this is just great!!!! i have hotchkis spring and tokico struts.. i went to the toyota and the first time ever they were honest with me!!!

they told me they could do my alligment to be perfect because i have lowering springs and aftermarket wheel and they have the stock spec on the computers so they cant do anything with the modded cars.. they can make it a lil better but it wont be that good..

this is just CRAZY because i had falken 452's and they were bold after 12 k miles!!!! now i got 512's and there started to wear out after 8 k miles... they wont be good after 12k thats for sure...


so what should i do?? take it to a tuner shop or wtf?????

how come is that .... not a single toyota dealership told me about this... they just did some sloppy alignment job and they gave me the car like they could do it

 

You need to relax for a second.

Take it to a tire / wheel alignment shop. The dealer isn't my top choice for wheel alignments.

 

yeah man take to some third party shop.

 

I'm sure it will be cheaper as well!

 

just take it to any auto repair place, an alignment is usually aound 65 bucks. you might need rear camber links too.

 

No need for camber links, a simple intelligent alignment shop will get it back into spec.

 

Should be able to. A degree or two of neg camber should not hurt you too much on it wearing even and will actually make it handle a bit better in the corners. If it is excessive, of course, you will see the tires wear more on the inside edge, but you probably arent that far out.

How do the tires look? Are they feathered, worn more in the center, etc ?That alone will tell you a lot about how it is off.

Also, be sure you rotate at every oil change.

 

uhhh duh?

of course toyota cant do an alignment on an aftermarket suspension specs. They probably can but dont want to be held liable for any damages.

 

FIRESTONE HAS LIFETIME ALIGNMENT FOR like 120 dollars

 

They can, they just don't want to be liable. Every way to perform the adjust me is the exact same, it's just that the numbers needed will not match stock, so if there is uneven/improper tire wear after X miles, they don't want to customer to come back and say 'hey you f'd up my tires'. Typical politics in the dealership world...

Take a picture of the rear tires, direct shot from behind them, so we can see how bad the camber is. It should be around -1(not sure on stock spec)...but I've seen drops throw it off to about -6 degrees.

 

Just relax. Life is grand.

I'd find a lifetime alignment deal. That way, you can get it checked and updated for free every few months or after each adjustment.

 

x2. Its already paid for itself w/ only 2 alignments. Told them about the springs and there wasn't a problem w/ it.

 

lol i cant do alignments anymore unless i can find a place that doesnt have a lift with a steep ramp. even blocks of wood dont help me

also a very common moto for dealerships when it comes to alignments is "set toe and go" toe and camber are both tire wearing alignment angles and will wear tires. most of the time (i say most not all, maybe even some) the tech will throw the car up in the air, get specs, run start scan. and then set toe to spec change up camber a little (maybe) and send it out, probably wont touch caster or camber. and camber is going to be your biggest problem.

if my car didnt get stuck on the alignment rack i would be doing it myself at school. but my car is too low.

 

I know guys (through autox) who run -2 degrees camber with minimal issues on tire wear. Keeping them rotated is a big key there. I will be running -2 or close to it when autox starts this spring. Probably closer to 0 in back, so rotating will help me even more. Camber causes more wear on the shoulder than the center, but normally wont outright kill the tires unless it is overly excessive. Toe will kill them and cause all sorts of issues in a shorter amount of time. Cupping./feathering, which will lead to road noise and poor tire life. And change from OEM will obviously have some effect of course, some being much smaller than others.

The lifetime alignments are cool, but take mine to a guy who spends a good amount of his time doing race alignments (porche, various autox cars, including some of last years top finishing nationals cars) , and that is who I will stick with. A lot of big shops set to OEM and that is it. Since I am not going to be running an OEM aligmnent (unless I tweak it back after autox is over for the winter) I like going to someone that really knows his stuff and can handle those types of jobs. He charges $45 for an oem alignment and $45 - $100 for anything else depending on what it takes. And he will also normally tweak it once if it isnt exactly feeling right for free or next to free. If anyone posting here lives in the Twin Cities area, I am happy to recommend him. TheAlignmentGuy.com is the place to look!

 

And dear lord Dave... how low is that tC of yours??

 

correct, but what i'm saying is if you are dropped low enough, they won't be able to get the rear camber back into spec without some aftermarket rear camber links....the stock oem ones only adjust so much.

as for the front, i've read that you need longer bolts as well..?

 

haha low Dave. low

lets just say, last time i took it on the rack it got stuck on the frame

 

very true, because the tC has VERY limited adjustment for rear camber. thats why hotchkis came out with the camber links.

 

um not to deter from the topic but.. do coilovers require settling as well, like springs? or do they just pop in, set ride height and go?

 

pop in set ride height and go, i havent experianced any settling