in January I had Tire kingdom do an alignment on my car. it came with a 6 month warranty, so any time i wanted during that half year, i could come in and have it re-aligned for free.

right after i got it on the road in January, i saw that the alignment was better, but was still off.

my car still pulled while driving striaght on the highway, not to mention my steering wheel was tilted to the right to keep the car going straight.

plus, the vibration: when im going in a striaght line about 70mph, my steering wheel shakes for a couple of seconds, then stops shaking, then starts shaking again, then stops and so on and so on. its like every three seconds it shakes and then goes back to smooth....

i figured they did a ****ty job and just forgot about it.



in MAY i went back to Tirekingdom to have it redone. i explained to the guy that they messed it up the first time, and i want it done RIGHT this time.
he says ok, and they do it again, for free.

i take it back out on the road and i have the SAME problems. especially the on and off vibration, 3 seconds of smoothness, 3 seconds of shaking, etc.


so last weekend i took it to another tire place and paid the $55 to have them align it again...

they did the alignment while i watched, then i took it out on the highway with one of the mechanics.
I HAVE THE SAME PROBLM WTF? THE THIRD TIEM?

how come my car cant get aligned properly?
or is my luck so bad that i got the three different alignment techs who didnt know what they were doing?

does this have to do with the fact that my LCA bushings are worn ?

what else could it be?

what is the cause of the vibration that oscillates? i figured it was that the wheels were like this / \ and that is causing the irregular symptoms. but its not, not from what they are telling me....

i already have a set of LCA energy suspension bushings i got from Autozone, but im having trouble finding someone who is willing to put them in.
most places, including nissan, want to replace the whole arm.

what can be done?

 

Did the mechanic that rode with you give you any ideas? He should have after all he did the work and then experienced the problem.

You can talk to fanaticrockford tho, I think he has some LCAs with the bushings already pushed out, ready for some ES.

 

they said they had no idea what it was until i mentioned that i knew my LCA bushings were worn down from a rear valve cover gasket leak.

then they all jumped on the bandwagon, saying "oh, thats what it is. yea ok, thats what it is..."


and yea i was thinking about getting those arms from fanatic, but i want to first find out how much its gonna cost me laborwise to get the job done using my parts.


if its much more than 75, ill get them off him.

 

i hate bandwagoners....i personally wouldnt have said a thing to them about LCA. Maybe you would have gotten a refund if you didnt, being that the arseholes cant figure it out.

 

holy cr*p man i have that same exact problem it freaking sucks i was guessing it might be my rack but im not sure either

 

yep, Im on the same boat, control arms are easy to replace and can be had cheap on e-bay, but what if that wont fix your problem? Post results, if any.

 

the vibration has nothing to do with your alignment. have all of your wheels balanced and hopefully you dont have any bent rims. make sure you have all matching treads and your air pressure is even all around. replace the worn out bushings and have them realign it. theres a coupl more possibilities but that should get you started.

 

have you checked your wheel bearings?? mine were giving off vibrations at around 65-80 when they were going bad, but they didn't make any noise of early failure. just jack up the car and do the old fashion test to see what it might be.

 

well i feel like ive covered most of the possibilities.

all 4 tires are the same, and all were installed the same day.
all 4 wheels have been balanced as recently as March, when i bought them.
I have had the car aligned three times, and each time it drives ok for about 10 minutes afterward, and then i have this on and off vibration at speeds more than 70 MPH.

and the day i bought these wheels i drove like 85+mph for 3 hours on the way home with no problems.
this vibration issue has gotten progressively worse since then, so i know its not a bent rim issue.


no i havent.

how would that affect balance tho?


and whats the old fashioned test? just look at them?

 

march is a long time ago. you have hit a lot of potholes and bumps drove on ****ty road conditions since then.. not saying your a bad driver but its stuff you cant avoid. yeah of course the first day they were great, it just gets worse from there.... have all the wheels balanced and tell them to put the best two on the front. the car will not shake. im done with this thread. 1

 

I have a problem where I have to replace my balljoints on my 98 se 5spd, can anyone post a sticky to the diy writeup, please merchants tire quoted me 830, damn crooks

 

Did the shop who aligned your car give you a print out of the actual specs?

 

1 nut, 1 snap ring.
real easy to do.
at $830 it must be with the complete arm, some places don't think the ball joint comes seperately.