Simple question for you guys. How often do you have to get wheel alignments? My stock bird needs one about every 6 months. Is this normal? Is the alignment shop doing a bad job?

I do drive on a few bad roads but i would think the car should hold together a little longer than 6 months.

Thanks
DB

 

your parts shouldn't be wearing that fast. if your car is out of spec in six months i'd be looking into a life time alignment. six months sounds a little odd to me.

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ICON Motorsports

1st & 3rd

 

It depends on how you drive it. If you have it aligned and hit some big pot holes going too fast an hour later, the alignment will be off. Or, if you drive it nice and keep it greased, the alignment will stay for years. Time has little to do with it. If your car leaves the shop with a good alignment, there isn't much the shop can do to prevent the alignment from getting off.

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82 camaro--original steering wheel, brake/gas pedals, seats--everything else modified
82camaro

 

None of the other cars/trucks in my family have these problems. A 92 Buick, 92 G20 Van and 89 F*rd Ranger all drive on the same or worse roads and I can't even recall the last time we had the front ends aligned.

Is there something I can do to prevent these alignment probs? I have to drive on the roads that I do.

Is there something available to increase the strength of the front end?

Thanks again.
DB

 

I can't imagine what would be moving so much that you would need it adjusted every 6 months. On vehicles like your G20 Van, usually the alignment wont really ever change because they use shims, and unless they fall out, it shouldn't change. On cars like ours, where the alignment is held by the friction of two components clamped together, bumpy roads will tend to have an impact, but every 6 months is unusual.

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You may have parts that are so worn that the alignment changes fast, or your springs may be shot, which also affects it.

I agree totally with the others, actually requiring adjustment every 6 months is not right. I get mine aligned when I buy tires or change major suspension components, which is typically about every 25 to 30k miles or 1½ years. And usually it isn't very far off if at all.

Do you have before-after specs from any of these alignments? Is the same shop doing them? There might be something totally else going on here too.

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ICON Motorsports

 

The shop doing the alignments is a general repair shop that happens to be one of the very few local shops to have alignment equipment. All of the recent alignments have been from them.

Last time I had an alignment done (6/00 +/-) I noticed that they had moved both struts about .5 - 1" from there previous location. This seemed to be a bit much, the car pulled to the right enough to be annoying and start chewing up tires.

My father and I are going to try to go to a real alignment shop in Milwaukee, WI during summer break (car is under a tarp now) and see what they say.

Any questions that I should ask or things that I could look at please let me know.

Thanks
DB

[This message has been edited by 86Chicken (edited January 22, 2001).]