I'm in the Bellevue, WA (Washington State, not Western Australia) area and I've just replaced my shocks and need an alignment. Anyone know of a good shop to have this done at? Any of the national chains any good?

 

Try NTB. Ive used them in a few cities and they tend to be quick and do good work.

Also they have plans in which you can buy unlimited alignment for a certain number of years at different price/duration levels. These pay for themselves many times over.

 

You might get some better info posting this in the regional forum...

 

regional forum would be much more useful.
if you go to a chain store, you have a pretty high chance of having a kid work on your car.
I go to a local guy that does alignments for most of the shops in the area. haven't had an issue with his alignments yet, so what if it's not lifetime. it was done right the first time

 

At the risk of sounding like a NTB spokesman, they use a laser alignment system and give you a print-out of angles before and after. Car goes straight, customer service tends to be very good. If youre on a road trip and think there is a problem, the local NTB will have your account on the computer and process you fairly quick.

I got a 3-year plan, it works for me, so thats advice from my experience.

 

Hey mikakantor, how much did your 3 year plan cost you at NTB? I got my alignment done at JustTires but it was crappy. I could use a good alignment. I've only seen 1-2 NTBs around here

 

Been to NTB. The first time it took 3 hours. The second time at another location they drove my lip into the rack and cracked a chunk out. Didn't see anything special about them. All depends on the techs...

 

I think it was in the $120s for the 3 years. The next tier is 5 years and it is cheaper per year for that one but I didnt want to lay down that much money.

They are also transferrable to another car for the same owner, but only once during the plan.

 

Appointments help with the wait. As far as the lip, that sucks but also not unexpected and would likely happen in most garages. I'm not sure alignment can be done properly on a lift with the wheels off the ground and no weight on the suspension, which makes a ramp necessary... right?

 

I got a lifetime (as long as I own the car) deal at firestone. They offer the deal a couple of times a year. $90.

 

How good of a job did they do? or let me re word it, how many times did you go back after you left the first time?

 

I looked up NTB and they don't have shops in Washington state, however they list the "Big O" tire chain as a representative on the west coast. I've bought the tires from them, so perhaps they'll do it for a good price. I'll check into this. Thanks

 

80% of shops do toe & goes. u really need to make sure they know you're watching .. the printout at the shop i use to work at was sometimes edited to be within tolerences.

 

Are you on www.nwmaxima.com ?

I don't remember seeing you, unless you have a different screen name.

That site basically is the regional forum...

You could see if Jason's shop will do kind of work. He has moved around, so I can't recall offhand what his new shop does.

 

I personall use the Nissan dealer. I have yet to come out with more problems than I went in with. I had a chain do my alignment and it ate my front tires, to the point that I had to have them replaced.

One plus is the dealer I use has a mech, that also drives 3rd Gen, so it is not unknown to them.

 

[QUOTE=Cliff Clavin]Are you on www.nwmaxima.com ?

I was on NWMaxima.com and ran into a problem logging on last year (kept trying to use my Maxima.org pw) and got locked out. Tried to get it fixed and finally gave up.

 

Yeah, I've gone to the Les Schwab down here in Fife and they usually have people that know what they're doing. Last time I had the Max done I went to a friend of the familys shop though.

 

when i swap mine..i took mine to CarX..their services is pretty good..so far my car's alignment is still good..the price isn't really that bad after all..it was around 77 bucks...

 

Oh, I almost forgot. You should see if Firestone still has the lifetime alignment. It might cost a little more, but you can go in and have them do the alignment whenever you change something.

As for nwmax, just start up a new account. That site is small enough where there are a lot of names not taken, unlike this site, where there are 20k names taken, most of them have the phrase "max" or "maxima" in them.

 

Jimbo, There does Firestone advertise $90 lifetime alignment? Out in CA, it's $69 each or $169 lifetime or $149 lifetime (if purchased on Sat. at some locations).

 

Eastside Bavarian in Issaquah has a very nice laser rack, however they typically do BMWs only. If you are interested lmk and I'll give you the name of one of the guys down there.

Firestone offers lifetime alignments for $160ish? (at least that's how much it was a couple years ago)

 

Just as a follow up, I took some of the advice here and took my maxima into a local dealer, Campbell Nelson. They seem to know what they're doing. It turned out just fine and the car seems to track a little better now.

 

Sorry for seeing this q's so late. This is dallas texas. It was a Advo coupon price. I think the regular price is $135. I see the advo price being offered at least once a year. I use it (the lifetime) once a year - 3 times so far. they do a good job especially as I also bought a full set of tires. I used to own the same on my toyota SR5 rearwheel drive and i got about 10 free alignments out of that one.