7 can take a long time:
I ask my customers: What do you want?

• short wait and cheap?
• Perfect work takes more time and costs more.

I drive first test drive 3-4 kilometers
I fill up gas tank.
In workshop on the balance for a perfect alignment of weight
Then the car goes into the geometry for alignment
Afterwards I do a test drive, if everything is as so as my customer wishes and my experience says then it is good.
At least I drive 5 kilometers
After that, I'm doing another check on the alignment. I have the experience, the C7 almost always has to be corrected a few percent again.
After that I do another test drive.
Now we are not done yet, the vehicle is perfectly cleaned inside and out.
Half a day's time is quite normal when the work is done perfectly.

Bill Dearborn

Your old friend hasn't had the joy of adjusting rear caster yet. Even doing a street alignment setting rear caster can be a chore. 45 miles is 4 separate trips out of the dealership with a round trip distance of 12 miles.

Bill