Alignment Shops

[Craig Naylor]

Where do you get your race alignments?
What do you typically pay?

Have this Sat & Sunday... or Friday morning of Tour to do. Sat & Sunday LA Area, Friday in LA or on drive down along 15 / San Diego...

Suggestions?

[KJ Christopher]

I use and recommend West End Alignment. But you have to have an appointment and he books 1 1/2 - 2 weeks out.

Darrin Nishimura
West End Alignment
18008 South Vermont
Gardena, CA 90248

(310) 808-9233

[Steve Towers]

J.C's in Huntington Beach does good work. Like West End you need an appointment.

7542 Warner
714-842-9200

[Mako Koiwai]

See my email

[Doug Kott]

For anyone in the south OC area, I highly recommend Bymar Wheel & Tire, in Mission Viejo on Via Fabricante. This was a year ago, so prices may have gone up, but it was only $65.

--Doug

[Theo O.]

Tucket tire. They brought my tangled mess back to life after my accident.

http://www.tuckertirecovina.com/

[Giovanni Jaramillo]

I use and recommend West End Alignment. But you have to have an appointment and he books 1 1/2 - 2 weeks out.

Darrin Nishimura
West End Alignment
18008 South Vermont
Gardena, CA 90248

(310) 808-9233

+1

[John Stimson]

Any suggestions for a good shop near Azusa/Covina/Glendora to do alignments? Preferably somewhere informal where they will have you sit in the car and discuss the results they're getting as the do the adjustment.

Will Tucker Tire do that?

[Arthur Grant]

For anyone in the south OC area, I highly recommend Bymar Wheel & Tire, in Mission Viejo on Via Fabricante. This was a year ago, so prices may have gone up, but it was only $65.

--Doug

I usually have my mechanical work done by Unique in Mission Viejo, the owner Chip who has never steered me wrong, also highly recommends Bymar Wheel & Tire. It's where he sent me when I was going to drop my car off.

[Q V]

Any suggestions for a good shop near Azusa/Covina/Glendora to do alignments? Preferably somewhere informal where they will have you sit in the car and discuss the results they're getting as the do the adjustment.

Will Tucker Tire do that?

Performance Auto Express in Walnut, CA
19831 Valley Boulevard Walnut, CA 91789 - (909) 869-6667
Open Weekdays 8am-6pm; Sat 9am-6pm

Was recommended to me by someone on this forum. When I did it a few years ago, it was $95. I liked their work the best of all the places I tried before and tried since.

They got my alignment the closest to my specs (I have completely customizable arms) of all the shops I've tried. The only thing I had to do was to make sure they understood that I wanted a very specific alignment (i wrote down all the specs I wanted & whether to err on the positive or negative side when they can't get the exact #, etc).

That being said, my next alignment will most likely be @ West End since I want to finally corner balance my car as well.

[John Fendel]

For anyone in the south OC area, I highly recommend Bymar Wheel & Tire, in Mission Viejo on Via Fabricante. This was a year ago, so prices may have gone up, but it was only $65.
--Doug

I have used American Tire & Brake on Via Fabricante in Mission Viejo for years. I sit in the car while the alignment is being done and they set the car to my specs. I've been very happy with their work.

John

[John Stimson]

I visited Tucker Tire in Covina today. They do alignments with tape measures for toe and a bubble gauge for camber. That means that they can only measure total toe, and can only check asymmetric toe by eyeballing it. They are basically doing what I am doing in my garage, except they have a lift and turntables so it's a little quicker.

Any suggestions for a shop that has an alignment rack that is capable of measuring thrust angle? This is a very simple job -- adjust the front and rear toe to my specs and do it with zero thrust angle. I'd prefer not to have to wait 2 weeks. This isn't a race car, I don't need someone who knows tricks or can do cross balancing.

[Mako Koiwai]

There's the Barco method for Measuring Thrust: http://www.teamblewracing.com/forum/for ... p?TID=1276

Depending on your car, it can be easy or difficult to adjust your rear wheels toe, track and camber to preserve your rear alignment and at the same time correct or maintain perfect Thrust.

[John Stimson]

Thanks Mako, that's clever -- I might have to buy myself a laser pointer so I can do that. You don't want to know what I am using for a toe plate. ;)

The car definitely pulls to the right after taking it to Tucker. Looking at the rear toe adjusters, it looks like they adjusted one more than the other. Fortunately I marked the starting point! I will tinker with it until I get it to zero toe with more symmetric adjustments, and see if that eliminates the pull.

[Mako Koiwai]

Make sure you measure your toe first. (I just use a nice cheap set of shelf boards from Home Depot.)

Often a pull can be cured by a simple adjustment to the front tie rods. Even Darren at WestEnd typically needs at least one extra adjustment to get tracking straight.

If the car is say pulling to the right, ie. steering wheel is down on the left ... and your toe is where you want it ... I typically bring the right front wheel in a couple of facets on the steering arm and the left wheel out the same amount. I'll often be fine tuning my front toe, so I might just work with one side, depending what I want to do with the toe, ie. if I need a touch more toe out ... so in the above example I might just go out with the left wheel instead of doing both wheels the same amount.

In my experience, each of the typical 6 facets on a steering arm is equal to about 1 mm toe adjustment.

But yes, you should first make sure your rear tracking is set correctly. Just realize that you are also typically adjusting rear toe and sometimes also Camber. Again I measure my rear toe first and then when I adjust for thrust I will work to either maintain my rear toe or adjust in the direction I want to go with my toe settings.

[John Stimson]

If you start with everything adjusted properly, then turning the right steering tie rod a turn in the toe-out direction and the left steering tie rod a turn in the toe-in direction should do nothing except change the angle of the steering wheel as you drive hands-off, straight down the road. When I say a "pull", when I am holding the steering wheel straight, the car goes straight, but there is a slight torque turning the steering wheel to the left. If I let go of the wheel it immediately takes a set about 5-10 degrees to the right of center and the car veers slightly to the right. That does not seem like it should have anything to do with the offset of the tie rod settings, unless there is a self-centering mechanism in the power steering system. I don't think there is -- the restoring force should be provided entirely by the forces on the tires.

Status: I re-did the rear toe settings, and tried to keep the changes equal on each side relative to the factory setting which I had marked. I got the target toe setting. The car still pulls a little to the right but not as much, I think.

[Steve Towers]

Keep in mind that alignment shops routinely set caster different from side/side to account for road crown. If you asked for (and got) caster the same on both sides, it's likely going to pull. That said, I once had an alignment done at a highly thought of shop in Orange that does the electronic 4 wheel alignment - the car pulled dramatically. When I questioned them, I got "must be radial pull from the tires". Took the car to a local shop (analog and tape measures) and they corrected it. Wasn't the tires.

[John Stimson]

I have always had symmetric caster on my Miatas and S2000, and they always tracked straight. The Protege tracked straight before, too. The shop did not adjust caster.

[Mako Koiwai]

Yes, of course if the steering wheel is straight and the car is pulling ... then check Thrust.

I always check tracking in the middle of a certain road around here where there is no crown.