I know everyone says you have to get your car aligned after you change shocks or lower it with new springs, but I lowered my car 4 months ago and never got an alignment. When I swapped tires this week and got new tires mounted, the installer examined the old tires (1.5 years old) and noticed no adverse wear on any of them. I plan to get the new tires aligned, but I think the alignment myth should be re-examined.

 

I beg to differ

My inside tear wear is pretty hefty.

Instead of new tires, I'm just gonna go ahead and spring for the 18s

 

is the camber adjustable at all on the maxima stock suspension without camber kits?

 

That is funny as well on my case. After I had lowered my Maxima on the KYB AGXs and the B&G Springs, my alignment was perfect. It just happened out of the blue and was all luck. But, it is true, ALWAYS get an alignment after you lower the car, even after you mess around with the bottom bolts on the bottom of the strut.....

 

if you change shocks/springs and your ride height changes, that will change your camber... which changes your toe.. negative camber will cause the toe to turn in.

negative camber causes inside tire wear.. toe in causes outside tire wear.. so basically, you got lucky and just wore them evenly. tires that were already halfway worn out won't show it as much as if you drove on a brand new set for a year and a half before checking them..




UCF, camber on a stock max is not "adjustable" per se, but there's small bits of clearance on the strut bolts and ball joints that can be taken up to change the camber a 1/2 degree or so.
another option is to drill the bolt holes holes in the struts a little larger so there's more play in them and you can adjust camber that way.



but again, if you touch the camber, you're going to NEED an alignment. I changed my camber a degree on each wheel, and my toe was about 5 degrees off afterwards.

 

There is no OEM camber or caster adjustment on our Maxima's, that's why alignment techs love FWD cars. It pays good time (1.2hrs) for the job, and there's only toe settings. "Set the toe and let it go" It's just a good practice to check/re-adjust the alignment after suspension work or when new tires are put on. More so if you're going on with plus size wheels or dropping the suspension. If you're keeping every thing OEM (tires/wheels) and your previous tires are in good shape with no signs of wear, you can probably get away without an alignment. If you really want to be critical, ask the alignment tech if you can sit in the drivers seat while he's adjusting the settings. Or if you normally drive around with equipment, tools, etc. in the trunk have your alignment set with these extra weight. Some cars like Mercedes Benz require weight to be added to the car during an alignment.

 

Any mechanic that can see your alignment specs by looking at your tires should be in the Guniess book of word records for laser like vision.

Find another mechanic! When you change the geometry of your suspension, all your settings change. It's measured in degrees, if your specs only change 2 degrees, you'll never see it on the tires in 4 months. But I guarantee you that a 40,000 mile tire mounted on a car who's alignment is off only 2 degrees will cut it's life by as much as 50%. It may ware nice and even too, don't be fooled.

Still think it's a myth? Go have your alignment done and ask for a before and after printout. Post it here for all to see.

Even if you replace your struts but keep the same height, your settings will change. Any time your suspension is taken apart, especially the way our car is designed, you must have your toe reset.

 

Don't always depend on the before and after readings. I tell you as a fact, those readings can be manipulated without putting a wrench on the car. Trust me I know this. For a customer it's a good reference but not always a guarantee

 

No, but it shows they actually at least took the time to stick the car up on the stand. by that point, it takes 5 minutes to do the actual alignment. most of the time is spent in setting the car up... because of my wheels, they have to jack up the car, drop the tire pressure to zero, THEN put on the sensor brackets..
then they air up the tires and drive the car onto the alignment rack.. set everything up again there, THEN they can do the alignment.

they hate my car.

 

With all that just to rack the car, you're lucky they'll do the alignment. Most auto chains (PB's, Sears, etc.) will not do an alignment if the car has a hint of it being lowered, which is BS in my eyes. They are not worried about losing our money, because we are out numbered 10000000000 to 1 when dealing with customers with stock ride height to drop ride height. They might look past oversized wheels with stock ride height, but if the camber/caster is not within spec or the car pulls to either side they'll blame it on the larger wheels. Of course you can have radial pull regardless of tire size. These past several years drop cars have really been getting a bad rap when dealing with alignment. This leaves some to go to tuner shops that do alignments and they'll charge you a lot more with no guarantee that the tires will wear evenly or your car will drive straight. IMO if ones experiencing uneven tire wear, proper rotation can help the problem. You just have to examine all four tires and rotate them accordingly, not just front to back but inside out and diagnoal (which will require the tires to be dismounted = more money) if needed. Also keeping in mind the arrows on directional tires. It's a lot more work than the standard front to rear rotation, but when you paid high dollars for your tires and they are wearing uneven you will make the fianl decision what you're willing to do or try. Not to get OT but all this is related to alignment/drop cars

 

Well, the tire installers just looked over the old tires and noticed no uneven treadwear, but I know it's out of alignment because the car pulls to the right. I'm just saying that the tires didn't seem to have a problem with the bad alignment.

I guess I was just lucky that the tires contacted the ground where I didn't get uneven treadwear, if that's possible. Like I said, I'm getting an alignment anyways, but some of the feedback is interesting to read.

 

I agree. I put 17s on my car and they definitely needed an alignment. I could see the uneven wear on the fronts. But I knew I was going to change the suspension soon, so I decided to wait untill after the H&R and Tokico upgrade. Sure enough, just changing the suspension fixed the alignment. No alignment was necessary at all.

DW

 

Hmmm, really? simply changing wheels altered your alignment?
Please explain how that's physically possible.

 

There is no myth. Its a fact, and the fact is YOU DO NEED AN ALIGNMENT AFTER LOWERING, SOMETIMES.

AFter I lowered mine, my front wheels were out of alignemtn REAL Bad. But on my bro's car, his alignment was ok even after lowering. I guess it differs from car to car.

 

Well my theory is the camber/toe DIDN'T change. But if the new tires are much wider(ie.. 205-235), any slight camber changes are now excerbated(sp). ie.. .9 neg camber is not that bad on a 195 tire, but much worse on a 255 width tire. Just a theory of mine.

 

Changing the suspension altered the alignment. When I bought the car I had the stock SE setup and immediately went to 17s. Maybe it needed an alignment before the 17s, but I didn't check. So, with the 17s I checked my tires and found I needed an alignment. As I said earlier I just decided to wait until the H&R and Tokico upgrade. When the car lowered from the new H&R setup, no alignment was needed after that

DW

 

Exactly. It is not a myth at all. The camber will be off, as well as the toe, and possibly the castor. Anyways, the reason shops don't like lowered vehicles is because they don't want to warranty the alignment. Its also harder to align lowered cars. They will give you a bunch of BS excuses but thats the bottom line. Also, thats one reason why I'm keeping my new max at stock height for a good year or 2. You just run into many problems that you don't consider beforehand. I lowered my prelude without aftermarket shocks, camber kits, etc, and it just wasn't the way to do it. Anyways those are things you should consider if its your daily driver.

 

After a few years of driving with my 18 inch wheels, The insides of my tires peeled off. I went to get new tires and they said my alignment was way off.

 

After you lower the vehicle it is a good idea to align the vehicle. Now you can be lucky and not need it, I would still do it anyways it only costs about $60