Getting an alignment in a few days - input appreciated

schrute

I got new rear tires installed today along with a 4 wheel alignment. I use this shop because they've been very good at meeting my needs in the past and they treat me well. They also know my name and call me by it when I walk in the door which doesn't happen too much anymore (cue theme to "cheers"). But they mostly work on pickup trucks (Utah has a lot of trucks/SUVs), family sedans and minivans. The shop guys have some cool rides, and seem to appreciate mine and treat it well, but it's definitely not a speed shop. So what I'm getting at is that the alignment guy (who was way busy today but asked me to come back right before close and ended up staying a little late to get my car done) pretty much went back to insisting that we keep toe and camber "in spec" even though a couple days ago we talked about backing out some of the camber and making a change to the toe. He made it clear again today he doesn't want to go against what the computer is telling him. He even said that he couldn't dial back the camber because toe is "maxed out" which is rediculous because I installed the toe bolts along with the camber arms and there should be PLENTY of toe adjustibility. I have a good rapport with this shop (for expample the tires I got today were already "on sale" and they still dropped them another $30 for me) and I don't want to damage that rapport so I asked the alignment guy to just do what he was comfortable with. Here's what I got:

Before
-1.4 front camber
-0.16 front toe out (the springs definitely settled some more in the last 2.5k miles since the last alignment, throwing the toe out. the springs now have a total of 3k mi. on them so hopefully they're done settling)
-1.8 rear camber
0.21 rear toe in

After
-1.4 front camber (no change)
.08 front toe in
-1.7 rear camber (so much for taking out some rear camber)
0.16 rear toe in

Bottom line on this story is I need to find a speed shop to get my next alightment done if I want anything different than factory spec, which is cool. I just like these guys and giving them my business when I can. I'll keep buying tires here but will go elsewhere for alignments. He only charged me for a 2 wheel alignment, $54, even though he did all four. Again, they're good to me. I'd like to try out some of suggestions with camber and toe above. Just need to find the right shop around here to do it.

I'm actually back to a matched set as of today. Been running the Toyo's up front for 3k miles and now have the same tire on the rear. A couple final notes:

• The alignment feels great on the road. Tracks straight, corners great
• The new rear tires (Toyo T1-R in 295/35-18) are soooo much quieter than the bald yoko's they replaced, though that's normal for bald tires to be so loud
• I'll keep an eye on these tires and will get the next alignment done sooner or later depending on what I see
• I'm going to lower the pressure in the rear by a couple of pounds and replace the air in the tires with nitrogen as suggested above.

Thanks again for the help guys. +1Rep to you all

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ChrisSlicks

I wouldn't sweat the nitrogen, but go along with everything else.

I get my alignment done at a speed shop that does regular repair work as well, they don't charge me any more for a custom alignment than they do for a traditional one. Doesn't bat an eye if you ask for -3.5 degrees of camber.

BTW, I don't know where your guy's computer is getting it's specs from, but the factory specs for the rear are as follows. Any request for a setting within that range should be considered fairly normal. Sounds like he just dialed it to the nominal setting, which is what most repair shops are trained to do.

Camber:
Minimum -2.16
Nominal -1.67
Maximum -1.17

Total toe-in:
Minimum 0.09
Nominal 0.15
Maximum 0.21

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fuct

damn wish you guys were at least in texas