[smchuck]

I check my tire wear and so long as it looks even I don’t get an alignment. Any thoughts about alignments, when to get one and the difference in quality between tire shops and good mechanics?

[Liandri]

I do most of the alignments at my shop (indy not chainstore). If your tirewear is good, it's up to you if you do it or not. The best way to ensure you get a proper alignment is make sure all your adjusters are free before you go in, that way the tech can focus on doing the actual alignment and not fighting the adjusters up front. Depending on the shop they may charge extra to free them up, so your call. My personal cars I remove the adjuster bolts/cams entirely, wirewheel clean and apply a ton of ceramic brake grease. If you load up the grease and thoroughly clean, you'll probably only have to do this once every 5 years. Conversely if you skip alignments/cleaning these bolts because wear is good, highly likely they'll freeze up, and the problem becomes they seize to the metal inner barrel of the bushing and you quickly can tear up bushings getting them apart. I'm in New England though, so I see that aaaaaalot.

You can bring your own numbers in, that will tell the tech exactly where you want it set if you have preference on this. Otherwise the alignment rack will have OE specs built in that the tech will follow

10/10 times would recommend you avoid chainstores like the plague unless you know someone there, and find a quality race shop with an alignment rack. In general they just care more, believe me when I tell you there's alot of crap mechanics out there. I've seen guys tilt alignment heads to show readings in the green vs actually doing it right. Good luck

[dradernh]

Originally Posted by Liandri

find a quality race shop with an alignment rack. In general they just care more

^ This.

I'm now in Ohio and use a race shop that uses Hunter HawkEye Elite® Alignment Machines. Previously, I used New Hampshire, Mass., and Vermont race shops that did everything "by hand" (my characterization). All have done excellent work for me.

[Liandri]

Originally Posted by dradernh

^ This.

I'm now in Ohio and use a race shop that uses Hunter HawkEye Elite® Alignment Machines. Previously, I used New Hampshire, Mass., and Vermont race shops that did everything "by hand" (my characterization). All have done excellent work for me.

I would kill to have a Hunter Hawkeye. I came across a guy in Windham NH one time who had a brand new Hunter rack in his personal garage at his house, with a Corvette up on it. Apparently he was an avid track day-er who wanted to do his alignments himself. Life goals

[dradernh]

Originally Posted by Liandri

I would kill to have a Hunter Hawkeye. I came across a guy in Windham NH one time who had a brand new Hunter rack in his personal garage at his house, with a Corvette up on it. Apparently he was an avid track day-er who wanted to do his alignments himself. Life goals

Yeah, at $68K each (the amount my current shop said each of theirs cost them) it seems like a very pricey item. I was surprised the shop had them. I suppose if you do enough alignments, though, they pay for themselves soon enough.

[Maynard]

I get mine done each spring (all at the dealership so far), and each time the beforehand readings show out of spec, so I'm taking that as a sign it was worthwhile. This started because my original tires 'cupped' in about 5k miles - I suspect in part b/c they were craptastic performance runflats, but it ruined them for speeds over about 50; waiting for noticeable tire wear may cost more than an alignment. For some reason, alignments are explicitly ruled out on all the latest BMW sales and discounts, so I'm going to go with the indie shop I'm using for everything else now that off warranty.