Alignment Report For My Corolla 2000 - Toyota Corolla, Chevy Prizm (1998-2008)

I managed to get to NTB today and got my new Avid H4s' mounted and they checked the alignment for me and here are they readings. they are quite off:

They charge $75-$139 at NTB so I am gonna go to my in-laws town this Saturday and have the shop there do the alignment and they are charging only $44.

Just now while driving home on the freeway, it was really windy so the car was swerving left and right but at 65 to 70MPH I felt the Steering vibrate. Could it be that they didnt Balance the tires correctly or could it be that my new tires are making the "mis-alignment" more noticeable?

Alignment is not real bad - most are within spec or very close to spec, except your toe in/out. That could give you an unsettled feeling when driving at highway speeds.

Any vibration at speed, especially at a certain speed range, is usually a sign of a tire balance issue. Should not be an issue if they use the most current tire balancing machine. Older spin balancing machines spun the tire up to 25-45 MPH to base balance measurements to - had a tendancy to have the tire experience vibration problems at 60+MPH.

Hey Fishexpo101, thanks for replying. By the way are you a fish hobbyist?

When the mechanic at NTB gave me the report he said "yeah is quite off."

Also I am going back tomorrow to have the tires rebalanced, , since I paid $11.99 for lifetime balancing. Does this happen often? I never heard of any place balancing tires and then have problems.

Anyway I was looking at the NTB site:

http://www.ntb.com/alignment.do

They have a 1 year Alignment program for $99 with a few extra freebie service thrown in. I was thinking of that but the place I am going to this Saturday charges $44(but has no warranty.) NTB charges $75 for regular Alignment but they have 6000miles warranty on it. Do most places warrant their alignment for a certain mile?

Well, let's say that I play with stuff that has something to do with stuff or does stuff above, at, and underwater for my job. "Fish" in the water means something a little different to me default_biggrin

Yeah, take it back and have them redo the balancing. Before you do - take note on how much weight there already is on the tire and wheel. A good tech should put the least amount of weight possible to balance a tire. Should be around 2oz total weight or less. If it takes more weight to balance, then you either have it on the machine wrong or the wheel is a goner. Could have been something as simple as a weight weight falling off or they didn't have the wheel mounted correctly on the machine. I usually balance my wheels twice - first go around to get the balance, take the wheel off the machine, throw it back on and redo the balance. If I did it right, balance should come up zero - otherwise, I know I screwed up or need to redo it again. Takes only a few extra minutes, tops - as the process is pretty automated. Some systems will even stick the weights on the wheel for you.

Most places do not have a written alignment warranty that I know off, unless it is part of a contract or package deal - as you could roll of the premise and immediately hit a curb. But many places will recheck the alignment for free, if you bring it right back to them with a problem. Every place I've taken my cars for alignment have missed one every once and a while - even when I do the alignment myself default_tongue .

Hey Fishexpo, I went back for the rebalancing and the mechanic said they probably did the simple alignment where they just stick the weight on on section. So he ended up doing what he calls " the proper way" by putting weight on both ends, and I saw him hammer some weight on the inside edge and he also used some sticky weights on it. Right now the drive is fine at 60 to 78 but I think at around 80 on it starts to vibrate a little...is this normal?

Oh I did ask him about the balancing machine, and he did say they test the speed up to 45Mph only. So it must be an old machine.

I also did the $99 aligment where I can go back within a year and get as many alignments as needed. When he checked the aligment, the toes on both front and back are off, he said the back ones are both pointing toward the left and the front ones are pointing to the right. The main problem with the alignment is the camber, on the back right wheel. The top part is bent inwards too much and the mechanic said the camber cannot be adjusted and the only thing he can do is put a plastic shim on the hub. Which is another $55 for the shim and labor.

He did say that when he adjust the toe in toe out on the back they might correct the camber but after adjusting it didn't affect the camber.

Is there any risk to using the plastic shim? Are they common in correcting camber misalignments?

Shims are the cheap, easy way to shift camber. He can also use something called "crash" bolts or eccentric bolts on the struts - they get the name "crash" bolts from some unscrupulous characters that hide some serious frame damage from customers. These can usually yield a degree or so of camber adjustment - other option is to slot the strut to adjust the camber - but the camber has to be way off to justify that much work.

He is correct that sometimes adjusting the toe will influence the camber - just depends on the car. Sometimes there is no influence at all - sometime there is quite a bit of coupling. As for alignment - sounds like he did the best job he could with the equipment at hand. What got me burned up - is why they didn't do it the "right" way the first time around. Vibration being moved up to a higher speed means that the problem is still there - just temporarily put off. Eventually, the vibration will slide back down to the speed you had before and you will have to take it back in again.

A good alignment job and tire/wheel balancing will equal a smooth ride from idle to having the speedo pegged. Sometimes a good tech will go to the trouble of unmounting the tire, spin it a 180 degrees on the wheel and remount the tire to fix a bad balance. They should strive to put the least amount of weight as possible to properly balance the tire - as any additional weight you pump in the tire will result in more possible avenues for vibration down the road.

Hopefully this time around - things are better for you. I'd keep an eye on the vibration - if needed, take it back in again and have them rebalance it. You paid for the lifetime balancing - you should get them to make it right. Good luck.

Hey Fish, just got back from my in-laws...around 260 miles round trip....while on the highway, the shaking that was at 65+MPH was gone but it starts to shake a little around 80-86MPH...

So far everything seems ok this time around, the car is riding straight, aligned with the steering wheel and feels smooth.

So adding that shim is an ok way to fix that problem with the camber huh. I don't know if I am gonna go spend that extra $50 to fix it yet...though that will cause tire wear on the inside of the back right tire right? Do you see any problem if I just leave it this way?

Oh and we couldn't believe it that our gas mileage is better now, before as I have posted I got around 220Miles with a full 10 gallon tank...this time we made the round trip of 260++ miles and the needle is just a below the mid line on the gas meter. I guess I should have fixed that alignment problem sooner, would have save a ton on gas.

I'd leave the camber for now - just monitor tire wear for now. If it starts to really wear unevenly, then you'll know you have a problem with the camber. I've got a slight camber issue on mine since new - but not bad enough to really show up as a significant amount of tire wear.

Sounds like it is working out pretty good. Let us know how they behave as the miles start rolling on. When I first got the Yokohama AVID H4S - they felt kind of weird until I got the tire pressure just right and wore off that release agent that is on new tires. In wet weather - made for a greasy feeling in the steering. But after the first 1000 miles or so - they really started to show what there were made of and I've been pretty happy ever since.