Hello

i need to change my winter tire to summer tires and was wondering if i should do the alignment i have 2013 base 991

Also if i need to do alignment of course i would take it to a good place, but for change of tires is it ok to take it to Town fair tire?

it is close by and more convenient, or better take it to the dealer?

i thought changing tire is not that big of a deal?

also if i do the alignment should i go with factory or change a bit?
i do autocross in the summer

any street friendly suggestions?

Thank you in advance

 

I would only let the dealer align it, unless you have a very up to date alignment shop that has alot of experience with porsches, but a 13 shouldnt necessarily need alignment , tires are not a problem, its the care of the job that causes scratched wheels, and most of all bad balance. it depends on the guy doing the job

 

If you don't notice any uneven tire wear and your car tracks straight, I' d just swap them out for your summer set and keep driving.

 

I am in the same predicament having to change the Pzeros in the rear in the next couple of thousand miles. I will do an alignment at the dealer. I would do it everytime I change tires. Porsche recommends it once a year.

 

My dealer offers free alignment checks.

 

As OKB brings up, damage to your wheels is one simple reason not to take it to just anybody.

The first owner of my 991 apparently took the wheels to some half-assed shop and when they removed the existing wheel weights they gored them off with a screwdriver or pickaxe or something, mangling the surface of the barrels in a few places. It may have even been done by Freddy Krueger from all I could tell. Then they didn't remove the remaining adhesive either so there was all of the black crap left on the barrels too.

When I've used Porsche Austin for new tire installation and balance, the installer fully removed the old weights cleanly including the old adhesive and placed the new ones on quite neatly. They are also one of the few places in town with a road-force balancer to give the best possible results. The cost for Porsche do to it here was $50 a wheel, in my opinion that's a pittance in additional cost for top-of-the-line work.

Similarly, I don't trust anyone else to understand the details of aligning our cars properly either. They have the full specs for each car based on the options gathered via the VIN, so my alignment report here showed the values were selected for this particular car with SPASM and PDCC. Would any regular shop consider that? I don't know how much that really matters, but I found myself wondering if a SPASM/PDCC car could use less aggressive camber than some due to the reduced roll in the corners.

 

I actually had a similar Elm Street experience with the dealer. Going to a dealer doesn't (unfortunately) necessarily guarantee that the person working on your car knows what he/she is doing.

If you go to an indy that frequently sets up track/autoX cars and/or specializes on Porsches, they should be able to do a fairly precise alignment.

 

Thanks