How much work should be included when you pay for an allignment?

IMO any worn parts should be extra, but it should include (depending on whether you pay for just a front wheel alignment or 4 wheel) checking and adjusting if possible (including shims but probably nothing else) camber, caster and toe on either the front or all 4 wheels, and make sure the steering wheel is straight. I have been told before that all they really want to do is just set the toe and be done and if I wanted anything else they didn't want my business ("I wouldn't allow my techs to touch that car" was what I believe the guy said), and been asked to pay for removing and reinstalling the tie rods I had just put on my Mercedes because they didn't know how to get the steering wheel straight. I'm just curious what most people consider reasonable though.

I've gotten hosed on performing alignments before, previous crash damage. The minimum is a toe and go. Now, if you want something "custom", fix something you customized; IE- lowering/lift or similar, or an uncommon vehicle, I would be looking at paying/quoting actual time. It took me 3 hrs to get my Dakota back inside some kind of driveable specs after I lowered it. Since then, I haven't had a bit of tire wear issues or heavily offset steering wheels.

I believe with the Merc, I wouldn't have paid the additional labor for the tie rods. They shouldn't have touched it in the first place if they can't align it. That is one job you eat, either the whole thing or the additional labor. Having the customer pay for their f-up just makes the customer bad mouth you and make everyone they talk to not go there, even if they are the only place in town.

Ranger50 wrote: I believe with the Merc, I wouldn't have paid the additional labor for the tie rods. They shouldn't have touched it in the first place if they can't align it.

I didn't pay anything extra, I actually ended up getting a refund for the whole thing. It was at Firestone and the company policy is to use the steering wheel lock to center the wheel, and you need a special tool to do it on a w126 instead. It was their fault because they should say they can't align those vehicles properly rather than accepting the job then lying about why they cant do it properly lol.

The reason I was refused service at the other shop was it was for an alfa milano (which is actually really simple to allign) but I asked if the alignment included camber adjustment if needed because it has to be shimmed (the same shims as for chevy trucks, etc fit so that's not that big a deal either).

I'm with you, I can't imagine an alignment that includes anything less.

Depends. Did you go to the place advertising a $29.99 alignment? They just want to sell you new parts there. If you went to a professional shop, they probably wouldn't quote you until they had lifted and inspected the vehicle.

I was talking about firestone, it's like $90 for one alignment or $180 for lifetime or something like that.

Caster, camber and toe are usually all adjustable and carry factory specified ranges. Assuming an unmodified car with no significant crash history, I think it's reasonable to expect that all 3 may have to be adjusted. I'm sure a lot of these quicklube type places get away with just a toe adjustment but if they tried to charge me extra for a camber or caster adjustment there would be a problem. The place I use charges $80 for a "regular" alignment and $125 for a custom autox alignment. Part of the problem I've found is that most people you find working at quicklube places just aren't very bright. I was shopping for snow tires recently and when I told the guy at Mavis "...either 185/65/15 or 205/6015" he gave me the whole song and dance about how you can't change from the OEM size. SMH.

If I had to pay someone else to do an alignment on a car with any adjustments at all, I'd definitely expect a before and after printout at the least, with everything ending up in the green in the after.
When I align my car (every time I get new tires) I take a little more time than necessary and get everything I can right on nominal spec.
I try to do similarly thorough work for customer cars, and as an example I aligned an eclipse spyder the other day with rear cross camber, rear toe, and front toe (of course) all out of spec.
I took the time to play with the camber in the rear enough to enable me to get the rear toe within spec as well. It took a little longer, but I'd rather send something out knowing it was done as well as possible than send it out as a toe and go when I know it has a crazy thrust angle and all kinds of weird angle in the rear.
If any of you guys are in the Charlotte area hit me up and I'll hook you up=] lol.
But I would be dissatisfied with anything less than a total alignment from a shop advertising a 4 wheel alignment.
a $30 (at a shop, customer price) alignment is just that: a $30 alignment.
Alignments pay between 1.0 and 1.5 because they take much longer than that sometimes. You just have to eat the long ones and make up for it by being lucky with really easy ones most of the time.

And also, they definitely should have just owned up to the fact that they can't properly align your benz, rather than trying to scam you out of some more money. That's just bad business.

I paid $100 for the Miata to get a custom alignment and set the end links for the sway bars so they would be level at rest.

He told that price before I got the car in to the shop, took him longer than expected, still charged me $100.

Money well spent for me.

I'm lucky and get alignments for free on a hunter laser rack. If I paid good money for a 4 wheel alignment and they didn't adjust everything to spot on that could be without getting a grinder out or writing a blank check to Moog, heads would be rolling.

If the car hasn't been altered by lowering/raising and all the specs (toe, camber, caster) can be in the green with the factory supplied adjustments, to include those slide in shims, then that's what is to be done as part of the normal alignment at no additional charge.

If something is bent or shifted or it's custom work, then there is an additional charge to replace damaged/worn parts (such as 'crash bolts') to get it to factory spec or to in the case of a custom job to get things where the customer wants it.

That whole thing about not being able to align a car because it has the wrong size tires is complete and utter bullE36 M3. I am not aware of a commercial grade machine (Hunter, John Bean etc) that gives a damn about tire size, since the 'heads' attach to the wheels.

If it's factory numbers you're aiming for, they should do everything that can be adjusted to try to hit book specs.

If it's a Honda that is adjustable for toe only, it's a payday for them. If it's something adjustable for camber, caster, and toe on both ends, then they're working for their money.

In general, try to find an independent shop that's motorsports focused or at least motorsports friendly. Having someone who thinks about setup when they're driving their own cars is vastly preferable to someone who'd rather be beating flat rate doing 100-point checks and bolt on brake jobs.

I paid for an alignment for the Miata after I installed a FM stage 2.5 kit and bushings everywhere. I researched a lot and ended up driving 45 minutes to a shop owned by a local Miata and IT racer (York Automotive in Mount Airy MD - shameless plug for a great guy) He totally knows Miata setup and didn't dumb down the conversation about how he does it and what he's looking for. From when I drove the car in the shop to when he was done was over an hour, and he sweated getting it right, and had me in the seat. The car is really good. I believe it was about $100-120.

I have the BMW aligned and corner weighted at RRT in Sterling VA. Again, between $100-200 and it's right on the money and the car feels great.

The race car has alignment frames for strings and I have access to scales that'll handle a 2000# car, so I do it myself and I'm getting faster - still to get it perfect and cross weights as close as possible takes me a full evening.

I haven't had alignment done much. My MG does not generally require it, my truck has not required it yet, although I probably should have it checked, and my Benz was done once.

When I took in the W123 (to an out of town Firestone while I was on the road). They spent over three hours on it, and a torch was involved. They got it as close as they could, told me so, and charged me whatever the fat rate was (around $100).

The Firestone chains do a really good job at some things and I have use them for work I can't do myself for almost ten years now. The one I use has a skilled staff, and they have also hired on mechanics who use to work at many of the indy shops that went under in the last few years.

I do have suspicion they work their people hard and over leverage a bit.

At Acura, the base alignment includes pretty much toe (most of our cars are just toe). The 2 cars we charge more for are te NSX and the s2000. Otherwise, other customers cars that bring non Acura, we don't charge any more for shims or any of that crap

Take it to a place that specializes in alignments. Those guys are worth the drive if you have to do it. My alignment guy will drive the car and then do the alignment. None of this laser alignment stuff to get it "into spec" nonsense.

I started doing my own string alignments in my garage. Pretty much the most accurate alignment I'm going to get and it's free!

I just paid $200 for an autox alignment on my Miata. Worth every cent. The adjusted height, camber, caster and toe.

Car feels awesome now.

I took my race car to a local tire place with a Hunter machine. I called places first and asked "Do you have a guy who can align a car that isn;t in the computer from specs I provide?" and followed up with "The car has 2" of ground clearance to the oil pan - can we get it on the rack? I can bring my own ramps if necessary". I went to the first place that answered without hesitation.

It was quoted at $80. It took the guy a little over 90 minutes and I tipped him $25 for taking his time and doing it right.

I do them myself at home most of the time but it's nice to know I have a local backup plan if I can't take the time to re-tool the whole garage before a race weekend.

Only let mercedes or an independant adjust your alignment, don't go to a tire store and expect them to do it correctly. A guy on the mercedes forum got "lifetime" alignement and said since they couldn't do it correctly the firsttime it was a waste of money. If you have alignment issues with the steering wheel I'd put my money on the steering box being out of adjustment. I found instructions online about rebuilding the stearing box it doesn't look too difficult just time consuming.

In reply to Giant Purple Snorklewacker:

Had a similarly fun time with the ti......ended up going to a place that specialized in german car alignments/frame pulling/etc.......while waiting, I had to pay my repects to the Z3m coupe shell sitting out front.......it was Dakar without a sunroof too, but hit hard in the front

I go to http://www.performance-alignment.com/ here in cincy... they align it, drive it, put it back up and check it, if it is OK they straighten the wheel, drive it, put it back up if then the wheel is straight and numbers look good then they give it too you, but if it has ot go back on 2-3-4 times they do it till it is right.... and they will do any setting you ask them too, but it is expensive compared to a pep boys or the like....

My tire place does mine, to my specs, for $40 every time.

I love those guys