Rides Complete Auto care. Run away!

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Cuprum-74

Cuprum-74

Moparus Fanaticus
FABO Gold Member
Joined
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Location
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Stay away... (For anybody living in North Utah or those of you who are stopping by) This is on 2046 North Fort Lane in Layton.

Tried to get an alignment done yesterday. I printed out one of those handy SKOSH sheets from this site.

First thing I said to one of the techs is:
"I don't want it set to factory specs, I have these specs I want instead, especially the Typ. perf. street one."

He takes the paper and sneers... "Why not the factory specs?

I replied: "Well those specs are for Bias ply tires, not radials. I was informed that you need to change the specs since the factory settings are basically for 40 yr old tire technology."

"It doesn't make a difference, at all. Factory specs will still work."

I then said: "Well have you ever dealt with a bias ply tire before or even a car older than 10 yrs?
"Uhh, nope"
"Then how the hell would you know?" Bias ply tires have different contact pattern, you know what, I'm taking my business elsewhere."

GRRR :banghead:
Guess I have to look around for a competent alignment shop around here.
 
Look at it this way..........He COULD have lied to you and "aligned it his way" and charged you for it, and ended up costing you a lot of time, money, and trouble. This way, he in effect told you right up front "I'm an a-hole and I have an attitude"

So you should have THANKED him LOL for being so direct and forthright!!!
 
You can't fix stupid man! These guys are trained for maybe a week and let loose! Always try and find an old school mechanic or do it yourself if at all possible. Hope it turned out good for you or did you go elsewhere right away? I would have walked off and left the idiot talking to himself!
 
I'm in the same boat. Tried having a local shop do mine, with my specs, but I'm pretty sure I got whatever the tech wanted. All new front suspension and now with only 1500 mile on it I have a right front tire that is almost gone on the inside only. I should have done my homework before but thought most tire shops should have been able to do it.

I think I will be using one of these shops to get it done right. I know these are not too close to you but I have heard they are both really good.

http://www.thealignmentspecialists.com/

https://plus.google.com/113427656408571478824/about?gl=us&hl=en
 
Look for the local SCCA autocross Solo II club. Should be able to find that online. Contact them and ask who they use for custom alignments.

Many times that "go-to" alignment shop is a club sponsor and the club is happy to recommend them. But make sure to profusely tell the shop the Solo II club gave you the reference so the shop see's the value in the sponsorship/affiliation.

A win-win for everybody.
 
Learn to do it yourself. Skads of threads on here, and around the internet. In this modern "wide" world, you can easily get caster / camber tools, and you can MAKE one. Basically you can build a simple (but accurate) camber tool, and you CALCULATE caster from that. That part is easy, too

Toe is simply a tape measure front and rear of the tires, with a marker on the tires make by a sharp pointer device.

Set ride height. Does not have to be 'factory' but does have to be done FIRST

Set caster / camber, which interact. This is the most aggravating part, but with some thought you can think what you are doing. EG. You move the top A arm (ball joint) to the rear, this sets the spindle back for more caster, and also pulls the (rear) IN giving you more inward camber. So you learn to juggle them, one in a bit, and one out a bit

Toe. Set that last

Drive it and confirm it handles, then jig it up again and REcheck.

I'm getting old and lame. At 66 I can barely walk. IT HURTS. From a mess of rebuild, IE nothing aligned, it took me one whole Saturday to

Create a rack by leveling up my car trailer

And aligning the front from a zero start
 
I have a shop here that I take my stuff to, but one day they kind of pissed me off. Took it in for a flat repair because they didn't bother checking or replacing the valve stems when I got new tires and one was leaking.
A day later I noticed it was pretty low so I checked the stems with soapy water, and sure enough that tire's stem was leaking so I took it back. I walked over to a close by store to get a soda and when I came back they had the right rear tire jacked a foot in the air, and my left front tire had disappeared up into the fender. I told them to please NEVER jack up one rear corner of a torsion bar suspended car and they looked at me like they had no idea what I was talking about.
When they put the car back down I showed them how it was lower on the drivers side from the over torque of the torsion bar on that side. I also told them that I was now going to have to reset the tension on that bar, and re check my toe. I won't let ANYONE touch the alignment because I do it myself, and after that I only take the wheels and tires to the shop instead of the whole car. Over protective? maybe, but I have seen shops mess things up so bad it scares me to even think about anyone doing anything on it unsupervised. It also seems to be getting worse as time goes on.
People that have a job are supposed to know how to DO the job, and it seems this is getting rare these days.
 
The Burger King get what you want days are about over. It's take what you get. I've seen shops that get a guy on each side of the car to pull on the wheels, and when it goes into spec another guy hits the print button.
 
TrailBeast said:
I have a shop here that I take my stuff to, but one day they kind of pissed me off. Took it in for a flat repair because they didn't bother checking or replacing the valve stems when I got new tires and one was leaking.
A day later I noticed it was pretty low so I checked the stems with soapy water, and sure enough that tire's stem was leaking so I took it back. I walked over to a close by store to get a soda and when I came back they had the right rear tire jacked a foot in the air, and my left front tire had disappeared up into the fender. I told them to please NEVER jack up one rear corner of a torsion bar suspended car and they looked at me like they had no idea what I was talking about.
When they put the car back down I showed them how it was lower on the drivers side from the over torque of the torsion bar on that side. I also told them that I was now going to have to reset the tension on that bar, and re check my toe. I won't let ANYONE touch the alignment because I do it myself, and after that I only take the wheels and tires to the shop instead of the whole car. Over protective? maybe, but I have seen shops mess things up so bad it scares me to even think about anyone doing anything on it unsupervised. It also seems to be getting worse as time goes on.
People that have a job are supposed to know how to DO the job, and it seems this is getting rare these days.
Click to expand...

Not trying to defend the chowder head but in all fairness to him/her yours is probably the only old clunker he/she will ever see so how are they supposed to know anything about it?
 
just curious.....what (specs) specifically are you wanting to alter?....and why

for instance...
I try to get around 3 degrees POSITIVE (manual steer) of caster for higher speed stability ....anymore tilt and it takes the fun out of super slow speed turning (power pos 6 degrees max)

0 camber....I want the tires straight up and down....not an everyday driver and do not car to compensate for road crown

toe in 1/32 toe in ....minimal as possible and still have toe-in

these days, the techs do not even know the specs....the computer program tells them what to do

realistically, I would use the same specs for bias ply or radial....why the diff?. not arguing....I am wanting to understand the reasoning
 
inkjunkie said:
Not trying to defend the chowder head but in all fairness to him/her yours is probably the only old clunker he/she will ever see so how are they supposed to know anything about it?
Click to expand...

OLD CLUNKER???? :D

I agree, and he knows now.
 
HemiDenny said:
just curious.....what (specs) specifically are you wanting to alter?....and why

for instance...
I try to get around neg 3 degrees (manual steer) of caster for higher speed stability ....anymore tilt and it takes the fun out of super slow speed turning (power neg 6 degrees max)

0 camber....I want the tires straight up and down....not an everyday driver and do not car to compensate for road crown

toe in 1/32 toe in ....minimal as possible and still have toe-in

these days, the techs do not even know the specs....the computer program tells them what to do

realistically, I would use the same specs for bias ply or radial....why the diff?. not arguing....I am wanting to understand the reasoning
Click to expand...

I researched on this site saying that Bias ply sidewall are much stiffer that radials. Bias ply also has a smaller tread "footprint" than the radial counter parts. And that the alignment needs to reflect that.

Also:
http://www.quadratec.com/jeep_knowledgebase/article-61.htm
 
Only 4 settings come into play that I know of....

1) ride height
2) caster
3) camber
4) toe-in

I agree the tires are apples /oranges as far as construction..... but they are still tires.

What changes from stock to the specs should be made for the bias ply vs radial tire? I can agree a different set of specs would be used based on car use (auto-x vs drag vs street car)....but not for tire construction.

I seriously had never given this any thought ....and your concern may be very valid. ....I am just trying to get up to speed.
 
dgibby said:
I'm in the same boat. Tried having a local shop do mine, with my specs, but I'm pretty sure I got whatever the tech wanted. All new front suspension and now with only 1500 mile on it I have a right front tire that is almost gone on the inside only. I should have done my homework before but thought most tire shops should have been able to do it. I think I will be using one of these shops to get it done right. I know these are not too close to you but I have heard they are both really good. http://www.thealignmentspecialists.com/ https://plus.google.com/113427656408571478824/about?gl=us&hl=en
Click to expand...

What specs did you give him? Too much neg camber can cause that. I don't like to set street cars up with neg camber for this very reason. If I have a customer request excess neg camber(or anything that will cause issues)they get to sign the repair order stating just that.
 
HemiDenny said:
just curious.....what (specs) specifically are you wanting to alter?....and why for instance... I try to get around neg 3 degrees (manual steer) of caster for higher speed stability ....anymore tilt and it takes the fun out of super slow speed turning (power neg 6 degrees max) 0 camber....I want the tires straight up and down....not an everyday driver and do not car to compensate for road crown toe in 1/32 toe in ....minimal as possible and still have toe-in these days, the techs do not even know the specs....the computer program tells them what to do realistically, I would use the same specs for bias ply or radial....why the diff?. not arguing....I am wanting to understand the reasoning
Click to expand...

I agree with these settings except I think you meant pos. caster not neg caster. I compensate for road crown using caster, usually 1/2 degree more pos on the right side will do it.
 
Dcuda69 said:
I agree with these settings except I think you meant pos. caster not neg caster. I compensate for road crown using caster, usually 1/2 degree more pos on the right side will do it.
Click to expand...

you are right...it is POSITIVE caster...I must have bumped my head recently.....I want the spindle titling back.

I will edit a correction...thanks for pointing that out to me.
 
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