OpTicaL

I requested a copy of the work they performed when installing the suspension to see if they performed an alignment afterwards. Just another thing to report to corp about. Not performing an alignment after a suspension upgrade is like not wiping your ___ after taking a *, I'll have to wait and see what their response will be.

*Update* - Their response was, "A alignment issue is not a safety issue, will have to schedule you for next week".

torqueTc

iTrader: (11)

WTF, hell yeah its a safety issue. When your car pulls to the left or right by itself, coupled with the crowning of a specific road, it can actually PULL your car into a ditch or oncoming traffic. Obviously your supposed to have two hands on the wheel, BUT OBVIOUSLY they should be smarter than that to just install, and not do the alignment.

You can eyeball pouring a shot. You DONT eyeball putting a 2900lb vehicle down a road at 65-70mph. Especially if its not a perfect, sunny day.

Geez dude.. I now have to ask, what dealership is this and where? I think it would be best if forum users know.

Man...

xseveredveganx

My rear alignment is way off and it gets squirrely and the rear wants to kick out in snow and sometimes rain.
Safety issue, I do believe so.

OpTicaL

Ok, so I called corp and told them about every single issue I had since delivery of the vehicle. I also told corp that I no longer trust the dealer to service my car because every time they resolve an issue 3 more pop-up.

Then the dealer's Customer Relations Manager called me back in the afternoon and said he received a call from corporate, good, I'm thinking, what are you going to do to make me a happy customer again?

He wanted to hear my side of the story when he has all the paperwork in front of him, so I started from day 1.

When I got to the issue of needing an alignment after a suspension upgrade, he tells me IT'S NOT NEEDED, I'm just rolling my eyes and going wtf is this mf-er talking about. Then he goes on telling me how many and how great their master technicians are, I'm thinking, so what? It's completely irrelevant to my situation. Your master techs didn't know how to pop up a plastic cover so he had to ruin an entire rear panel just to get to the shock nut? Then he replies, a master tech didn't perform the installation of the TRD parts. I reply, so you had some inexperienced, oil changing, tire rotating tech install my TRD parts? Oh that explains EVERYTHING!

Then I asked the CR manager a simple question, do your showroom cars have TOUCH-UP PAINT on them? "No", he replies. "Then why does my bumper have touch-up paint on it after claiming it was COMPLETELY repainted?" He couldn't give me a response.

Now I'm just waiting on the initial alignment report (if they did one) and also numbers on the chamber angle (if it needs to be adjusted).

Doesn't matter how many master techs you have if management doesn't know how to assign them to the correct job. Or maybe their master techs aren't really "masters" to begin with, but I'm not going to speculate. I'm bringing my car in for a alignment on Tuesday and they're going to have their top techs recheck everything. I'll see what happens afterwards.

To answer your "which dealership" question. There's only 1 Toyota dealership in San Francisco.

FF cars need rear alignment? I thought only rear-wheel/all-wheel drive cars needed that.

xseveredveganx

The rear axle has negative camber added to aide in handling. Once you start lowering it, the aforementioned negative camber turns into toe.
Example, take your hands and place them in front of your face like you're going to pray. Keep them about 5" apart. Tilt the tops of your fingers like you're making 'camber hands'. Then roll your wrists forward.
Make sense?
Granted I'm sure you'll be fine because the TRD springs don't lower much, but there are shims available to zero everything out.

I obviously haven't performed this.

OpTicaL

Here is my alignment report. I feel the car handles better with the front wheels having little toe-out. Where can I buy shims to fix the rear toe-in? When I searched for shims there are different sizes and I'm not sure which ones I should get.

Are there certain specs you recommend for better handling? I like the car to understeer less when cornering/high speed turning.