Alignment Help after Installing Steeda Progressive Springs

[NightmareMoon]

Im calling BS on that alignment sheet. The "AFTER" values are exactly in the middle of the range. I've never seen a car come out that symmetrical, especially in the front where camber isnt adjustable. To suspicious to believe.

Get a different shop, those guys are not being upfront, even if they did do work on your car, they arent bothering to tell you what the actual honest results of what you paid for.

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[Jlfierros]

[MENTION=19933]NightmareMoon[/MENTION], the sheet you are seeing is my most recent alignment sheet. The shop who did my alignment is well know in the area. They took 2 hours to do my alignment. I will be providing my alignment sheets from the previous 2 shops who failed completely and took my money.

 

[wildcatgoal]

I can get a symmetrical alignment done at Gran Turismo East, no problem... not impossible.

 

[Gibbo205]

Seems not many know how to adjust the rear camber. When I took my car for alignment, I brought this with it because the previous time they didn't do it. You don't really need the Steeda rear camber adjustment part but having something like this Steeda S550 Mustang Rear Adjustable Camber Arms make it very nice to dial in the exact camber you want on both sides. The problem with the stock adjustment is it's kind of a gamble. They can see where it is, then lift it loosen it back up adjust it with a guess, tighten it back down, lower it and check it again. Then keep repeating until correct. Most shops are paid a certain amount for an alignment and won't do all that. With the part mentioned they can just dial it in!

Ooops meant to put this in the post too. This is the stock adjustment:

Find a proper alignment shop with Hunter equipment as the car should not ever be being lifted during an alignment.

Drive it on the rack, get the owner to sit in it or simulator the owners weight in drivers seat, make sure there is minimum 1/2 tank of fuel and then start adjusting.

Find adjusting the rear of the Mustang very easy with all stock factory parts and then just adjust in realtime with the car on the deck.


When we align cars, the vehicle is put on the ramp, drivers weight added to passenger seat so say a 185lb driver, 150lb is put on drivers seat and 35lb in driver footwell.

We then check all tyre pressures are at factory or owners settings. Then fit the Hunter equipment, follow the instructions and then start making adjustments.

The rear is super easy on these cars, the front toe is very easy just like any car just adjust track-rod ends but camber is a total nightmare on these cars. You either have to slot the top mounts/struts and no customer wants a grinder taking to their car so you either get some adjustable top mounts like Steeda which work a treat or you use camber bolts which also work but are more fiddly.


This is the kind of alignment rack I use:

As you can see the car is kept on the deck, so as long as you set ride height first and corner weight (coilovers), take car for quick drive, then put back on ramp, attach the sensors and start making adjustments, it has a monitor both front and rear so you can adjust in realtime.

The ramp and the system makes life super easy.

 

[Tommy V]

Wow i dont ever think i seen an alginment dialed in too exact measurments on both sides down to the last 1/64th.Thats very hard to do,he must have spent some time aligning that bad boy lol.

 

[jbailer]

Find a proper alignment shop with Hunter equipment as the car should not ever be being lifted during an alignment.

Drive it on the rack, get the owner to sit in it or simulator the owners weight in drivers seat, make sure there is minimum 1/2 tank of fuel and then start adjusting.

Find adjusting the rear of the Mustang very easy with all stock factory parts and then just adjust in realtime with the car on the deck.


When we align cars, the vehicle is put on the ramp, drivers weight added to passenger seat so say a 185lb driver, 150lb is put on drivers seat and 35lb in driver footwell.

We then check all tyre pressures are at factory or owners settings. Then fit the Hunter equipment, follow the instructions and then start making adjustments.

The rear is super easy on these cars, the front toe is very easy just like any car just adjust track-rod ends but camber is a total nightmare on these cars. You either have to slot the top mounts/struts and no customer wants a grinder taking to their car so you either get some adjustable top mounts like Steeda which work a treat or you use camber bolts which also work but are more fiddly.

As you can see the car is kept on the deck, so as long as you set ride height first and corner weight (coilovers), take car for quick drive, then put back on ramp, attach the sensors and start making adjustments, it has a monitor both front and rear so you can adjust in realtime.

The ramp and the system makes life super easy.

Thanks Gibbo, good advice. I was talking to [MENTION=25806]SteedaTech[/MENTION] yesterday and he was telling me the same. I was convinced the alignment shop I was using was a good shop because of some of the things he said up front. Now I don't think so and I definitely need to get my suspension dialed in better. Finding a good shop is the hardest thing, they all think they are good shops...

 

[Gibbo205]

Wow i dont ever think i seen an alginment dialed in too exact measurments on both sides down to the last 1/64th.Thats very hard to do,he must have spent some time aligning that bad boy lol.

Did it myself, took 5 minutes per side, correct tools and equipment make stuff very easy.

The reason the front is not as precise is due to camber bolts being used for camber. ;)

 

[Gibbo205]

Thanks Gibbo, good advice. I was talking to [MENTION=25806]SteedaTech[/MENTION] yesterday and he was telling me the same. I was convinced the alignment shop I was using was a good shop because of some of the things he said up front. Now I don't think so and I definitely need to get my suspension dialed in better. Finding a good shop is the hardest thing, they all think they are good shops...

Just a find a ship with a scissor drive on ramp with hunter equipment, just make sure before you drive on ride heights are set correct and corner weighting has being done and your tyre pressure are set.

Then drive on, put necessary weight in car, put all the sensors on and get going, maybe find a shop who will let you do the job with them so you can dial it in precisely.

I use a local shop who are happy with me working with them, so I generally do my own alignments.

 

[wildcatgoal]

I have a recurring issue with alignments - even done by the best shop near me - where my steering wheel ends up off center. Almost every friggin' time. And I have to go back and get it fixed, which I don't have time for. My question is - and this is just ignorance - if I jack the car up and rotate the tie rides to dial that out evenly on both sides (so, same amount of turns both sides), do I maintain the same toe setting (within a reasonable tolerance) but still straighten the wheel? I don't know if it's my car or just techs who aren't spending the time to ensure my wheel is straight. I suspect they aren't doubt checking it INSIDE of the car before making the adjustments. Only place this doesn't happen is at Steeda's facility. Drives me nuts and throws me off! I want to be able to just fix it myself, if possible.

 

[jbailer]

Just a find a ship with a scissor drive on ramp with hunter equipment, just make sure before you drive on ride heights are set correct and corner weighting has being done and your tyre pressure are set.

Then drive on, put necessary weight in car, put all the sensors on and get going, maybe find a shop who will let you do the job with them so you can dial it in precisely.

I use a local shop who are happy with me working with them, so I generally do my own alignments.

I wish it were that easy. Here, aliment shops seem to have a lot of kids working in them. I'm sure they took shop class in high school but I'm hoping for a little more. In full service shops, the assign alignments to the noobs. When I try to talk to them, they just assure me they have the best equipment in the world and there is no better shop to go to. As far as getting to go in and help, unless you know someone in the shop here, it's highly unlikely because of insurance restrictions. They take it very serious here because that's how people think they make money here is sue someone. They won't even let you into the shop area.

I'm thinking of finding a BMW forum and see if they have a recommendation for a good shop in my area. Ask the guys that road race, I'm sure they would know.

 

[Jlfierros]

[MENTION=9456]Tommy V[/MENTION], The owner of the shop did the alignment on my car, I dropped it off on Monday evening at 3:45 pm and he gave me a call the next day at 10 am, stating that my car is ready. I wish i could have been there taking video of him working on my car but work takes priority. I learned a good lesson after this, DO NOT RUSH INTO THINGS.
2 bad alignments shops and me getting excited to drive my car turned out to be an extra $170 expense.
$135 for 2 Alignments
$35 for 2 Uber rides from home to work
Thank god my last shop now their stuff and only charged me $85 dollars for my alignment

 

[Tommy V]

Did it myself, took 5 minutes per side, correct tools and equipment make stuff very easy.

The reason the front is not as precise is due to camber bolts being used for camber. ;)

Ok well let me see the alignment spec sheet before/and after with everything both sides,front and back matching perfectly.Ive been doing this for almost 30.years and have not seen that yet.Im not saying u cant do a correct aligment in a quick amount of time,but everything perfect com on..U know caster and camber are u first adjustments,so once they are in thd green then u have toe,well when u set toe guess what,your camber and caster are going to be affected,since camber and caster affect toe.

 

[Tommy V]

Also like u stated the limatation of settings for the front make it hard for me to believe that someone could dial it in like that with factory parts,ever heard the sayin set the toe and let it go.

 

[NightmareMoon]

Jlfierros

They really may have done a good job on the alignment, but the report doesn't look truthful. Looks like something a shop would do if they don't want customers (who are likely uneducated about alignments) bitching about the funny numbers being off... so they do their best on the rack and just fake the numbers on the report to shut people up and keep the uneducated masses happy.

You could call them back, and gently as you can ask questions to see if those are the most accurate results they have. If you're very nice, don't seem upset, and seem to know more than the average guy, they may admit the report isn't 100%, while still standing by their work...

OR you could go to another shop, have them put it up on the rack and just have them check the REAL alignment numbers. Chances are if they really did spend 2 hours on it, your alignment is probably within specs. I'd want to know for sure though, because little things like too much toe can cost you money on worn out tires down the road.

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