Best Place to get an front end alignment?
09-05-2007, 08:34 AM
#2
RE: Best Place to get an front end alignment?
Any tire store. Discount tire, Belle tire, Goodyear. Pep Boys. You could do Stealership also but they usually make you make an appointment a week in advance and charge double what everyone else does.
09-05-2007, 08:57 AM
#4
4th Gear Member
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Florida
Posts: 1,881
RE: Best Place to get an front end alignment?
apparently a lot or maybe even all of the Discount Tire stores don't have the equipment for alignments. which i thought was ridiculous. a girl i know went there for new tires. and they sent her to midas for the alignment. you can take it pretty much anywhere though. i have lifetime alignments on firestone, even though they never totally get it right.
09-05-2007, 09:26 AM
#6
Foghorn Leghorn
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: I reside in a near constant state of amazment.
Posts: 2,923
RE: Best Place to get an front end alignment?
A good front end man is a valuable asset.
Word of mouth is usually the best source for a good shop. Here locally, we have an old school tech that works for the Goodyear shop. He knows his stuff so that is where I go.
I took my 67 fastback to Tire Kingdom a couple years back to get an alignment and the kid working the rack DID NOT HAVE A CLUE as to how the underpinnings of a classic Mustang front end worked!When I told him I wanted it aligned to the Shelby drop specs, that really blew his mind.
I wound up giving him a block of instruction on how an older carfront end works.
It was seriously screwed up but by the time he / wewere finished it was OK. The manager was cool and didn't charge me a dime and thanked me for dropping the knowledge on the kid.
Lesson learned: WATCH THE TECH and make sure you feel comfortable that he knows what he is doing.
Word of mouth is usually the best source for a good shop. Here locally, we have an old school tech that works for the Goodyear shop. He knows his stuff so that is where I go.
I took my 67 fastback to Tire Kingdom a couple years back to get an alignment and the kid working the rack DID NOT HAVE A CLUE as to how the underpinnings of a classic Mustang front end worked!When I told him I wanted it aligned to the Shelby drop specs, that really blew his mind.
I wound up giving him a block of instruction on how an older carfront end works.
It was seriously screwed up but by the time he / wewere finished it was OK. The manager was cool and didn't charge me a dime and thanked me for dropping the knowledge on the kid.
Lesson learned: WATCH THE TECH and make sure you feel comfortable that he knows what he is doing.
09-05-2007, 11:04 AM
#7
4th Gear Member
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location:
Posts: 1,031
RE: Best Place to get an front end alignment?
ORIGINAL: fastbackford351
A good front end man is a valuable asset.
Word of mouth is usually the best source for a good shop. Here locally, we have an old school tech that works for the Goodyear shop. He knows his stuff so that is where I go.
I took my 67 fastback to Tire Kingdom a couple years back to get an alignment and the kid working the rack DID NOT HAVE A CLUE as to how the underpinnings of a classic Mustang front end worked!When I told him I wanted it aligned to the Shelby drop specs, that really blew his mind.
I wound up giving him a block of instruction on how an older carfront end works.
It was seriously screwed up but by the time he / wewere finished it was OK. The manager was cool and didn't charge me a dime and thanked me for dropping the knowledge on the kid.
Lesson learned: WATCH THE TECH and make sure you feel comfortable that he knows what he is doing.
A good front end man is a valuable asset.
Word of mouth is usually the best source for a good shop. Here locally, we have an old school tech that works for the Goodyear shop. He knows his stuff so that is where I go.
I took my 67 fastback to Tire Kingdom a couple years back to get an alignment and the kid working the rack DID NOT HAVE A CLUE as to how the underpinnings of a classic Mustang front end worked!When I told him I wanted it aligned to the Shelby drop specs, that really blew his mind.
I wound up giving him a block of instruction on how an older carfront end works.
It was seriously screwed up but by the time he / wewere finished it was OK. The manager was cool and didn't charge me a dime and thanked me for dropping the knowledge on the kid.
Lesson learned: WATCH THE TECH and make sure you feel comfortable that he knows what he is doing.
I had to give the kid a math lesson, including drawing a number line to explain why -0.85 is NOT between -0.50 and 1.25
The sad part was the Hunter machine made it so simple. All he had to do was line up 2 rows of asteriks by turning the appropriate bolts.
Like this:
************
************
Not like this:
**********
************
If the post gets screwed up, the first example has one row of ** directly on top of the other one.
The second example has them offset.
My advice is like the others have said, word of mouth and a shop that specializes in front end work.
A good tactic is to ask a top collision place who they use.
That's how I found the guy that now does my cars. He ain't cheap, but it's a hell of a lot less expensive than chewed up tires.
09-05-2007, 11:37 AM
#9
6th Gear Member
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Vegas
Posts: 5,361
RE: Best Place to get an front end alignment?
i just got mine dont not to long ago, i actualy went to the ford dealerships quick lube place. i got my wheels rotated and balanced also at the same time so it was a bit more expensive.
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