I have had a slight pull under acceleration and my passenger front tire has had some funky wear over the past few months. I rotated the tires and and wanted to have the alignment done so the new rubber didnt get eaten up. So i went to have a local shop align my car today. when i got inside i asked the mechanic/owner if i was gonna have trouble getting my car done since its low and has underglow (didnt know if side tubes were in the way). He said he would take a look, so we walked out to the car. He was about to have me pull up to the garage to check the ride height when he saw my wheels. he asked me the wheel size, to which i replied "17's". He promptly said "can't help you then, the machine won't mount up to them". At first I was like OK, gonna have to shop around some more. then after a few minutes I started pondering the whole thing. How can you not align cars with 17" wheels. Do you have to be riding on factory 15s to get it done. What about the hundreds of factory cars that use bigger wheels. just isnt adding up for me.

Input welcome guys

 

wow I haven't heard that one before. I worked at a tire shop. We did aliments all the time on cars with 17's as long as the sensors could be mounted on the wheel which I never saw they couldn't .. well just one time but that was cause the wheel was so bent. the sensor didn't have 4 even spots to mount on.. I would take it somewhere else.. Was it during the end of the business day you went ?

 

I go to a little mom-n-pop place for alignments and they only do 15 and 16in. (although, I believe there is a sign saying they will do bigger, but they charge more).

 

this was a mom an pop place and it was during biz hours.

 

i suggest finding a vehicle with stock 17" wheels and calling them telling them whatever vehicle you found, and ask them if they can align it..

I had a shop do this to a friend, and trapped them in their own lie, after speaking to the owner of the shop, he got the alignment done..

 

sounds like there pulling your leg...i do alignment all day from stock 13 inch rims to 26 in rims..

 

sounds like a bunch of BS to me! I have never had a problem with getting my car aligned . i've had everything form 15's to 18's on mine.

 

I would suggest getting it aligned with the steelies on anyhow just be sure they don't scratch your 17s.
The symptoms you described sound more like warn parts. How many miles do you currently have? Pulling while accelerating (torque steer) is common slightly but gets worse with higher miles.

 

sheesh you guys don't get it. they are a garage, they want you to pay them to perform services on your car using their specilize equipment and knowledge. they want your money. now if they say they can't do it, then they can't do it, they probably want to do it, but if they can't, then won't.

it is like how i work at an italian restaurant, if you are hungry, you come and order food, we cook it for you and you pay for the cost of ingredients and the service of cooking it, however, if you want something other than pizza or pasta, i can't help you. if you come in and ask for donuts, i'll have to say sorry, we don't have any lard to boil them. if you want sushi, i don't have the steamed rice, and seaweed to wrap them with, or a chef with the skills and knowledge necessary to make it.

so they want to align your car, but they don't have the equipment to work with a car that has 17 inch rims. end of story, stop making it into a huge thing.

 

^uh...thanks for the there input chief.
i was just looking for a reason why. Please keep in mind that i live in a land of toyota haters. GM plants here provided a ton of employment before they pulled out. needless to say it leaves people bitter and ____y, and i wouldnt be suprised if they just didnt wanna service my car

 

I'm gonna chime in on this topic since I do alignments all the time at work.

The MAIN REASON for not aligning your car wasn't the fact you had 17s, it was because they don't want to be liable for any damage that the sensor clamps may cause to your wheels such as scratches or dings! We do this at our job, we won't align with aftermarket wheels!
They should have just told you to put some steel wheels on it, so that they can align it with no worries...

 

Yes you dont go to an Itallian resturant for fast food or donuts, but you should be able to go to an alignment shop to get an alignment done.

How does an alignment shop not have the equpment to balance a very popular wheel size? sounds like a cop out..

 

thank you for a reasonable and informative answer

 

24k. what parts are you referring too?

 

^^^No problem! You'd be surprised to see how many A-Hole customers are quick to blame us for damage to their fancy wheels! They know damn well, that damage was there prior to us performing the alignment!

 

we can't align anything at my work with anything bigger then an 18" wheel, we are a body shop, and do 99% of most of our alignments, we just can't do anything bigger then an 18" wheel or a dually quad cab full bed, our machine won't clamp to it, some places don't have the money to buy a new machine every few years(we do they are too damned cheap though)

 

I take mine to toyota, same price as the "local" shops but better service.

 

wish i could say the same. this guy was gonna charge me 40.00, dealership was gonna charge 85.00

 

The parts I referred to would have been worn struts, ball joints or tie rod ends but with only 24K worn parts would not be the cause. Hope the alignment corrects the symptoms.

 

$40 bucks is dirt cheep for an alignment. Locals around here are $60 - $80 toyota was $65, pluse the know all about the car and not Just alittle bit.