I have H&R Springs with stock struts, I was told by the people at the Nissan dealer that alignment was not guaranteed because I had lowered my car. Any of you have any experience or problems getting your car aligned?

 

I've never had any problems with alignment. That's just typical dealership BS.

 

I got my H&R and tokikos installed about 4k miles ago, my tires are almost at the end of thei lives and the car practically steers itself. Tire wear is nice and even.

My car is out of warranty so, I don't see my dealer anymore.
To me, they've got the tools not necesarly the experties.

GoodLuck.

 

Well, with the Maxima, you just have to hope the alignment is not too screwed up after lowering, because the alignment on the 4th and 5th gens isn't really adjustable except for front toe.

In fact, all you really need is front two wheel alignment since the rears are completely not adjustable (not even shimmed) and the fronts don't have caster or camber adjustments, only toe in or toe out. Getting the four wheel alignment will get you alignment reading and specs for the rears but they can't fix it if it's not within spec.

So yes, it's true that aftermarket parts which do not meet original specs void the warranty for that particular component on your car. Since the springs affect alignment, that part of your warranty is voided.

FYI, I got the Firestone (gag) four wheel lifetime alignment for my car. It cost $130, and I had to get the car aligned four times before they got it right (so I guess I my money's worth already).

 

Can anyone verify this? Not that I don't trust Eric, just that this is the first I've heard of it and everyone told me to get an alignment after putting the coilovers on. If all that I really need to worry about is camber, I'll just go get myself a camber plate and do it myself... I don't really want to pay $90 to get an alignment done if they're not going to do anything more than set the camber... I don't know if the toe is messed up or not, I'm at a sligntly more than 2" drop, it feels ok and does not pull... More turn in force, but I've chocked that up to the fact that right now I'm probably at about -2 camber...

 

Trust me, I've gone to several alignment places and all their computers say the same thing. Front toe is the only adjustable thing for Maxima alignment. If you don't trust me, email Andi! I think Andi's FAQ on his website (biggerbox.com) has more info if you want.

Right now, my car tracks straight, but my rear toe is a bit off. I haven't noticed any uneven tire wear over the past 10k miles though.

 

Can anybody tell me if these alignment settings are okay? This is what I got after I got an alignment done.

Front Left ------------ Front Right:
0.1 ---------Camber-------- -1.8
2.6 ---------Caster--------- 3.1
0.10 ---------Toe----------- 0.08
14.2 ---------SAI----------- 16.4
14.3 -----Included Angle----- 14.6


Rear Left: ------------- Rear Right:
-0.4 ---------Camber-------- -1.9
0.29 -----------Toe---------- 0.07

 

I can't stress the importance of getting an alignment after you lower your car.

I lowered mine over a month ago and about a week ago, my steering wheel started to shake violently at higher speeds.. i figured i bent one of my rims or got a bubble in the tire but that was not the case. Day by day, it got worse.. steering response suffered as well.. earlier today, my steering wheel was shaking at any speed.. 5 mph or 50 mph..

i took off my front wheels to find out the very inside of the tires was worn like hell. One of the tires is worn nearly to the cord and it's buldging up pretty bad. This caused the terrible steering i had.. i figure another week or two and that tire would have popped and you never know what would happen to me.
Basically, the camber was waaaaaaay off since i dropped the car. It's been 3-4k miles and the tires wore in very quick and very bad.

If you want your tires to last, align your car as soon as you lower it and give it a week or so to settle.
I swapped rims and will be getting it aligned first thing monday morning.

 

You need allignment mostly when you get new rims, bigger rims. I tell for the past month or so I've been driving behind many cars with aftermarket rims and 90% of them did not have an allignment. It's scary as **** when you're on the freeway behind them. One was a z4 and the angle of the rims was like 80degrees, he was riding on the inside of his tires...

 

Your camber readings are not good at all. Your car pulls to the left slightly. That might be able to be corrected with the play in the lower strut mount holes. You need to pull max positive camber from your right side and pull max negative camber on the left side to get the readings closer to each other. Most alignment shops wount even try this method, but it works as long as you don't have bent components. Your toe will also need to be reset after doing this.


Bigger rims have absolutely no effect on your alignment settings. The overall diameter of the wheel/tire reamains the same. Your alignment remains the same as well.


Toe goes way out when you lower a Maxima and it should be reset ASAP after your car is lowered. Don't be fooled by a centered steering wheel and a straight tracking car. Your front wheel are supposed to be toe in. After lowering your car they both go toe out. Thats why the inside of your tires will ware out if your alignment is not reset after lowering your car.

A 4 wheel thrust angle alignment is the only alignment you should have done. It tracks the whole car and sets your thrust angle according to your fixed rear wheels. Thats how your steering wheel is centered. No shop will perform a front end only alignment because todays alignment racks are 3D and track your car on all 4 corners to set your steering straight.

If your shop will perform a front end only alignment, there using obsolete equipment!

A 4 wheel thrust angle alignment should run you about 50 bucks. Shop around, don't pay 90 bucks for an alignment, your being ripped off.

 

I haven't gotten an alignment since my drop on H&R's which was over a month ago. The car is driving fine.

 

Well I'm pretty sure that if I put 19" rims on my car the alignment will be off...

 

Deezo, come on man. Do us all a favor, go get the car aligned and ask for the before and after readings. Then post them for us.

 

I'll do it soon. I've been procrastinating.

 

Get it aligned. It might ride fine at first but tire wear will be uneven and handling won't be at 100%. I have personally witnessed the effects of not getting one. Luckily it only led to the early demise of a $200 set of Wanli Tires. I got mine aligned and the repair shop did'nt have a problem with it being dropped.

 

Hey Guys. I need your help. I seem to have a problem w/my alignnment. I dropped my car w/Eibachs last week and before I got an alignment, the car was pulling pretty bad to the left. Since then I had got my car aligned twice at the same place(SEARS) and my car is still pulling to the left,while not as significant as before the alignment. The mechanic tells me that the reason for the problem can be because of my mounts. Tell me what you all think the cause of the problem may be. Thanks

P.S. Thanks Tom for helping me with my strut bolt.

 

What mounts?

 

Just make sure the mounts are in right.

 

1) Your welcome!

2) Did Sears give you a print out of the specs???? If you get the numbers I'll tell you what to do to stop the pull. Need info first. Come down to the shop and I'll set it up for you. Should only take about 20 minutes to do.

 

So what should I do or say to the shop that did my alignment? Should I go back to them and tell that I want them to redo it? they told me I had a 6 months/6,000 miles warranty on the alignment job.

 

Thanks Tom. Sears did not give me the specs so ima go back to them to get it tommorrow and ill post up the specs for u to see. I would just bring it to you to get it aligned but I already paid SEARS to do it and probably cant get a refund. How much would u charge anyway ? Thanks again

 

You barely lowered that car with HR's, if you got it aligned go home and relax your good. I got cut intrax springs and got an alignment one time and have not got another since, my tires are wearing down evenly.

 

The pot-holes in Somerville are keeping him straight !

 

I had to align my car RIGHT AWAY after the struts and springs went it. The car was going right as if I was saying "look ma, no hands!"

 

Yes go back. The camber reading on the right front is out of spec. Your supposed to have no more then -.1 and your at -1.8. Thats almost double what it's supposed to be. If they can't correct it, ask for your $$$ back. Then try to correct it yourself with the play in the lower bolt holes. PM or email me and I'll explain how to do it, which way to pull ect....

 

According to the general wisdom gathered by people over the years, if you lowered you Max to 2" or more, you need camber adjustment (using camber plate/bolt). Search the .ORG on this subject and you will find out what other people have done.

Lo-Tse

 

Here's the alignment sheet my installer handed me after installing my GR2's and Progress springs (lowered about 1.25"). He targets 1/2 the factory spec limits (lower notch on diagram), and tries to get "nuts on" whenever possible. My car tracks STRAIGHT.



He charged $60 for alignment.

 

two wheel alignments are crap. Everyone thinks that just because you cant adjust the rear you dont need a 4 wheel alignment. YOU still need to measure the rear for any out of spec and the cars thrust angle. You cant do this with only the front wheel.( and you can adjust the rear with shims, but most techs are too lazy to do this) As a person who is ASE certified in this field and works for nissan I will honestly tell you some of these guy have no idea what they are doing. I seen people cheat the alignment by putting air in one tire so it level and all sorts of crap. I just did my own alignment last week and its not that big of a deal to do it on a lowered car. (have H&Rs) Most shops will tell you this and that becuase they are not used to dealing with aftermarket parts , they know OEM and thats all. basically they are scared to touch something they have never seen. you jsut have to look around for a good shop and dont take crap from people who dont know what they are talking about and most of these service writers dont know what a strut is.

 

Well said, thank you!