After getting my tires and wheels I requested an alignment at a huge tire store in Detroit called Belle Tire. They did it and said one of the wheels was a few degrees off. I said did you shim it? They said we didnt. We dont use shims. I was at harbor freight tonight and they had a shim assortment of 100's of pieces for $4. I bought the shims. Should I go back with the shims and ask them to make it right?
do these cars use shims? you do caster and camber with the lower controll arm cam bolt and tow with the tie rod ends right?
I have seen where shims have been used, but our cars aren't really designed to use them. The ecentric at the bottom is for the camber and the radius rod is used for the caster. The tie rod ends are for the toe. Moving any of them may change the other, it's a mind boggler if it's your first time. I did alignments for years and I have seen worse...
How far off was it? Was it still within factory specs? The front suspension is not designed to have shims used. at some point in time someone could have driven the car without the shock tower braces on it and the towers moved inwards. In that case the guy that did the last alignment may have put shims behind the upper control arm mounts but the camber is adjusted from underneath with the cam bolt. Check to see how far out it is and then make the decision to use the shims. Without the alignment sheet I could not tell you one way or the other if it is within spec or not. I aligned 2 of my maves this week and they both came out fine. I have also seen too much caster cause the problem of not being able to get the caster into spec on a Mav/Comet.
"A few degrees" can definitely cause problems. And you definitely need to know if it's caster, camber, or toe that is a few degrees off. I'm sure it will be either caster or camber. If it's camber, you will have major tire wear, caster, you will likely have a pulling issue but probably won't wear the tire. Most alignment shops can or will give a printout of the alignment results when they finish. If that shop doesn't, I recommend a different shop that can. At least you will know exactly what you have when they finish. The printout will show specs before they align and after they align.
I used to let the customers watch me once I was doing my final adjustments and printouts. THOSE customers usually never came back. I could get all the numbers and blocks centered, drive the car to verify all good. And there would be the guy, coming to pick up his Saturn, all 300 lbs of him :16suspect. There's me a comeback . You might try filling the tank about 3/4 full, not all cars require this procedure but it doesn't hurt.
Our cars are not supposed to have shims. They are used anyway sometimes when the alignment is way out of whack due to the car sagging, but not the right way to do it. A few degrees is alot no matter what angle they are referring to. Did they provide you with a printout? Some places don't unless you ask.
