Yummybud924

so I took my car to have the tires changed from snows to all seasons and Canadian tire told me my alignment is way off. I don't trust canadian tire touching my car (or most mechanics and I do all my own repairs) so I took it to another alignment shop and the guy couldn't get the rear aligned properly.

he told me one of the nuts in the rear suspension is seized up and he tried torching it and he said he can't get it to open and is afraid that if he uses more force the nut or bolt will break.

he said if that nut or bolt breaks he has to drop the whole rear suspension and it could cost me 6 hours at least if it ends up breaking.

so anyways I got charged $134 for the alignment and it's not even aligned properly the front is good he said but the rear is off and he said the car will dog track a bit.


i'm not sure what to do now should I go back and have him try and loosen the bolt with the risk of it breaking and paying for him to drop the rear suspension and fix it?

i'm driving over 400 kms tomorrow from kamloops to vancouver and then back again in a few days.

Dougs951

I hate alignment shops.

And that bolt would have to be pretty rusty to not come apart, all of mine have always came loose quickly with an impact gun.

car_slave

The only bolt which couldn't be replaced without dropping the suspension is the inside ride hight adjuster - not one that you'd need to move to do an alignment unless you are getting it corner balanced also. Try going to different shop which knows more about 944s. My recent rear alignment cost over $200 - it takes that much time.

mytrplseven

I took mine to a Porsche Dealership a few years ago and following the mods over to Koni shock inserts, they said they couldn't get the camber right and should buy and install camber plates. They gave me the car back with the steering wheel pointing off to one side and the car feeling like it had a flat tire. I took it back and said that it CAN'T be so bad since it was just inserts and it was ok before I brought it in. They put it back up on the rack and worked on it some more and I later found out that a camber adjust nut was frozen and they finally got it worked loose and was fine after the "real" alignment. You definitely don't always get what you pay for at the "Dealer Professionals".

Van

Only 3 bolts need to be loosened in the rear for each side... Two are just plain old bolts - get them from the hardware store. One is a nut on the sway bar drop link mount... If you have to replace that drop link, it's probably $40 used.

Ni944S2

It seems most alignment shops don't know how to align the rear of a 944.

Dougs951S

Had a 4 wheel alignment recently at NTB, cost me 90 dollars and they did a nice job, took them under 40 minutes once I taught the tech how to align the rear.

william_b_noble

my local alignment shop, that actually knows what it is doing, charges around $80, if memory serves, to do a 4 wheel alignment, and they get it right the first time, every time. They did many 944s for me, my 993, my 356, etc - you just need to find a shop that actually knows what they are doing.

Grandpa#3

he said if that nut or bolt breaks he has to drop the whole rear suspension and it could cost me 6 hours at least if it ends up breaking.

Can you post a picture of the bolt/nut the mechanic is talking about?

Cheers,
Larry

Yummybud924

hey guys I forget which bolt he was referring to but he did the alignment. the mechanic spent 1.5 initially and couldn't do ti he told me he thinks my rear suspension parts are bent then the owner came and looked at it and they figured it out and aligned it. This is a shop that works on porsches and they had another 944 and a 928 in there.... but ya I got charged 4.5 hours @ 119/h. insane but at least it's aligned properly, I hope.

now my problem is my steering shaft to the rack has play and i'm not sure if it is safe to drive until I source a new one. I'm scared the shaft could break.

Akerlie

Damn, the rear suspension of these cars is not that complicated, if they spent that much time aligning the rear end one might question their abilities

Like Vans said its just three bolts that need to be loosened but if one does not have the eccentric tool for the toe in adjusment it will be a littlebit more time consuming.

In my personal opinion the mechanic needs to understand wheel geometry and have skills and craftsmanship to do a proper alignment, I guess skilled mechanics are getting fewer and further between.

Dougs951S

Wow...if any shop tried to charge me more than an hour I'd refuse to pay and demand my car back, because that just means then didn't know what they were doing. It isnt your job to pay for their incompetency. I can do a poor man 4 wheel alignment in my driveway with 2 tape measures and a plumb bob and get it pretty darn close in an hour.

william_b_noble

be sure the clamp bolt on your steering shaft is tight, I had a car with a lot of play and that was exactly what was wrong.

Yummybud924

well first shop charged me $130 and couldn't even do it he claimed the rear bolt was seized.

the new shop I went to works on porsches and bmws and the guy had the special tool and he took 4.5 hours and I got charged 520 so my alignment cost me 650 bucks. insane.

that's one of the ****ty things about owning this car. a lot of mechanics even ones that work on porsches have no idea what they are doing. the bolt that the first mechanic claimed to be seized wasn't seized he just didn't know wtf he was doing. what can I do now go back and ask for a refund?

and I agree being charged 4.5 hours bc the mechanic doesn't know what he is doing isn't fair. the mechanic spent 1.5 hours on it then told me he can't even do an alignment bc he thinks the rear suspension must be bent because he couldn't move something, but the head mechanic helped him out and they figured it out.

this is the main reason I never take my 944 to a mechanic. I do all my own repairs but I can't do an alignment at home

Yummybud924

i'll check but i'm sure it's tight i used blue loctite when I torqued those when I switched to a manual rack.

I can feel play at the u-joints (side to side movement) of the steering shaft so that's where the play is coming from.

now my issue is finding a new steering intermediate shaft. porsche has discontinued them so I have no idea what to do. I don't feel safe using a rebuilt unit.