Has anyone experienced any perceived alignment issues at this point on their new C8's? As we well know alignments on c7's were found to be a problem. Hopefully the plant is paying closer attention to this.

 

No one has any opinions yet?

 

^^^
Yep, here is my "Opinion!"

First, it's not GM being careful in manufacture, IMO, It's getting what fits your needs after about 400 to 500 miles when the suspension has a chance to settle, bushing loosen etc. On our relatively good roads in Eastern SC I made sure I go over some RR Track crossings!

The GM alignment spec range is the same large amount as on the C7, i.e. Camber +/- 0.6 degrees. My Grand Sport rear camber at ~450 miles was near the max -1.7 degrees. More than I wanted and not optimum for tire wear. The GM range allowed as low as -0.5 and still be in spec. So going to a dealer for a "free" alignment check would have resulted, in my case. of one toe being slightly out and the Dealer Tech taking 5 minutes to fix and rightfully saying "All is OK!"

But I specified the Camber and Toe I wanted for each corner. For the rear camber I specified -1.1 degrees. Tech took ~45 minutes to get to what I specified. It is a bit iterative, i.e. change toe and camber changes slightly etc.

Below in the lower part of pic is the data sheet I'll give to the Service Writer, who will give to the tech. BTW, don't just ask for a "free alignment." Dealer has to fill out a sheet to get reimbursed by GM, which will say something like customer complaint: Just say you feel the car is pulling slightly to the right (frankly all cars will pull slightly to the right on some roads depending on the road camber to get water flowing to the sholder!)

 

Thanks Jerry, I knew I could count on you for a very reasoned and detailed reply. Much appreciated.

 

Why wonder what your alignment numbers are ? I’m at 600 miles and around 1500 when the car is slightly settled in I will stand under the car like I always do and watch my alignment getting done correctly/ I bring my own rear caster tools , you can’t do a C7/8 alignment without rear caster tools . I have everything I need for c7 but I’m looking into if I need new pins for my bracket to do c8

 

Damn, dealer just quoted me 6 hours for the C8 track alignment. That's like $975.....

 

Worse part Is who said he knows how to do it ? Believe me when the C7 came out with rear caster adjustable I want from alignment guy to alignment guy listening to how many years they have been doing alignments and had no clue !!!i finally did my own research and baught the rear caster tools and found a shop that not only wanted to learn but let me under the car with them . Honestly the first track alignment will take the longest ( you need to move all the shims from behind the A-arms to in front of A-arms that will take a hour , after that the alignment will take as much as two hours if the alignment guy is not familiar with setting rear caster and rear camber basically at the same exact time ( yes I know their are two different adjustments for both of those but one affects the other) I can honestly say with the 20+ alignments my guys did on my 4 different C7’s they will do mine in under a hour after the shims are moved .

 

They have to unbolt the UCAs and remove all the washers then align the car. 6 hours seems a bit much. Figure 30 min a corner+ an hour aligning it would be 3 hours.

 

The problem with doing rear camber/caster is setting rear caster can be very time consuming due to how touchy it is. Just a touch can change the rear caster several tenths of a degree when you are trying to set it at 0 or a few tenths of degree. You can go back and forth trying t get the number right where you want it and that can eat a lot of time once you do both sides of the car. The dealer may know how much labor it takes to get the rear caster set.

Bill

 

I am pretty sure that every car I have bought new from Chevrolet, and including trucks, have all needed alignments right off the showroom floor. I would have your new C8 aligned by a shop you trust, not the dealership. A good alignment is too time consuming to expect the factory to do it.

 

I only got charges for 1/2 a day to do ride height, corner weighting, and alignment on my Ferrari; not "into the factory range" but each side having the same numbers (+/- 0.1) as the other side (which were the exact middle of factory range.

Worth every penny.

 

Yeah if you watch the alignment at the plant it's really fast and just "in the green" ranges which isn't aligned at all really.