Has anyone ever gotten a wheel alignment done somewhere beside dealer?

[ninsei]

Hi. 'car pulls very slightly to the right. No odd tire wear. I guess I need a wheel alignment. Dealer wants $350.00. looking at the manuals, i see there are quite a few adjustment points and some of them may even need special tools ('not sure I see why though). Do I have any other choice? I'm in the NY/LI area.

[BruceP]

Hi. 'car pulls very slightly to the right. No odd tire wear. I guess I need a wheel alignment. Dealer wants $350.00. looking at the manuals, i see there are quite a few adjustment points and some of them may even need special tools ('not sure I see why though). Do I have any other choice? I'm in the NY/LI area.

For sure you do. You'd want someone local to make a recommendation, but there are lots of performance- oriented indie shops that do this kind of work. You're not stuck with your dealer for this.

[ericinboca]

Hi. 'car pulls very slightly to the right. No odd tire wear. I guess I need a wheel alignment. Dealer wants $350.00. looking at the manuals, i see there are quite a few adjustment points and some of them may even need special tools ('not sure I see why though). Do I have any other choice? I'm in the NY/LI area.

Note if you have a steering angle sensor, your manual says to always have it recalibrated with an alignment - that requires a PST2 type tool. Having said that, I have changed camber without having a calibration - not so sure if that is a good idea of not. I think the sensitivity is the steering angle sensor gives data to PSM - for me no big deal as mine is a track car and turn off PSM.

[Benjamin Choi]

i never get the alignment done at the dealer. indy's BETTER.

[my996]

i never get the alignment done at the dealer. indy's BETTER.

I agree. The indy's are better for a lot of things. I go to the dealer as a last resort - they are, for the most part, very expensive and don't provide any better service. Start doing your homework now and you'll figure out where to take your car for what ails it. G/L

[flyingpenguin]

Hi. 'car pulls very slightly to the right. No odd tire wear. I guess I need a wheel alignment. Dealer wants $350.00. looking at the manuals, i see there are quite a few adjustment points and some of them may even need special tools ('not sure I see why though). Do I have any other choice? I'm in the NY/LI area.

Whenever I see a post on alignments I like to refer people to these two articles. Even if you don't end up doing it yourself; this de-mystifies the issues quite a bit and prepares you better to select / deal with the shop.

http://www.planet-9....adjustment.html

and

http://www.planet-9....adjustment.html

Good luck!

JP

Edited April 21, 2010 by flyingpenguin

[ninsei]

Hi. 'car pulls very slightly to the right. No odd tire wear. I guess I need a wheel alignment. Dealer wants $350.00. looking at the manuals, i see there are quite a few adjustment points and some of them may even need special tools ('not sure I see why though). Do I have any other choice? I'm in the NY/LI area.

Whenever I see a post on alignments I like to refer people to these two articles. Even if you don't end up doing it yourself; this de-mystifies the issues quite a bit and prepares you better to select / deal with the shop.

http://www.planetporsche.net/reviews/showp...=232&cat=10

and

http://www.planetporsche.net/reviews/showp...=230&cat=10

Hood luck!

JP

Wow, thanks those are great posts. I will try this myself. but I don't understand the formula. In the link about adjusting the toe (which, IMO, is usually what needs adjusting), they say this:

"Let D be the distance between the spots projected by the left and right wheels, and let L be the distance from the front target zone to the rear target zone. Then the toe angle is

toe_angle = arctan ((Drear - Dfront)/L)"

but don't you need the toe angle for each of the four wheels? which does that formula give you? Or do they mean this:

TOE_ANGLEfront = arctan ((Drear - Dfront) / Lfront)

and

TOE_ANGLErear = arctan ((Drear - Dfront) / Lrear)

but even then, that's only two values, I would think we need four.

[ninsei]

Hi. 'car pulls very slightly to the right. No odd tire wear. I guess I need a wheel alignment. Dealer wants $350.00. looking at the manuals, i see there are quite a few adjustment points and some of them may even need special tools ('not sure I see why though). Do I have any other choice? I'm in the NY/LI area.

Whenever I see a post on alignments I like to refer people to these two articles. Even if you don't end up doing it yourself; this de-mystifies the issues quite a bit and prepares you better to select / deal with the shop.

http://www.planetporsche.net/reviews/showp...=232&cat=10

and

http://www.planetporsche.net/reviews/showp...=230&cat=10

Hood luck!

JP

Wow, thanks those are great posts. I will try this myself. but I don't understand the formula. In the link about adjusting the toe (which, IMO, is usually what needs adjusting), they say this:

"Let D be the distance between the spots projected by the left and right wheels, and let L be the distance from the front target zone to the rear target zone. Then the toe angle is

toe_angle = arctan ((Drear - Dfront)/L)"

but don't you need the toe angle for each of the four wheels? which does that formula give you? Or do they mean this:

TOE_ANGLEfront = arctan ((Drear - Dfront) / Lfront)

and

TOE_ANGLErear = arctan ((Drear - Dfront) / Lrear)

but even then, that's only two values, I would think we need four.

oh, wait I think I get it:

TOE_ANGLE for left front wheel is:

arctan ((Dleft_rear - Dleft_front) / Lfront)