I just had an alignment done on my car b/c I noticed my tires wearing a bit unevenly. Anyway, they give you this sheet at the end. Please help me try to make sense out of it. I don't even know if they did a good job, or really what the numbers and fields mean:

(I modified the sheet (contrast and what not) to try to help show the green and red colors)

 

So it looks like both of your rears were out of spec for Toe - and were corrected. And the right rear was out of spec in toe and camber (too much negative camber) - but was corrected.

And the front right was (and looks like it still is?!) out of spec in SAI (i don't know what that is without looking it up). Looks like they made that worse since it's farther out of spec now!

Basically, the specified range is good. And if the numbers are in green, then they're OK. Red is bad. Obviously the "before" is before the alignment and "actual" is after they made adjustments.

 

Ah, here we go... SAI:

 

Alright. So since it is a 'built-in nonadjustable angle', there is probably little that I can do to get it corrected. I guess I should just leave it as is?

So my 2 questions go as follows:

1) Did I really need an alignment that costs $50?
2) Did they do a good [enough] job?

 

yes you did, on the rear, your before specs would eat your
tires unevenly...

did they do a good job? Is your steering wheel straight? If
so, yes it looks dead on...

They have a choice of two print out types at the end of the
alignment, this one is the hardest for the average joe to read..
the other has actual pictures of each wheel, with each
measurement posted where it is actually located on your suspension..
besides that, it would also show you, your "steer ahead"
.. that means how far you have to hold the
wheel left or right for it to track perfectly straight... there is
some lee way here also, but when I do alignments I judge
the overall procedure off of that measurement, I dont finish
until the steer ahead is 0 and the wheel is perfectly straight..

but you are within spec, and even left and right so, you got a
proper alignment

 

I also do alignments, streetlethalxb .....do you use Win Toe to align vehicles??? And yes Spect2K3...it appears that you got your alignment done good....And it looks like it probably only took him about 10 mins to actually do it...Honestly setting it up takes the longest...

 

yeah.. was a quick align..
I use win tow..i have personnaly never done it with out.
well, not true.. i have reset toe once or twice real quick aftersteering racks without it.. but i happened to be close to begin with.. gotta love white out and thread counting, lol

looks like he left the left front alone and gave the right front a
1/4 tun to match.. setting up definatley took longer on this
one..

do you verify front camber first?

 

P.S.
we charge a 100 for an align (miami acura), so your 50 doesnt
sound bad to me

 

I should have mentioned that it was $50 b/c I bought 4 tires from them, so they threw in a free front alignment. The $50 is for the rear. The normal price for all 4 is $80.

 

spect2k3- is your tc lowered? I'm wondering if that could cause the SAI to change.
I'm also wondering if changing to a 225 tire could've changed the SAI.. just thoughts.

I also think the person should've re-adjusted the rear camber to get it to -0.9, middle of the range or what I call nominal. But then once you change camber, you'll have to re-do the toe as well.

But another thing I've seen when they've done the alignment, is if the targets they mount on the wheels aren't perfectly installed, then crazy results can happen. I was told by one dealer my caster on the front end was bad on one side. Took it to another dealer who found it was fine, and I verified it with a 2nd dealer after that. Looks like the first dealer didn't install the targets on the wheels correctly. That can make a big different too!

 

hey sciontc_mich - yea, my tC is lowered on TRDs for about a year or more now.

I never thought that having the 225s could change anything, but that is a possibility I assume. (Running 225/45-17 on stock rims).

I wasn't sure if I should actually go back and ask them to correct some of the things such as rear camber and SAI b/c I don't really understand much of this. Thats why I posted it on here, but if all of you experts are saying that it's fine, then i am happy!

 

hey spect2k3,
yeah it looks "within spec" I'm just picky I like the alignment exacting. ;) must be the scientist in me.

I don't think you'll have any wear issues with the tires with these settings. It's all personal preference. that's all.

Yeah it just hit me that you had the 225's on there, and am curious if that sent a centerline difference, both from SAI values are in the same area for both sides, one just is a bit higher. Makes me wonder..

Big question is, how does it drive now?

 

Honestly, I don't know if the difference that I feel is all the placebo effect or if I really feel a difference. In either case, I loved the way it drove before and still love it now. It may seem a bit more steady on it's feet now, a bit more sure of itself. The handling is nice and precise, just like I like it!

 

I just went to the alignment shop today and they printed out a sheet saying that my alignment was already perfect so they didn't charge me for anything...

not trying to thread jack but can someone answer this?

1: Why is the rear left and right different and is that ok?
2: If they are within the specified ranges, the alignment is good?

thats about it...my alignment looks the same as the sheet posted above except when I see the right and the left rear as they are different, it's kind of confusing..

thanks

 

spect2k3- cool yeah glad it's still good

pain- things can be "within specifications" but be completely off.

for instance, the toe could be 0.03 (minimum value for rear) on the left, and 0.13 on the right. would the tires be going in the same direction? Technically, yes, but one would be going more than the other. And I don't think that's correct.

If its only a 0.01 difference, then don't worry about it. but if one is 0.03 and the other 0.13.. I wouldn't leave it like that, but that's just me.

Now were you talking camber or toe? my above example was for toe.

How is your SAI in the front looking? was it out of spec slightly like spect2k3? is it lowered?