Okay, my car slid into a curb this weekend… wasn’t going too fast but fast enough I guess. I was trying to stop so it was about 20 - 30km/h I’d say. Now I do need at least an alignment but I am wondering if I should take it to Canadian Tire (they said that they can do a 2-wheel alignment for $59.99) or Nissan (they said that they will ONLY do 4-wheel alignments for $79.99). Which would you suggest?

On a side note, the Nissan service guy said that he had 3 cars come in last week, all of whom hit a curb and one of them only needed an alignment, the other had to have $800 worth of work to be done and the third guy had a $6000 bill!!! This is JUST from hitting a wheel on a curb! His control arm was bent and a lot of **** had to be replaced apparently. That almost sounds like a scam! Geez!

So where do you guys suggest that I take the car?

 

If you are willing to spend $60 what's another $20 to get the Nissan dealer to do all 4?

With the dealer at least you will have a better idea what if anything else has gone wrong.

I believe they will give you a quote and it's up to you to decide if you want to go ahead with the repairs they recommend.

Or be specific about it and tell them to do nothing more than the alignment, to see if anything else is wrong, and only do more work on the car if you explicitly approve of it.

 

Whatever you do, don't go to NTB. I have had mine redone abt 4 times now, and it's still not right. I"m goin to go somewhere else.

 

Your car DOES NOT NEED a 4 wheel alignment. Your dealer knows this and is ripping people off.

Not only does it not need a 4 wheel alignment, there is no way to adjust all 4 wheels.

The only thing that can be adjusted is the front wheel toe. I know that they measure the rear wheels to get the thrust angle, but it's still just a 2 wheel alignment.

...that said, you definitely need a 2 wheel alignment after hitting a curb.

 

hi, Ben Amen!

 

does anyone have trouble with uneven tire wear because they have eibach springs?

 

Maybe they just say that to justify charging $79.99 to do it... and in fact they DO only do a 2-wheel alignment... possibly referring to the rear wheel measurement to get the thrust angle as being a "4-wheel" alignment.

I am thinking along the lines of what 'flyer' said in the first response to this post. This is Waterloo Nissan that I am taking it to. They have usually been good with me and I hope that they do not rip me off.

 

I have uneven wear, and Eibach springs, but they aren't related...

What kind of uneven wear are you getting?

 

Nope I did an alignment on mine after i dropped it with a pro-kit and the toe was just a bit off, no problems since.

 

i was getting outer tread wear on my old BFGs just before i replaced them. i since got a lifetime alignment deal with firestone when i got my new sport A2 tires. my toe was off by a little. i might take it back again because it's steering slightly right, just a tad. so camber is definately NOT adjustable, even a little?

 

Camber can be adjusted (slightly) with the play in the lower strut bolt holes. If the tech is any good, he can losen up the bolts and usually get the camber within specs again. There's not much adjustment, maybe a degree or so, but thats usually enough to get your car tracking perfect again. The key is to get the camber settings as close as possible on both sides. Ask for a print out of the alignment when your car goes in. Verify the camber is within spec and even on both sides. I like to run with slighly high negative camber (currently I'm at -.9 deg. both sides) It gives you a better bite on the curves. I've never had tire ware problems set up that way either.

 

i'll have to find that printout..hmm

 

The mechanic included the printout of what my camber and toe was and what he adjusted it to. It also shows what the suggested values are with min. and max. I found it quite informative.

Can we buy caster/camber/toe adjustment kits when we buy aftermarket suspension?

 

when was the last time u guys rotated your wheel casue that would cause uneven tire wear on the to front wheels.

 

If needed, you can purchase camber bolts to give you more camber adjustability. They run around 30 bucks. Normally you shouldn't need camber kits unless your slamming your car over 2 inches.

You cannot adjust caster in our cars. If caster is off, something is bent.

Toe is adjustable via your tie rods.

 

You know i went looking for a place that will do an alignment on my front wheels and the places that i went were all saying "no sir you have to align the front wheels with the back so it will need a 4 wheel alignment. I got ****ed because i remembered this thread and just walked out.f***, they **** me off. oh and they were saying that it has to have a four wheel alignment because it has four independant axles. just wanted to make sure i wasnt crazy.

 

I'm also from Waterloo. So far I've found Waterloo Nissan to be ok but I also have this sneaky "dealer is bad" feeling from reading this forum.
Do you have snow tires? It's a frickin nightmare driving my max around at the moment. I've already hit a kerb this winter but I was lucky (5 km/hr). I'm thinking snow tires are definitely the way to go now.

 

They are correct. It's called a 4 wheel thrust angle alignment. It's the only way to assure your car is tracking straight down the road. If your front wheels are not lined up with the rear, your steering wheel will be off center. 4 wheel thrust angle alignments are basically what all shops with 3D machines will do. It assures perfect tracking.

The days of a "front end" alignment are long gone. If a shop is only capable of aligning the front, go somewhere else to get the job done correctly.

 

Yeah I HATE Waterloo for driving... I was saying earlier that Kitchener/Waterloo is the armpit of Ontario... sucks to live here. My gf better be overly grateful to me for this!

I didn't know there were other org'ers in the 'loo. Where are you at? I live at Victoria and Westmount.

 

Hey man!

I took my car to Active Green and Ross who also said they charge one rate for doing an alignment. I did point out that the rear wheels cannot be aligned. No dice. They explained that the alignment device needs to be mounted on to the rear wheels for reference. They also charge $69 with a $10 coupon which can be printed off their website (look for pdf file).

 

Get a street/strip aggressive setup. It is night and day between that and stock alignment.

 

There is no such thing as a 2-wheel alignment. A 4-wheel alignment is done to calculate the thrust angle from the rear wheels and match it up to the fronts. I got printouts of the full alignment job that Nissan did. Makes a lot more sense to me now.

 

Is this the reason that my back tires wear in a strange diagonal type wear? I have eibach springs. SHould I have a 4 wheel thrust alignment to fix that??

 

Unless your car is pulling HEAVILY to one side or one wheel is ****-eyed compared to the other I wouldn't recommend that you waste money on a 4-wheel alignment. If it is just weird tire wear, that would happen regardless, depending on your driving habits.

 

This is what you said earlier "There is no such thing as a 2-wheel alignment. A 4-wheel alignment is done to calculate the thrust angle from the rear wheels and match it up to the fronts. I got printouts of the full alignment job that Nissan did. Makes a lot more sense to me now." What I was thinking is that the back maybe tracking to the side or different than the front and maybe this is the cause of the diagonal wear like this.

 

we have a local garage chain called Matthews that has treated me well in this area. They inspect the car as if to do a 4 wheel...if the thrust angle is good (rear axle relative to the body of the car) they only charge for a 2 wheel alignment....this is very fair, as they take all the same measurements to do this anyway...i think $50 is a much more common price for a 2 wheel job.

I had a buddy with a probe GT bang a curb at like 10MPH...the angle was just right to wrinkle up the lower A arm....we had to put the spare tire on because the wheel was so far back. Given the design of the maxima lower a-arm and mount i could easily believe that any damage would be costly....especially if the mount got screwed up...that would almost be a better job for a body shop than a mechanic. In any case, jack the car up and took a good hard look at the a-arm on both side...any differences should be noticable. If the arm is bent, I would buy a used one from a salvage yard and put a new ball joint in it. having the dealer do it all, I could easily believe $500...6000 sounds rather...ummm....steap...