Tru-line for Alignments

Patrick wrote: Car-2-Lo wrote: ...anyway Mike did his job and that's that ! Car-2-Lo wrote: Again Mike did his job and nothing more he can do. Did he? Honestly, did he really? You paid for an alignment and now you have a car that "floats" at highway speed, worse than what it was doing before you took it in for the alignment. John, I know you're a nice guy and you don't like making waves, but I hate to see you being treated like this. I'm still hoping that someone who knows Mike can get to the bottom of this. It just doesn't seem right.

I did get treated nice and he did do a great job to Fiero specs, so that will be that and no more bud, I just like to ride the wave and hang 10

John this is certainly not directed at you my friend.  It's for all of us to think about.

I'd like to suggest a different way to look at the issues we're discussing in this thread. Many Fiero owners could use some of this advice.

The bottom line is as a group of Fiero owners, we're not in a good bargaining position.  We need skilled people to take the time to learn about our needs.  I think it's safe to say, that as a group, we are finding it harder and harder to find these people every year.

We simply can't afford to have the attitude that somehow we are in demand and that these shops need us.  In this case for sure, I can tell you he doesn't NEED us.  We NEED him.  Or at the very least someone like him.

Regarding this particular stuation the reality is that unless you go into an alignment shop with your own specs, the guy HAS to go by the book.  If your car has special needs because of modifications you've made, it's your responsibility to know what you need.  Or, you need to be willing to pay more than the going rate to have the technician try something different.

This can apply to any number of situations we might run into.  These cars are different and very few are stock in any way.  Makes a technicians job more difficult for sure and someone has to pay for that.

As Fiero owners, we've all chosen to take the road less traveled.  That road is paved with money I'm afraid.

DG

Ok spit it out, ball joint was moving, WHY was it moving? 

yea come on you can't do this to us, inquiring minds want to know... I hate movies like that,  they start, build up and right when it starts to get good the closing credits... then you are left with the WTF feeling

LOL

 

well Crystal's car is still going there as soon as her new bumper shows up, some idiot broad in a hummer backed into her Kia

 

i will be talking to Mike when Crystal and I go in there for her car and see what's going on with that, those things should have been caught at the time of the alignment, since part of the alignment process is checking out wether or not the ball joints, tire rods etc are worn out and have movement.

why would anyone loosen off lower balljoints ?
is there some adj that i am unaware of??

Capt Fiero wrote: I would guess more that someone loosened them to try and adjust the alignment, and then were not re-torqued correctly.  They might have been tight enough to hold for a day or 2 and after a few good bumps, started to work there way loose until the final result of the wheels flopping all over hell and back.

When I left Mike's it felt swaying, floating from side to side and really bad on highway speed. Mike did mention that
the rears where swaying and blamed the wide tires,
but we all know that's not the case. Also I called him the next day saying it was better before.

Mike is a great guy and he did a great alignment job, but failed to check rear end (we all make mistakes).

ADDED NOTE: I did see Dale peeking from the grassy knoll with a wrench (my conspiracy theory)

Dawg wrote: Are we missing something here?

Yeah, I'd say somebody missed something.

Dawg wrote: There is no reason why he would have messed with those ball joints.

How about checking them before doing the alignment?

Dawg wrote: But there they are, ready to fall off.

Correct.

 

i would say that this is a colossal miss on mikes part, i realize that everybody is human but this was a very serious and possiably deadly one.

Dawg wrote: But there is no way he could have done an alignment with the wheels that loose.

So what are you suggesting?