finally!

Try an NTB, one by my house does excellent work, had the Z done yesterday and they spent the time needed to get it spot on (around 2.5 hours) and it is a bit tricky due to the suspension and rear wheel steering. PLUS, they have it where you can get realigned as many times as you want within the next 12 months!

hacker-pschorr

+1

My 928's have been aligned on the same machine after being lifted onto the stands for 20+ years.

mark kibort

you dont need to drive the car up the racks, you only need about 270degree tire rotation with the sensor on the wheel.(run out calibration). you never want to jack the car up, even pulling it down doesnt fully simulate what the geometry looks like when it is settled on the car. its simple, and should be no problem. dont tell them to "drive " tell them to push.

Mk

Bill Ball

Er, that makes no sense to me. If you pull it down while on slip plates so the ride height is exactly the same as before you raised the car, how does that result in not the same geometry? Porsche has no problem with that.

hacker-pschorr

It's because you cannot produce enough torque in such a small area to properly pull it down. (-;

destructo_low

So I called the same shop up that refused to drive the car to calibrate the sensors, I talked to another guy who I assume has actually used the machine. They do just roll the car back and forth about six inches to calibrate it. My car is aligned now.

The only pitfall is the technician didn't set my caster correctly. Instead of lowering both sides to be in the range of 3 to 4 degrees. He just raised the right side up to 6.5 degrees to match the left side, so both have positive caster, just way above the factory specifications. I know this won't wear my tires, but it will create changes in camber during turning that aren't correct. I have the print out of the alignment.

Should I go down there and complain, enjoy the car and its perfect handling as is, or just find another shop to align the car in a month or two? I have a stripped bolt on the cradle holding the front control arm on. So I need to helicoil it soon. I hope I can do it without removing bolt bolts and leaving the arm in place to preserve the currently alignment.

GlenL

It's typical to ask for "max caster that matches" so I don't think it's a problem. The tech may have been doing you a favor in that regards albiet a favor you didn't want.

I'd enjoy it and maybe get it re-aligned after it settles for a couple of months. The helicoil concerns me. I'd do that pronto.

dcrasta

I suggest MiDAS. I have had my alignment done at Midas and they had the DSP. No need to lift the car.
MIDAS also has a warranty for their alignments.