I finally took my 2005 (8600 miles) for an alignment check after complaining about poor road handling ,particularly in crosswinds. The front and back tires were out of toe-in alignment and the front tires realigned to proper tolerances. The correction has definitely improved tracking above 50 miles per hour and no longer darts right and left in crosswinds. Here are the numbers: Left front 0.27, corrected to -0.03 (tolrerance -0.10 to +.10) Right Front -0.36 corrected to -.01 This looks like the front tires were toed out-- definitely an unstable setting. The left rear tire was 0.31 (tolerance 0.03 to 0.28) I'm taking the car back to find out why the rear tire was not corrected?? If you have handling problems--( it has been noted by others)-- I highly recommend an alignment check.
Thats why its a good idea to have the alignment checked about every year, the bumps and vibration of normal driving can eventually knock things out of alignment.
rear tires don't have alignment adjusters, most places won't adjust them unless extremely out... and apparently to avoid having to handmake a shim some places are willing to replace the whole rear axle instead :huh:
I'm going to talk to the dealer about an alignment this week. I know it should end up with a slight toe-in - can anybody tell me exactly what to ask for, for front and rear? I'm one of those folks with the "it wanders all over the road" complaint. As soon as I can get it aligned, I'm getting new tires. Then, we'll see.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Claudia @ Sep 10 2006, 02:42 PM) [snapback]317459[/snapback]</div> I thought I had been told that you get an alignment AFTER you get new tires, not before.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(mcbrunnhilde @ Sep 10 2006, 10:57 PM) [snapback]317570[/snapback]</div> I'm surely no expert, but what I've heard is to get it aligned either before you get new tires or right after so as not to damage the tires with a bad alignment, and then when you do get the new tires all you need is to have them balanced. Uh, right?
Despite the fact that some have managed to convince dealer techs to install shims, the rear wheels *shouldn't* be out of alignment, period. If they are, that means you've got something just plain bent under there, either frame or suspension, and they should tear in and figure out what the *real* problem is. . _H*
