Dangerous Wheel Alignment

[Jolinator]

hey, i was on holidays and i had one of my mates take my car in for a wheel alignment, the guys got all giddy askign him if i was using the car for drifting and shit but its just my normal road car, i have used these guys before and they always were spot on, it think they got excited and adjusted everybolt on my car with nfi what they were doing, i get my car back and the front end is sitting noticbly higher, front bar used to be 101mm of the ground now its like 120-130 or something and my car has an extremly f**ked wheel alignment, and i mean physco. the car trys to consistantly go left, like i mean if i let go of the steering wheel at 80kmh it would fly off the road, its so bad that in 200kays my left wheel is a compleate slick, i went and spoke to them, they deny changing anything on my coilovers etc, even though i know its sitting higher, and it feels totally different, its stupidly dangerous to drive at the moment. it almost feels like something in the rearend because i brought it to a stop to give a little stick, and with a touch of wheelspin the back end instantly tried to overtake the front end, from the left hand side.. i have jacked the car up at all four corners and had a look, cant see anything out of the ordinary, i checked the wheels for play pushing them left and right, up and down, etc , no knocking or slop, tie rods look ok, at first i thought maybe there was play in the hicas rack but it seems solid, but i really have no idea were i should start looking, the car will be booked into a proper suspension place asap, but it wouldnt mind narrowing down the problem,

thanks guys

also to mention car was perfect before they had it, just needing a tiny alignment. also i took my steering wheel off and when i put it back on, before it went in there im not sure if it was on strait, but my mate did tell them that.

Edited June 18, 2006 by Jolinator

[DaFuca]

hey, i was on holidays and i had one of my mates take my car in for a wheel alignment, the guys got all giddy askign him if i was using the car for drifting and shit but its just my normal road car, i have used these guys before and they always were spot on, it think they got excited and adjusted everybolt on my car with nfi what they were doing, i get my car back and the front end is sitting noticbly higher, front bar used to be 101mm of the ground now its like 120-130 or something and my car has an extremly f**ked wheel alignment, and i mean physco. the car trys to consistantly go left, like i mean if i let go of the steering wheel at 80kmh it would fly off the road, its so bad that in 200kays my left wheel is a compleate slick, i went and spoke to them, they deny changing anything on my coilovers etc, even though i know its sitting higher, and it feels totally different, its stupidly dangerous to drive at the moment. it almost feels like something in the rearend because i brought it to a stop to give a little stick, and with a touch of wheelspin the back end instantly tried to overtake the front end, from the left hand side.. i have jacked the car up at all four corners and had a look, cant see anything out of the ordinary, i checked the wheels for play pushing them left and right, up and down, etc , no knocking or slop, tie rods look ok, at first i thought maybe there was play in the hicas rack but it seems solid, but i really have no idea were i should start looking, the car will be booked into a proper suspension place asap, but it wouldnt mind narrowing down the problem,

thanks guys

also to mention car was perfect before they had it, just needing a tiny alignment. also i took my steering wheel off and when i put it back on, before it went in there im not sure if it was on strait, but my mate did tell them that.

As I manage a tyre business, I seem to hear a lot of these story's, normally about Bob Jane stores.

To me it sounds like your mate might of hit a curb or something.. by the symptoms that you are discribing.

as for your car sitting higher, well the only thing would be playing wiht the suspesion on the car.

if the car is ripping left, then they might of set the alightment to 0 mm a side toe, this will cause the car to want to pull left as there is a problem with the roads in australia, also if they f**ked with the camber of your car, chances are they really dont know what they are doing.

Take it this way, the only advice that i can give to someone with a wheel alignement problem is, You will always over pay at a big named place, you should never give your keys to someone younger than you that is going to play around with the front of your car, and you will always learn to not go back after you hand over your money.

all that said, if you are in adelaide and need your wheel alignment fixed call me. 08 8326 0247

[Jolinator]

cheers for the advice mate, unfortunatly im in perth

[BHDave]

Or do what i do.

Follow your car onto the hoist and just get in the guys ear about what settings you want and stand there talking to him while he adjusts it.

Some guys don't mind because i walk out happy with my print out and they know i won't be back with complaints. Others get the shits because i don't want 1mm toe in on the front wheels and don't care if my car chews the inside edge of the tyre.

And because you are standing there you know what they have adjusted.

[Bl4cK32]

Sounds like a tyre place here in SA. I was talking to one of the guys who works there, and he says " Oh we had a GTR come in, and all the guys were drooling over it, so we all took it for a big thrash around the block, the manager even did a huge burnout / takeoff out the front.

I then said to the guy, yer thats why i dont take my car to places like yours...and i walked off.

Sounds like they possibly had a good time with your car, then hit a curb as said ^. Id be asking to speak to the manager, or owner, and pointing out you are not a moron, u know how the car was etc...I hate places like this that try rip u off. Id even ring consumer affairs to complain u didnt get what u paid for...(im a picky bastard:))

Edited June 19, 2006 by Bl4cK32

[PHATR32]

shit, i was about to post this exact same question just a few mins ago.

i too need a profession alignment place, as mine is also pulling to the left.

let mw know if you find anything. it may have been a better idea to post this up in the wa sectuion.

steve

[Jolinator]

steve it was a bunch of apprentices that did this to my car im sure of it, also fellas it might be a bit early to jump the gun, my mate watched them the entire time and sayed they never took the car off the lift, infact they had him drive it on the lift himself, now i trust this bloke with my life and there is no way he would have stacked my car without telling me, having sayed that, how the f**k would they raise my car, unless they sat there with the c spanners winding on my coilovers? argh.. i also have hesitations taking it anyway, one of the top suspension companys in perth did alot of work for my mate and they seemd very decent, at the last minute i noticed one of the cv boots was torn in half, i told him to have them replace it when they were doing all there suspension, and there quote was, nah she is fine mate dont worry, even tho u could see chunks of sand in the cv-, this is on an m5! so i havnt found anyone who i yet trust with my car, ive herd all kinds of horror storys , one of my mates worked at a tire shop, he sayed they would undo your tie rods, line the wheels up with there hands to 0' and then quickly tighten up the tie rods and hope for the best,

i also asked these guys for a wheel balance, yet my mate sayed they never took my rims off, so id love to know wtf they were smoking, obviously i would have taken the car in myself but i was out of town, and my friend is not as technicaly minded as myself.

[Jolinator]

black 32, the owner was called and he would rather try to sell me a new set of tyres than fix my issue, i would have love to taken him for a road test and scared the ass out of him

[Bl4cK32]

1 thing is that when your car (mine at least) comes off the hoist it takes a day or so for the suspension to settle back to the proper ride height.

Sounds like they are royally screwing over people. Id still contact CA as u didnt get the service u paid for....

[(B1) MR_fanny]

i took mine to a local place to get it realigned. it came back with the front right rediculously toed in. it would snap the steering wheel to the right harsh everytime i turned right the wheels would rub on the sway bar. it was done buy a young guy. managed to do a good job of putting deep scratches all the way around my polished lips on my rims when he fitted the new tyres on....grrrh. took it back straight away and had a word with the owner and he fixed it up in 20 mins but now i have scratched 4 rims.

[dezzabye123]

wouldn u take car back asap if it was that bad.. i would not be tryin to boost it if i had that sort of trouble with car it is only askin for more trouble.

[Cubes]

As I manage a tyre business, I seem to hear a lot of these story's, normally about Bob Jane stores.

Its very interesting you say that. I've known a few ppls that have worked at Bob Janes, yes they are young and yes they all flog the cars that come in. Always story's to tell..

[OZ_Pomy]

As I manage a tyre business, I seem to hear a lot of these story's, normally about Bob Jane stores.

To me it sounds like your mate might of hit a curb or something.. by the symptoms that you are discribing.

as for your car sitting higher, well the only thing would be playing wiht the suspesion on the car.

if the car is ripping left, then they might of set the alightment to 0 mm a side toe, this will cause the car to want to pull left as there is a problem with the roads in australia, also if they f**ked with the camber of your car, chances are they really dont know what they are doing.

Take it this way, the only advice that i can give to someone with a wheel alignement problem is, You will always over pay at a big named place, you should never give your keys to someone younger than you that is going to play around with the front of your car, and you will always learn to not go back after you hand over your money.

all that said, if you are in adelaide and need your wheel alignment fixed call me. 08 8326 0247

hey where abouts in adelaide are you i will be in need of a wheel alignment in a few weeks on my skyline i dont mind driving to the other side of town to get a good job done

cheers

[Cubes]

Yes DaFuca,

There's a sticky in the SA thread.

http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/in...howtopic=121767

Mention where your at and keep it in the family.

Its always good to have a fellow enthuiast working or looking over another enthuiasts car.

[DaFuca]

Cheers Cubes, That is the link i was looking for the other day.

Yeah there seems to be a lot of young kids out there doing wheel alignments on cars, and not one of them seem to know what they are talking about, once again, i wouldnt leave my keys with anyone that is younger than me, cos chances are they dont know as much about my car as i do, and if i dont know how to align it, then i'd hate to think what they knew about it.

Bl4cK32, you dont know the name of the place you went to? it would be good to at least warn people off going there. But yes some times you can get a bad alignment from a place, but with us (the tyre joint), if you think you have had bad service or something, call up and we will be mor than happy to look again to fix the problem.

As for wheel alignments and your own specs. Any GOOD aligner will be more than happy to talk to you about your settings that you want, and give his advice on what he knows itwill do on the road with them settings, and if they are fine for your car, every GOOD aligner will use your specs..

Keep that in mind.

iLEC, we are located at Lonsdale, 1/58 O'Sullivans Beach Road.

Phone number is above.^ 08 8326 0247, talk to Jim or Dylan.

[Jolinator]

mum had some new tyres and an aligntment put on her 4wd by the same chain of tyre people and when she went to pickup the car, the apprentice runs out and goes, oh i didnt no which bolt to tighten so i just called my uncle because he has one of these and he told me!

dodgy maf*kas i tell you

Edited June 20, 2006 by Jolinator

[DaFuca]

You dont know where it was?

[Jolinator]

yes i do, pm sent

[sparkmanv11]

yes i do, pm sent

Please tell me it was'nt currie st

[Jolinator]

nup