Was My Alignment done right

[cbonilla]

Just had new Michelins Pilot Sport PS2 installed on my stock '03 Boxster S. Had the tires balanced on the Hunter Road Force machine, and a four wheel alignment performed. Drives like new.

But.

Looking at the printout the shop gave me (a good independant shop, but not a Porsche specialist) I see that the Printout says "...986 except US"

Does a US 986 use different specs than the rest of the world? Which specifications differ? Do I need to take it back to them and have them re-do it?

Thanks, Carlos

[Highlander]

Just had new Michelins Pilot Sport PS2 installed on my stock '03 Boxster S. Had the tires balanced on the Hunter Road Force machine, and a four wheel alignment performed. Drives like new.

But.

Looking at the printout the shop gave me (a good independant shop, but not a Porsche specialist) I see that the Printout says "...986 except US"

Does a US 986 use different specs than the rest of the world? Which specifications differ? Do I need to take it back to them and have them re-do it?

Thanks, Carlos

Post the actual values on the alignment sheet and I can tell you if it is worth taking your car back. If you can scan the sheet and post that here it would be even better.

[cbonilla]

Thanks, I appreciate the help. It wouled be a bit of a pain to take it back, but wouldn't want to screw up new tires

Can't scan the sheet, but here are the values

Left Front-------------------------Right Front

Camber -0.3----------------------Camber -0.2

Caster 7.6------------------------Caster 7.6

Toe 0.02--------------------------Toe 0.03

----------------------Total Toe

--------------------------0.05

-----------------------Steer Ahead

---------------------------0.00

Left Rear------------------------Right Rear

Camber -1.6-------------------Camber -1.6

Toe 0.11------------------------Toe 0.04

-----------------------Total Toe

---------------------------0.14

-----------------------Thrust Angle

---------------------------0.04

Carlos

[Highlander]

Those settings are fine. A nice benign street alignment that will allow you to get the best mileage out of your tires, no problem.

[cbonilla]

Those settings are fine. A nice benign street alignment that will allow you to get the best mileage out of your tires, no problem.

Thanks, I appreciate your looking into this for me. A good shop did it for me. They've worked on my cars for almost 20 years and I don't like complaining if there's no reason to.

In that spirit, I'll share a story. I try to get my oil changed more than the 15k porsche recomends. Always Mobil 1 0-w40, and I keep a stock of filters, o-rings, crush washers and the right tools available. I know that a lot of people say never to use htem, but I even take it to Jiffy Lube. On one of the oil changes they stripped the oil pan drain plug. Not the external threads, just the place where you insert the right size hex wrench. They replaced it with a standard drain plug with the exposed head you can put a wrench on -- and noted this on the ticket. A few months later I started seeing a few oil drops on my garage floor. "Not another rear main seal" was my immediate reaction. Car was going in to the dealership for an end of warranty inspection and I flagged the oil leak for them. Dealer told me that it was leaking around the non-factory drain plug. That they recomended replacing the oil pan as it was likely stripped. $450 was the estimate. I bought a new drain plug and went back to J-L where I laid out the story and said "why don't we do an oil change and see if the new plug solves the problem before we start arguing?" After a lot of back and forth this was agreed to as the best solution. I watch the tech get under the car. Yes it was leaking around the plug. Plug had loosened to where it was only finger tight. Nothing was stripped -- I watched it all closely. Changed the oil and installed the new plug. The one they had put in probably loosened to differing expansion rates between the pan and the iron plug they installed.

Made me very happy I hadn't gone in breathing fire.

Thanks again, Carlos

Edited August 26, 2007 by cbonilla