Funny story about getting the GS aligned to DSC Specs
04-23-2018, 10:11 AM
#1
Drifting
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St. Jude Donor '10, '17-'18-'19
Funny story about getting the GS aligned to DSC Specs
Well this past Friday I had one of those all familiar dealer encounters.. 
I had an appointment at 7 AM @ Auto Nation Chevrolet (dealer where I purchased my GS) to have it aligned in preparation for the purchase of the DSC Controller. I came armed with the latest spec sheet from the DSC site and figured this was going to be one of those no brainers... I was wrong. 
I was on time to the dealer the "corvette expert service writer" greeted me. I said I want to get the car aligned to these specs... he looked at the sheet and I could tell he was pondering what to do. he said sure after a few minutes of looking at his computer screen. He inspected the car and told me OK the tech should be here at 8 AM, I asked him why do they gave appointments at 7 AM if there was no one there to work on the cars? he said it was the standard way they did things. I was like
but Ok it is a Chevy dealership.
At 10:30 AM they gave me my car back and the service writer tells me, "we got it as close as we could to the specs you requested" I was OK and he handed me the alignment sheet. It looked ok and I drove off. The second I hit the street right away I knew something was wrong. The car was pulling to the right very hard, not a slight pull but a hard pull that if I let go of the wheel it would just head right off the road type pull. I took it back and the service writer says whats wrong I tell him that the car is pulling super hard to the right,. He told me well that is the custom alignment you requested doing that. I said are you crazy dude? That has nothing to do with the specs... I told him to fix it. He calls over the service manager who tells me in a very condescending tone that the alignment I requested is the cause of the car pulling and if I wanted they would align it to factory specs. I was pissed and we went back and fourth for 15 min, in the end he said he would put it to factory spec and eat charging me for a second alignment.
he was going to do me a favor.
@ 2:30 I got my car back even though the sheet says they did the second alignment at 11 AM ROFL.... and they did me another favor and erased all of my driver seat memory positions. Swell bunch of guys.
Below are the alignment sheets... Just a word for any corvette owner in South Florida, DONT TAKE YOUR VETTE to Auto Nation in Pembroke Pines. Stay away! These guys are rude, have no idea what they are doing. Going to take it to Discount Tire, they have a guy there that is great and works on AMG's. He did my AMG after the coil overs, should have gone there in the first place.
I had an appointment at 7 AM @ Auto Nation Chevrolet (dealer where I purchased my GS) to have it aligned in preparation for the purchase of the DSC Controller. I came armed with the latest spec sheet from the DSC site and figured this was going to be one of those no brainers... I was wrong. I was on time to the dealer the "corvette expert service writer" greeted me. I said I want to get the car aligned to these specs... he looked at the sheet and I could tell he was pondering what to do. he said sure after a few minutes of looking at his computer screen. He inspected the car and told me OK the tech should be here at 8 AM, I asked him why do they gave appointments at 7 AM if there was no one there to work on the cars? he said it was the standard way they did things. I was like
but Ok it is a Chevy dealership. At 10:30 AM they gave me my car back and the service writer tells me, "we got it as close as we could to the specs you requested" I was OK and he handed me the alignment sheet. It looked ok and I drove off. The second I hit the street right away I knew something was wrong. The car was pulling to the right very hard, not a slight pull but a hard pull that if I let go of the wheel it would just head right off the road type pull. I took it back and the service writer says whats wrong I tell him that the car is pulling super hard to the right,. He told me well that is the custom alignment you requested doing that. I said are you crazy dude? That has nothing to do with the specs... I told him to fix it. He calls over the service manager who tells me in a very condescending tone that the alignment I requested is the cause of the car pulling and if I wanted they would align it to factory specs. I was pissed and we went back and fourth for 15 min, in the end he said he would put it to factory spec and eat charging me for a second alignment.
he was going to do me a favor.@ 2:30 I got my car back even though the sheet says they did the second alignment at 11 AM ROFL.... and they did me another favor and erased all of my driver seat memory positions. Swell bunch of guys.
Below are the alignment sheets... Just a word for any corvette owner in South Florida, DONT TAKE YOUR VETTE to Auto Nation in Pembroke Pines. Stay away! These guys are rude, have no idea what they are doing. Going to take it to Discount Tire, they have a guy there that is great and works on AMG's. He did my AMG after the coil overs, should have gone there in the first place.
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snow (04-23-2018)
04-23-2018, 11:57 PM
#5
Racer
Well this past Friday I had one of those all familiar dealer encounters.. I had an appointment at 7 AM @ Auto Nation Chevrolet (dealer where I purchased my GS) to have it aligned in preparation for the purchase of the DSC Controller. I came armed with the latest spec sheet from the DSC site and figured this was going to be one of those no brainers... I was wrong.
I was on time to the dealer the "corvette expert service writer" greeted me. I said I want to get the car aligned to these specs... he looked at the sheet and I could tell he was pondering what to do. he said sure after a few minutes of looking at his computer screen. He inspected the car and told me OK the tech should be here at 8 AM, I asked him why do they gave appointments at 7 AM if there was no one there to work on the cars? he said it was the standard way they did things. I was like but Ok it is a Chevy dealership.
At 10:30 AM they gave me my car back and the service writer tells me, "we got it as close as we could to the specs you requested" I was OK and he handed me the alignment sheet. It looked ok and I drove off. The second I hit the street right away I knew something was wrong. The car was pulling to the right very hard, not a slight pull but a hard pull that if I let go of the wheel it would just head right off the road type pull. I took it back and the service writer says whats wrong I tell him that the car is pulling super hard to the right,. He told me well that is the custom alignment you requested doing that. I said are you crazy dude? That has nothing to do with the specs... I told him to fix it. He calls over the service manager who tells me in a very condescending tone that the alignment I requested is the cause of the car pulling and if I wanted they would align it to factory specs. I was pissed and we went back and fourth for 15 min, in the end he said he would put it to factory spec and eat charging me for a second alignment. he was going to do me a favor.
@ 2:30 I got my car back even though the sheet says they did the second alignment at 11 AM ROFL.... and they did me another favor and erased all of my driver seat memory positions. Swell bunch of guys.
Below are the alignment sheets... Just a word for any corvette owner in South Florida, DONT TAKE YOUR VETTE to Auto Nation in Pembroke Pines. Stay away! These guys are rude, have no idea what they are doing. Going to take it to Discount Tire, they have a guy there that is great and works on AMG's. He did my AMG after the coil overs, should have gone there in the first place.
I had an appointment at 7 AM @ Auto Nation Chevrolet (dealer where I purchased my GS) to have it aligned in preparation for the purchase of the DSC Controller. I came armed with the latest spec sheet from the DSC site and figured this was going to be one of those no brainers... I was wrong. I was on time to the dealer the "corvette expert service writer" greeted me. I said I want to get the car aligned to these specs... he looked at the sheet and I could tell he was pondering what to do. he said sure after a few minutes of looking at his computer screen. He inspected the car and told me OK the tech should be here at 8 AM, I asked him why do they gave appointments at 7 AM if there was no one there to work on the cars? he said it was the standard way they did things. I was like
but Ok it is a Chevy dealership. At 10:30 AM they gave me my car back and the service writer tells me, "we got it as close as we could to the specs you requested" I was OK and he handed me the alignment sheet. It looked ok and I drove off. The second I hit the street right away I knew something was wrong. The car was pulling to the right very hard, not a slight pull but a hard pull that if I let go of the wheel it would just head right off the road type pull. I took it back and the service writer says whats wrong I tell him that the car is pulling super hard to the right,. He told me well that is the custom alignment you requested doing that. I said are you crazy dude? That has nothing to do with the specs... I told him to fix it. He calls over the service manager who tells me in a very condescending tone that the alignment I requested is the cause of the car pulling and if I wanted they would align it to factory specs. I was pissed and we went back and fourth for 15 min, in the end he said he would put it to factory spec and eat charging me for a second alignment.
he was going to do me a favor.@ 2:30 I got my car back even though the sheet says they did the second alignment at 11 AM ROFL.... and they did me another favor and erased all of my driver seat memory positions. Swell bunch of guys.
Below are the alignment sheets... Just a word for any corvette owner in South Florida, DONT TAKE YOUR VETTE to Auto Nation in Pembroke Pines. Stay away! These guys are rude, have no idea what they are doing. Going to take it to Discount Tire, they have a guy there that is great and works on AMG's. He did my AMG after the coil overs, should have gone there in the first place.
Last edited by RoketRdr; 04-23-2018 at 11:58 PM.
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snow (04-24-2018)
04-24-2018, 02:25 AM
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Going to Discount Tire for the alignment may not solve your rear caster problem either. It is highly likely they will not know any more about it than the dealer does. The measurement requires special tools that are not part of the alignment systems that dealers and independent shops purchase. For the Corvette you need a vertical mounting point that an angle gauge can be held to or mounted on to measure the vertical angle of the rear knuckle. The GM tool is a steel block with pins and holes in it. The pins fit in two holes in the knuckle and the holes in the block are for mounting the GM designed angle gauge. As others have mentioned in other threads there are ways around that limitation but most mechanics don't know about rear caster as it is very rare to have a car that requires setting it.
If you don't see your rear caster settings for both rear wheels written by hand on the alignment sheet it is highly likely that it hasn't been measured. Again this is a measurement that can't be made by the alignment machine no matter what the service writer or mechanic says. It is one of the reasons a lot of us do the alignments ourselves. It is easier to purchase the equipment and do the alignment yourself instead of banging your head against a concrete wall.
Bill
If you don't see your rear caster settings for both rear wheels written by hand on the alignment sheet it is highly likely that it hasn't been measured. Again this is a measurement that can't be made by the alignment machine no matter what the service writer or mechanic says. It is one of the reasons a lot of us do the alignments ourselves. It is easier to purchase the equipment and do the alignment yourself instead of banging your head against a concrete wall.
Bill
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snow (04-24-2018)
04-24-2018, 06:28 AM
#7
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St. Jude Donor '10, '17-'18-'19
The most critical part of getting the DSC alignment is ensuring the rear caster is properly set. You needed to check and make sure they had the tools to set rear caster as most dealerships don't have them. After looking at the first set of specs they did on your car it's evident they didn't properly set the front toe. .5mm is equivalent to .03-.04 degrees NOT .08 and .10. And once they said it was the alignment specs that you requested I would have told them to pull up GM's track alignment specs for the car which are far more extreme and then explain why those would work and your wouldn't. The DSC street/occasional track spec is pretty close to the factory specs to begin with but its the rear caster that's the critical part. This dealer has no idea what they're doing and I guarantee they didn't adjust much less even check the rear caster.
I went back and forth with the service manager and his response was that hey have a range to work with and my alignment specs were wrong. The only thing he would do was align it to what he called GM specs... That is why I'm tell anyone that uses Auto Nation Chevrolet located in Pembroke Pines to avoid this place like the plague.
Going to Discount Tire for the alignment may not solve your rear caster problem either. It is highly likely they will not know any more about it than the dealer does. The measurement requires special tools that are not part of the alignment systems that dealers and independent shops purchase. For the Corvette you need a vertical mounting point that an angle gauge can be held to or mounted on to measure the vertical angle of the rear knuckle. The GM tool is a steel block with pins and holes in it. The pins fit in two holes in the knuckle and the holes in the block are for mounting the GM designed angle gauge. As others have mentioned in other threads there are ways around that limitation but most mechanics don't know about rear caster as it is very rare to have a car that requires setting it.
If you don't see your rear caster settings for both rear wheels written by hand on the alignment sheet it is highly likely that it hasn't been measured. Again this is a measurement that can't be made by the alignment machine no matter what the service writer or mechanic says. It is one of the reasons a lot of us do the alignments ourselves. It is easier to purchase the equipment and do the alignment yourself instead of banging your head against a concrete wall.
Bill
If you don't see your rear caster settings for both rear wheels written by hand on the alignment sheet it is highly likely that it hasn't been measured. Again this is a measurement that can't be made by the alignment machine no matter what the service writer or mechanic says. It is one of the reasons a lot of us do the alignments ourselves. It is easier to purchase the equipment and do the alignment yourself instead of banging your head against a concrete wall.
Bill
Yes sir the first thing I asked when I walked into the service writers office was if they had the tool. He said yes of course.
Would it be possible for you to provide a link to the tool?
needless to say it is very frustrating.
Thanks for the response guys.
04-24-2018, 06:59 AM
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Appears to me it was pulling to the right because there was something wrong with the way the Tech put the measuring device on your right front wheel.
IMO no way was your Right Front wheel toed out more than 1/4 inch (0.29 inches) when you brought it in! That would have pulled strongly to the right. He than adjusted the Right Front Toe with the measuring device not properly installed so the number he got, that looked OK, was meaningless!
The -1.4 initial Right Front camber versus the -0.5 on the Left Front reinforces, IMO, it was not properly installed.
The measuring device must be installed perfectly parallel to the wheel.
IMO no way was your Right Front wheel toed out more than 1/4 inch (0.29 inches) when you brought it in! That would have pulled strongly to the right. He than adjusted the Right Front Toe with the measuring device not properly installed so the number he got, that looked OK, was meaningless!
The -1.4 initial Right Front camber versus the -0.5 on the Left Front reinforces, IMO, it was not properly installed.
The measuring device must be installed perfectly parallel to the wheel.
Last edited by JerryU; 04-24-2018 at 07:06 AM.
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snow (04-24-2018)
04-24-2018, 08:16 AM
#9
Did you happen to mention to them that the DSC specs are within GM specs for the C7?
I agree that the rear caster setting is very important, most dealers do not have the tool necessary to adjust that parameter, and wouldn't know how to do it anyway. Try finding a specialty alignment shop in your locale, one that specializes in suspension work, or sets up track cars.
I agree that the rear caster setting is very important, most dealers do not have the tool necessary to adjust that parameter, and wouldn't know how to do it anyway. Try finding a specialty alignment shop in your locale, one that specializes in suspension work, or sets up track cars.
Last edited by Foosh; 04-24-2018 at 10:14 AM.
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snow (04-24-2018)
04-24-2018, 10:10 AM
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St. Jude Donor '10, '17-'18-'19
Appears to me it was pulling to the right because there was something wrong with the way the Tech put the measuring device on your right front wheel.
IMO no way was your Right Front wheel toed out more than 1/4 inch (0.29 inches) when you brought it in! That would have pulled strongly to the right. He than adjusted the Right Front Toe with the measuring device not properly installed so the number he got, that looked OK, was meaningless!
The -1.4 initial Right Front camber versus the -0.5 on the Left Front reinforces, IMO, it was not properly installed.
The measuring device must be installed perfectly parallel to the wheel.
IMO no way was your Right Front wheel toed out more than 1/4 inch (0.29 inches) when you brought it in! That would have pulled strongly to the right. He than adjusted the Right Front Toe with the measuring device not properly installed so the number he got, that looked OK, was meaningless!
The -1.4 initial Right Front camber versus the -0.5 on the Left Front reinforces, IMO, it was not properly installed.
The measuring device must be installed perfectly parallel to the wheel.
Did you happen to mention to them that the DSC specs are within GM specs for the C7?
I agree that rear the caster setting is very important, most dealers do not have the tool necessary to adjust that parameter, and wouldn't know how to do it anyway. Try finding a specialty alignment shop in your locale, one that specializes in suspension work, or sets up track cars.
I agree that rear the caster setting is very important, most dealers do not have the tool necessary to adjust that parameter, and wouldn't know how to do it anyway. Try finding a specialty alignment shop in your locale, one that specializes in suspension work, or sets up track cars.
Oh yea like I said we went round and round for 15 min... all he kept saying was that they aligned it to my "custom" specs... and that he would re-align it for free but only to GM specs I was like WTF is this guys malfunction... look at the paper you gave me...
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JerryU (04-24-2018)