Front end alignment
 

I bought a Z51 new and drive it daily. I needed new tires at 16K, and the guys at Discount Tire said that the front tires wear showed that the alignment was off significantly. Does this make sense? It is still under warranty and I intend to take it to the dealer to have them check it out but was wondering if any other forum members had experienced alignment problems at this low mileage.

Factory alignments are typically questionable at best. I had my dealer perform an alignment under warranty when the car was new, but after 16k miles you're not going to be able to get it covered. A 4-wheel alignment will typically run you $80-100 at the dealership.

At 24K miles my front tires were worn out and my rear tires were almost like new. Factory alignment was way out.

Thank you, it goes in tomorrow for a four wheel alignment. I am hard enough on the tires, I don't need to make tire wear any worse.

BTW I see members getting 30K + miles out of the original tires, do they not see the "track" setting?

I had my dealer check the alignment and set for best tire wear for street use before I took delivery. I have 13,000 miles on the tires and about 5/32" tread left on the fronts.
With the aggressive camber settings from the factory, many will see significant inside tire wear on the fronts.

The alignment was off on my '17 Z51.

Did the 4 wheel align at 700 miles.Much better.

\db2

Kraka,
What do you recommend telling the service manager to get dealer to perform alignment under warranty? Waiting to see uneven wear is too late.

There is a myth the cars come with a track setting but they don't. If you are going to track the car GM recommends a setting that is much more aggressive than the way the car comes from the factory. Camber is typically twice the factory setting.

I don't know what way out means when somebody says that about their alignment as the tolerances are quite wide. From what has been posted most Z06s come in somewhere around -1 to -1.2 camber. That setting is within spec and not way out.

Here are the C7 alignment specs from the Factory Service Manual:

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cor...7177c52514.jpg

Z51 will have FE3/FE4 suspension and Z06 will have FE6/FE7.

As you can see a left front camber of -1.2 is right on the edge of the spec and a right front camber of -1.2 is .3 deg inside the edge. The .3 deg difference between right and left more than likely compensates for driving on the right side of the road crown as the car will pull toward the side with the most positive camber.

Bill

Here is what most owners use as alignment as they've been generated with significant testing by TPC Racing/DSC Sport. Please, please , please note the most important setting is rear caster which most dealers nor alignment shops either don't know it's adjustable or don't have the equipment needed to set the rear caster.

Also consider if you're getting 15k+ miles out of your tires it probably doesn't matter what alignment settings you have as the car's not being driven in a manner where the owner/driver will notice. However, it's still important to get the rear caster set properly for safety. Nearly all, if not all the car's come from the factory with improper rear caster. With improper rear caster even cars driven in a mild manner can experience snap oversteer.

Doo a forum search, lots of good info out there.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cor...c9189e37ac.jpg

Be careful of potential sticker shock...my local dealer charged me $300 for a 4-wheel alignment on my new GS...and that was only after knocking $50 after I was a wee bit upset over the charges. Service manger was like "we had to do it 5 times to get it right"

Admittedly, as much my fault for not asking first and assuming the standard $89.95 covered Vettes. Still bitter over that and other things that went wrong on that visit...won't be going back to that dealer.

How recent is this document? I have a similar one and it calls for Caster +6.5 to 7.0 degrees front, and Toe +0.5 mm front.

I had to replace my front tires at 17k due to pothole damage. They were heavily worn on the insides. I had a street alignment done and now get it done every year. My rears are at 32k with about 5k left. My fronts are at 15k and wearing very evenly. At $109 per year it's cheap insurance against excessive tire wear.

Tell him it has a slight pull to the left/right and you'd like it checked. If anything is found out of the factory spec range, they can get the alignment performed under warranty. I'm not telling you to lie, but pretty much any brand new car with the factory alignment is going to have a slight pull to one side or the other.

Yikes, I paid $156.50 for the alignment I had done on my GS at a reputable / respected Chevy dealer in the area...

I'd be shocked to hear they're setting the most important setting, rear caster for $109. They probably don't even know it's adjustable.

The DSC alignment sheet you have is not current. The one I posted above is only a couple months old and is the current one on their website. The previous sheet called for toe in on the front for the less aggressive setup.

The current sheet mandates slight toe out (i.e., negative) FRONT and REAR for ALL usage settings.

They've also eliminated the range for rear caster and have found +0.70 degrees on the rear to work best.

http://www.dscsport.com/setup-notes/

This is the spec sheet they provided after the alignment. I'll admit I'm no expert but my tire wear has improved substantially.


Attachment 48203842

DANGER, Will Robinson, DANGER

or if you're not old enough to get that reference,

RUN, FORREST, RUN

The fact that they're not even writing the rear caster on your sheet suggests: 1) they doing know it's adjustable; 2) they don't have the adapter bracket and angle gauge needed to do it or; 3) they don't care enough to take the time and set it.

At the risk of opening the "he got what he deserved" floodgates here's what can happen when rear caster is not properly set. The chassis is prone to unexpected snap oversteer in very benign situations. On this car the rear caster on one side was set positive and the other negative FROM THE FACTORY. I STRONGLY ENCOURAGE ALL owners get their alignment set on their new cars while getting their 500 mile break in oil change at a facility that knows what they're doing. Most dealers DO NOT. The video below demonstrated my point.

A VERY important point to consider is the C7 is designed to be a very high performance car. I'm not certain why people buying a car like a C7 would not be ultimately wanting an alignment which compliments/exploits the performace oriented design goal of the car. Tire wear should be a distant second or third metric... IMHO.

I just received an alignment report for a 2014 that I purchased yesterday. The top of the report says "Camber not Adjustable". The seller is not a Chevy Dealer.

Wow. Mine was done by Corvette certified mechanic at a Corvette dealer.