Who do you trust with wheel alignment?

[Charlievee]

Will be installing a lift and UCA with new 275's. Being a military transplant, I'm new to the area ( Hattiesburg Ms). So, who did you guys trust? Will the stealer ship align a rig with aftermarket parts? Never had any good experiences with the stone, put them right there with that lube place to be avoided at all cost. Any, ideas, what to look for, what has been your experience?

 

[ScottR]

I avoid the chain stores/ lube places/ stealerships and like to use local/ small business auto shops for my alignment work. Choosing the right one, however, is important. Find a word of mouth recommendation or take your chances by checking out what is parked outside (4x4s?). Speaking with the shop owner or lead tech can also put your mind at ease about their abilities.

Maybe someone here has a good source around Hattiesburg?

 

[Charlievee]

I thought there would be a bunch of folks from my area on the forums. I see all years of 4runners down here, everyplace. Walking out of the food store yesterday I counted 5 in the parking lot. I use to have a alignment guy back in my home town until he retired. No fancy computer, no high tech digital levels. Just some alignment plates, some chalk and years of experience. Real old school, never had to take it back for anything.

 

[MeefZah]

Firestone Lifetime alignment. $190 or so, get it aligned as often as you want at any corporate owned Firestone. They do solid work, too.

 

[Charlievee]

Firestone Lifetime alignment. $190 or so, get it aligned as often as you want at any corporate owned Firestone. They do solid work, too.

Never had any good experience with them. Over priced, under skilled and could never trust them not to Jack something up. Would rather not. I have a hard time with "tech's" that can't think past what the computer screen tells them.

 

[MeefZah]

Never had any good experience with them. Over priced, under skilled and could never trust them not to Jack something up. Would rather not. I have a hard time with "tech's" that can't think past what the computer screen tells them.

My experience has been the opposite, but I also don't have a dog in the fight.

 

[ElZilcho]

To be brief, I don't trust anyone and have resigned myself to the fact that I may just need to go to several shops and get it aligned several times before the problem is rectified. Even good shops periodically put a lousy tech on an alignment and I've never had any luck going back to a place that did a bad alignment and getting it fixed.

To be less brief, my rule of thumb is any shop with a Hunter Road-force tire balancing machine has shown that it is interested and capable of doing precise work and probably has at least one tech capable of working within those tolerances. Hopefully, that translates to their alignments. Don't, however mistake correlation for causality, and DEFINITELY don't trust a place that won't give you a print out of before and after.

...that said, the best alignment guy I ever worked with did it with some clamps, some 2x4's, some string, and a tape measure so, ... I guess just ignore everything I said?:doh:

 

[jrm]

Quality of workmanship

Never had any good experience with them. Over priced, under skilled and could never trust them not to Jack something up. Would rather not. I have a hard time with "tech's" that can't think past what the computer screen tells them.

between corp and franchised stores is all over the place.

 

[bsa70]

Alignment is a very complicated process and you dont get your $$$ worth from every shop. I remember hearing some alignment guys talking and laughing about "setting the toe and letting it go".

Around here, there is one shop that a guy has been doing it for years. He has the reputation of being the best and he stays busy. That's about what you will have to do, do some homework, find out the best reputation and talk to them in detail and see if you feel comfortable.

If you go to a shop and see a bunch of 20 yr olds working on stuff, walk out.

 

[MN4runnerman]

I go to a small shop that has the old school pit style alignment machine. Turn dials and mirrors and I get a better alignment than any laser computer alignment rack.

 

[bdrlgion]

Whatever you go with, avoid the big-box discount places. Nothing but trouble.

 

[bdrlgion]

Alignment is a very complicated process and you dont get your $$$ worth from every shop. I remember hearing some alignment guys talking and laughing about "setting the toe and letting it go".

Around here, there is one shop that a guy has been doing it for years. He has the reputation of being the best and he stays busy. That's about what you will have to do, do some homework, find out the best reputation and talk to them in detail and see if you feel comfortable.

If you go to a shop and see a bunch of 20 yr olds working on stuff, walk out.

Seconded - age more than often equals experience.

 

[Ausumm]

I have two mechanics that I would trust without question.
Neither of them do alignments.

Aint it always that way?:shocked:

 

[Bayou_Pro]

Here locally I have one old school shop but they have newer equipment. I bring all of my race cars to them and they do great work. I can walk in with a spec sheet that my chassis guy wants and it's done that way with no questions asked. I also brought my '76 trans Am to them a while back after installing all new suspension and it drove like a champ. Just had to wipe all of the drool off the car.

Now when I do the lift on the 4Runner shortly I'm guessing I'll take it back to them. My other option would be my local 4Wheel Parts. I tend to think they would do a good job being that all they do are lifted trucks, although I have no reliable info to confirm this.

Like others have said check the place out, ask questions and feel them out. If they seem aggravated or annoyed with questions then that's probably not your place. I know someone else mentioned the 20 year old kid thing. While many times that may be true but not always. I'd rather have a 20 year old with some decent knowledge that is genuinely interested in working on my cool rig then some old fart full of knowledge who doesn't give a shit. You just never know sometimes.

 

[theoutbackdream]

When I used to autocross my subaru, I brought it a specialized alignment shop that really knew their alignment stuff, and calibrated their machine almost bi-weekly.

I brought my 4runner there, and the alignment was AMAZING. But at $200 a pop, and taking it wheeling, that was quite a lot of money. So I opted to go to firestone, for their lifetime alignment. I've been to multiple locations, and I will say firestone is completely a hit or miss. You either get some highschool/College kid who's there just to get a pay check, or get the same kind of kid who's really into cars and knows what their doing.

I've talked to the tech at the firestone I regularly go to now, and he really knows what he's doing. I trust him to do the work every time. I'll admit, the alignment isn't as great as the place I brought my subaru too, as I bet they don't calibrate their alignment machine as often, but it's damn close.

 

[Miller89]

Les Schwab always does an excellent job for me! Huge fans of those guys

 

[Vulgarian]

Southern California Super Trucks - Period!

They'll work on it until it's right and they get it right like nobody else.

 

[Lester Lugnut]

Never had any good experience with them. Over priced, under skilled and could never trust them not to Jack something up. Would rather not. I have a hard time with "tech's" that can't think past what the computer screen tells them.

You can go to a Firestone in City A and get forked. Go to another in City B and receive good work.

It ain't Firestone. It's the employee doing the work. Skill levels vary, just like in any other occupation.

That said, I still prefer privately owned, independent repair shops for things I can't handle.

 

[RPC]

Found that my driver side outter tie rod end was going out so I replaced both sides knowing I’d need an alignment anyway. I trust my local Toyota dealer service center implicitly but after three tries of them aligning my T4R after I installed 5100s & springs + new tires last year and still couldn’t get it not to pull I wanted to find someone else.

Lots of options in the area and I found Yelp more helpful than usual. Great locally owned shop around the corner from me which had a perfect score with nearly 30 reviews, none of which sounded false or overly generous.

I dropped in on a Saturday, the mechanic did an awesome job and results show both on paper and on the road.

*Shop is Chase Auto Tech if anyone in the IE is looking for a great alignment.

 

[Bumbo]

There are a couple shops around town that are known for alignments... both of the do it by hand, and I have never received a bad alignment from either.