Wheel Alignment a Must..
 

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I just wanted to share my experiences with my dealer. I only have 3.500 miles on the car but was beyond my 6 months to get the free alignment under warranty. I wanted to get the alignment done to check the factory alignment but more important to me was to make my tires last. The dealer gave me a great price on my alignment $129.00. They had the tools to measure the rear settings. More impressive is that the dealer had their best alignment tech call me and ask how I will be driving the car and if any track was involved. He asked if I had my own settings and asked many questions. Attached is the before and after print out. Although most track guys will have a more aggressive front camber (-1.2) and the factory was pretty close but he set mine at -0.5 for better tire wear and only 1/4 mile straight drag racing. Paradise Chevrolet gets a thumbs up for their service.

I may be looking at this wrong but it appears there was only 1 # (frt. left camber) that was even out of spec a tiny bit. So, why change anything? Were tires wearing outside edge/inside edge? Don't get it, but not a track or 1/4 miler so what do I know.:D

It sounds like you and the tech are aware of the VERY IMPORTANT rear caster.

How come he didn't write the before and after rear caster specs on your sheet????:confused:

This is something that everybody who gets an alignment needs to emphasize to the shop doing it:
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Yes, the tech came out to me while I waited for the car and let me know he measured the rear caster at +0.6 and he left it at that. I was fine with it. He spent two hours with my car so I am confident with his settings.

I know what you are saying. I was paying for the service so I might as well have the tech complete the job. My point was that I wanted to make sure my alignment was OK. Additionally, I wanted to let everyone on the forum know that you only get the first 6 months/under 7,500 miles (whichever comes first) to get your free alignment under warranty. I was 8 months out but the dealer gave me a great price on the alignment.


The specs were actually very good from the factory on my car but I was paying for the service to find that out. My goals were 1) get the most life out of my tires, 2) Track set for the 1/4 mile. I asked for this tech by name (Cory) because he does all the track alignments for Z06's at this dealership and I verified his rear caster tools where there. In just speaking to him you can tell he knows his stuff. His goal was to go from -1.2 (which most people are OK with) to -0.5 which will wear the tires more evenly but still give it the handling.


Since I am mostly street and straight WOT driving, the -0.5 would give me the most life on my tires so I was OK with it. Lots of posts where tires are cording on the inside of the tires fairly quickly. With the little adjustments completed on my alignment, I really don't feel any difference in handling than before, and my hopes are to get tire longevity beyond most owners while enjoying and driving the car hard. Hope that helps.

Excellent!! That's a pretty good rear caster spec you ended up with!!:thumbs:

What was your before spec??:confused2:

Like rikhek's post in that thread he linked where his factory alignment was off and unsymmetrical, it would be very good info to post up your factory rear caster just so we can see if they do get it right sometime.

TIA

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The rear caster was already at +0.6 before so Cory the tech said I would just leave it, so we left it at +0.6.

Actually -1.2 isn't the the track front camber setting. The track setting as defined in your owner's manual is -2.0 degrees which is a lot more than -1.2.

GM specs a tolerance of +/- 0.6 degrees of camber in the front. The original settings on your car show the -1.3 degree left front camber was out of tolerance by .1 degrees, however, the nominal GM spec for left front camber is 0.6 degrees. The nominal GM spec for right front camber is -0.9 degrees so the right side camber was well within the tolerance allowed. The specs are as wide as barn doors.

Bill

Bill,

So true. I just posted the following in a different thread:

Every day is a bad day in the pit for Corvette alignments. When you have an "acceptable" range for setting such as rear caster from 0 degress to +/- 0.8 degrees it's comical, nearly criminal.

Using the General's standard it's "acceptable" to have caster at L +0.8 and R -0.8. Just ludicrous. People who've taken plant tour tell me they spend less than 15 minutes on the alignment....

took mine in yesterday. 1st tried to charge me 128 then I told them 3000 on the car. they went back and checked and said covered til 7500 miles. two techs including 1 vette tech drove it and said the alignment was fine. didn't even bother putting it on the rack. at least they installed my APSIS splash guards

Ted

you can say that again, hate that when they hoist her up and start wrenching. Insides on all four gone down to wire. They need something special for that rear caster issue. These were from factory


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Find a new dealer. These guys are clowns!!

Had mine done under warranty last month. Bought car new in June 2016. Mileage was around 4K. Never heard of the 6 mo/7500 mile coverage.

My dealer aligned my car and I corded a front tire in <1000 miles.

It is time to set an appt for 2nd oil change so I will drive to Temecula to do it and have Cory align or rather check the alignment at the same time. Who was the service writer?

My tires are wearing evenly. I just pulled the MPSSs and put on my spare wheels with SCs and the MPSSs look like I was lucky and got a reasonable alignment out of the box.

I have been lucky and always had even tire wear on my Corvettes.
The car I had alignment preformed on was a Base
2008 C6 after
I added Z51 springs and shocks.
Not sure can't remember on my 1973
But on my 2002 Z06, 2006 Z06, 2008 Z06, 2009 ZR1, 2014 C7, and 2015 Z06, None of those Cars were bad on tires. All had even wear.
:rock:

Not so much luck as intended use. Back before I was able to have multiple cars for multiple uses I was running -1.7 to -1.8 negative camber up front on my 4th gen Camaro that was both a DDer and my active autocross and HPDE car. That would eat up the inner part of the tires very quickly.

My service writer was Emma. Cory the tech works every 3rd Saturday so you will have to call in and see what days he is scheduled.

So what is the trigger for getting an alignment under warranty? Do you have to complain of a certain condition or can you just request that one be performed?