Our 2017 (bought new) 991.2 S is going in for new tires soon. Only 15k miles but with winter rains coming, the worn down Pirellis are going to be replaced with Michelins. Tire shop is asking if I want an alignment for $130.00. My inclination is no because the wear pattern looks good. Any comments are appreciated

 

$130 alignment, that's pretty good deal. Where I am, the dealer wants $190, and a good indy wants $250. Pretty F'ed up i would say. I would do it for $130 if you haven't done it.

 

Its worth aiming to zero out the front toe and just having a tad in the rear, like <0.10. That will have a much larger effect on wear than camber. Of course, im biased as i always try to run zero toe on every car i own, I like a bit of dartiness.

 

If your wear patterns on the old tires are good then there is no need for an alignment. Changing tires never affects alignment. $130.00 is a great deal, but if you don't need it, it's wasted money.

 

This is the way I feel as well.

Especially if after you drive a few miles on the new tires and everything is running great I'd skip the alignment.

I would have to question their alignment tech if they have the knowledge on doing a 911. There are quite a few adjustments that can be made.

 

No there aren't, especially on a non-GT 991.

These cars are comically easy to align, and any tech with a modicum of experience should be able to do it a four wheel alignment in about one hour. $130 is a fair rate for my area, with anything more than that usually being a gouging tactic in response to perceived affluence.

 

Completely disagree if you want it done right.

* Rear is simple to adjust via eccentric bolts, first camber then toe.
* Then jump to the front and adjust camber, which is done via the top of the shock tower. This becomes an iterative process, pushing the front struts back and forth on both towers. Oh, and caster is impacted when camber is adjusted and there is no adjustment for caster individually. So you reach a compromise between the two measurements to achieve your desired outcome.
* Then adjust front toe via the tie rods
* Then go back and check the rear, as more likely than not things have moved a bit. Correct what moved, typically a toe adjustment
* Go back to the front and confirm nothing moved. Trim tab whatever may have slightly moved out of place.

These cars are hyper sensitive to changes and there is a lot of back and forth to correct something that moved out of spec as a result of correcting something else. A shop that charges $130 to align a 991 either doesn't value their time, has no intention of adjusting camber/caster, or hasn't done enough of these to know how long it takes to get it right.

You absolutely should get the alignment checked when new tires go on. Even if there is no un-even tire wear now, how do you know toe wasn't knocked out 250 miles ago and the evidence hasn't shown up yet? Do you really want to risk abnormal wear on an expensive set of new tires? Nearly every car that crosses our alignment rack has at least one corner out of alignment. I'd say its about a 90% failure rate.

 

Thanks for the responses. After putting it on my lift today, I found some (slight) uneven wear on the front tires. My local tire shop are good people I've done business with for a long time and they have a lot experience. I will discuss it further with them when I take it in. Historically, I am not a big fan of wheel alignments without an obvious need but as this is my first P car and I wanted your input.

 

Good points. Our postings crossed so I just read this. This shop was recommended by the local Porsche dealer when they couldn't get to job previously.

 

You got it! A basic, no-frills alignment procedure that they teach the kids at Valvoline. Nothing exotic nor unique to Porsche here, it's about as simple as it gets short of something that straight up can't be adjusted.

Alignment threads always seem to end up this way. If you want to spend way more money than you need to and pretend your car is somehow unique and requires exotic services and procedures to work on, then more power to you, but please don't go around trying to convince other people to do the same thing.

 

While not unique, certainly you don't think having to adjust camber via the shock tower is a common practice, do you? An incredibly small percentage of vehicles on the road require this. The majority of the cars on the road don't even have factory adjustable front and rear camber, or require the addition of an after market camber bolt to create adjustability.

Additionally, the precision of the suspension components and chassis creates a tremendous amount of play between one setting and another. You can set the toe on a Camry and not have to worry about needing to go back to another corner to correct something. Not the case on the 991.

I see more Porsche alignments on my rack in the course of a week than most will see in a lifetime. My experience and my ASE certification has also taught me how to trouble shoot when a chassis won't cooperate, because they don't always behave as components begin to exhibit wear or bind. If you feel the training at Valvoline is sufficient for your car, that's great. Perhaps my personal standards are higher, but I also recognize that's not the right answer for everyone.

 

991 Carrera is super simple to adjust with factory suspension. No more complicated than a Camry. Any competent alignment shop will have no problem with getting the car to factory spec, but if you want non-factory spec they won’t have any advice to give. If you have a lot of adjustable aftermarket suspension then you will want to take it to a shop that is familiar with setting up race cars, but a factory OEM car is simple.

 

Oil changes are pretty easy as well but I still would not recommend or go to Jiffy Lube.

If the tire wear was normal and even on your previous set of tires and you steering wheel aligned, I wouldn't touch it.

 

Spend an hour with a well trained Porsche tech using a modern Hunter alignment rack.

He will look up your recommended factory settings-. They differ by model, year and options. He will show you that the setting for each wheel interact with each other and how to optimize to get to the correct setting for each. He might ask what sort of driving you most value and explain how a tweaked overall setup can get you the best result.

I did that despite relatively even wear on a well worn set last time I replaced them. It was like getting a better than new car. The tech told me it was worth doing on any new car. and periodically on any car. Now I would NEVER not get a proper alignment with a set of new tires. At $130 it is a bargain.

 

Eh, I would in a pinch. Assuming they've had any of the plastic panned VAG cars through there in the last eight years, at least. The only complicated part of the oil change on a 991 is the physical access to the oil filter. Nothing some rags can't fix.

Alignments are even easier than an oil change on a 991 for an express tech, though. There's nothing special or unique at all there. Literally nothing. Nada. Even RAS doesn't make it special. FAL doesn't either. The rear engine doesn't matter. The limited engine bay access doesn't matter. The plastic oil pan doesn't matter. I just can't stress enough how dead simple it is to do an alignment on a 991. All the alignment adjustments are readily accessible and will be extremely familiar to any technician as they are decades-old technologies. Porsche didn't invent something new here. An experienced tech can have it done in 45 minutes. An inexperienced tech in maybe two hours. I would trust a highschool student at a Firestone to align a 991, particularly if they were being helped out by a Hunter rack or similar.