Hi!I'm a newbie here and this is my first post. Hopefully all of you who are experts and more knowledgeable can verify my concern. I recently had my 30,000 service at the dealership. Everything was fine except for the alignment. I decided to do the alignment outside because the dealership charges a lot for the alignment. My question is, does my 07 need a 2 wheel or a 4 wheel alignment. I think I read from somewhere before that 03-07 only requires a 2 wheel alignment since the rears a not adjustable or fixed? I hope the experts can enlighten me on this before I do the alignment. Thanks in advance!!!
Hello and welcome to the forums.
It is true that most of the newer Corollas can only have the driven wheels aligned easily, but it does not mean the rear cannot be adjusted. The rears can be adjusted via shims and eccentric bolts, over a small adjustment range. Generally not even attempted, unless there is gross tire wear or hazardous handling.
If you don't experience any unusual tire wear on the rear tires, then a two wheel alignment should be sufficient. Even with a two wheel alignment, the technician will still place a sensor "pod" on the rear wheels, to check rear toe and thrust angle. Then all the actual adjustments are made on the front wheels only. The drawback is they "assume" that the rears are perfectly inline - this may not be the case in certain situations.
With four wheel alignments, the rear alignment is adjusted independantly from the front wheels, but generally only done on cars that can be easily adjusted. The 9th gen Corolla with a "beam" type rear suspension, rear adjustments are generally done. Most automotive and tire manufacturers recommend 4-wheel alignments or the vehicle's handling and tire tread life may be compromised. Again, it depends on what the car is doing. If it pulls, has excessive tire wear/scrub, handles badly, etc. - I would personally spend more money to do a 4-wheel alignment, that way, if any shims need to be added to bring the rear toe inline. A good shop will recommend a 2-wheel or 4-wheel alignment, depending on the equipment they have at the shop. Some may even refuse to do a 4-wheel alignment, if they see a FWD car have a beam type rear suspension.
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Hi!I'm a newbie here and this is my first post. Hopefully all of you who are experts and more knowledgeable can verify my concern. I recently had my 30,000 service at the dealership. Everything was fine except for the alignment. I decided to do the alignment outside because the dealership charges a lot for the alignment. My question is, does my 07 need a 2 wheel or a 4 wheel alignment. I think I read from somewhere before that 03-07 only requires a 2 wheel alignment since the rears a not adjustable or fixed? I hope the experts can enlighten me on this before I do the alignment. Thanks in advance!!!
Why do you think you need an alignment? Is the tire wear uneven? How often did you rotate the tires during the 30k miles?
we always check all 4 and adjust whatever needs to be adjusted if it needs to be adjusted. sometimes a car needs the front set due to work done and we endup fixng a rear issue they werent even aware of as well.
I always rotate the ties every oil change (5000 miles). after the 30,000 service, the advisor told me that it needed a 4 wheel alignment because they saw uneven tire wear when they rotated the tires. Im planning to go to Firestone to do the alignment and its nice to be armed with this information before going there to avoid unnecessary expenses. Do any of you have experience with Firestone? I live in California, do you know of any car service center that can handle the alignment of 9th gen corollas?
I always rotate the ties every oil change (5000 miles). after the 30,000 service, the advisor told me that it needed a 4 wheel alignment because they saw uneven tire wear when they rotated the tires. Im planning to go to Firestone to do the alignment and its nice to be armed with this information before going there to avoid unnecessary expenses. Do any of you have experience with Firestone? I live in California, do you know of any car service center that can handle the alignment of 9th gen corollas?
1) I only get a forward thrust 2 wheel alignment (I think that is what it is called)
2) I only do an alignment when I replace my tires.
3) I rotate my tires at around every 12-15k miles. anything less you'll spend more money on rotations than if you never rotated them and only replace them when they wear out.
4) you can get uneven tire wear from improperly inflated tires.
WHERE IS YOUR EXTRA TIRE WEAR???? edge? or middle?
The tires have a slight uneven wear on the edges/outer. Although the tires I have are still the original tires that came with the car when I bought it new in 07. Some people from other forums recommend not touching the rears and just rotate tires regularly. I dont know, Im still undecided wether to have the shims installed or just leave it like this. A friend of mine said that shops would refuse to do the shims because of the amount of labor that goes into it.
I recently exchanged emails with a Toyota tech regarding my concerns about the rear toe on my 07 Corolla. He said that for as long as the total toe on the car is within range then no adjustments or repair is needed. I had an alignment check yesterday from Firestone and the fronts are still okay, the rear toe is the one that is out of range. After showing the result to the toyota tech he said that it is normal to have off numbers for the rear toe since the the rear axle is turning doing what it suppose to do and that toes are tire wearing adjustments.
