Knock out plates? Dealer alignment question.

[saltydogg]

I installed BMR springs and Steeda shocks/struts this past Thursday and Friday. I tried taking it to the quick lane at my dealer Friday afternoon to have the alignment done. After hooking it up they told me they only do toe adjustment and that I needed to have the regular service department look at it. I got a copy of the printout from the alignment machine with my “before numbers”.

Today I dropped it off, asked them to loosen and retorque the control arms to reset the preload and do the alignment. The service manager calls me a few hours later and says they can’t get the camber adjusted and I have 2 choices. Buy and install camber plates or they could remove the “factory knock out plates”. I told him to go that route since I didn’t want to go through the hassle/expense of camber plates ($$ + install time). They charged $60 for the alignment and $212 to remove these so-called knock out plates!!

My question is, did I just buy a unicorn or some flight line or something? Do these factory knock out plates even exist? I looked at the top of the strut towers when I got home and they look exactly like they did when I installed the struts last Friday morning.

My post alignment print out is all green/blue except for a little too much driver’s side caster (8.3 vs 7.7 for the pass side) so at least I have that good news.

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[Roadway 5.0]

I had never heard of that...so I lurked around a bit.

https://www.motor.com/magazine-summary/beating-wheel-alignment-june-1999/

If this article is true, it appears that "removing the knock-out plate" is a form of slotting without cutting-up the strut towers.

What were your front camber numbers before and after?

 

[saltydogg]

I had never heard of that...so I lurked around a bit.

https://www.motor.com/magazine-summary/beating-wheel-alignment-june-1999/

If this article is true, it appears that "removing the knock-out plate" is a form of slotting without cutting-up the strut towers.

What were your front camber numbers before and after?

Nice find, I did some searching and couldn’t find anything. I was -1.7 on both sides before, now -.06 and -.04 (L/R)

 

[Bahndvr]

My question is, did I just buy a unicorn or some flight line or something? Do these factory knock out plates even exist? I looked at the top of the strut towers when I got home and they look exactly like they did when I installed the struts last Friday morning.

Yeah I have a box of unicorns, I have a spool of flight line in the back and I have a tube of lanyard grease for you, all cheap. :lol:

 

[NightmareMoon]

I installed BMR springs and Steeda shocks/struts this past Thursday and Friday. I tried taking it to the quick lane at my dealer Friday afternoon to have the alignment done. After hooking it up they told me they only do toe adjustment and that I needed to have the regular service department look at it. I got a copy of the printout from the alignment machine with my “before numbers”.

Today I dropped it off, asked them to loosen and retorque the control arms to reset the preload and do the alignment. The service manager calls me a few hours later and says they can’t get the camber adjusted and I have 2 choices. Buy and install camber plates or they could remove the “factory knock out plates”. I told him to go that route since I didn’t want to go through the hassle/expense of camber plates ($$ + install time). They charged $60 for the alignment and $212 to remove these so-called knock out plates!!

My question is, did I just buy a unicorn or some flight line or something? Do these factory knock out plates even exist? I looked at the top of the strut towers when I got home and they look exactly like they did when I installed the struts last Friday morning.

My post alignment print out is all green/blue except for a little too much driver’s side caster (8.3 vs 7.7 for the pass side) so at least I have that good news.

What exactly is your current front camber set at? Might be fine to just leave it as is (fixing the toe of course)

 

[Roadway 5.0]

Nice find, I did some searching and couldn’t find anything. I was -1.7 on both sides before, now -.06 and -.04 (L/R)

Well, there’s the proof that you got something for your money. Impressive to see a degree of camber change without plates, traditional slotting, or cam-bolts.

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