Irksome

I went to the dealer for some repairs, and they told me my tires were wearing badly, and recommended an alignment. I got one done, paying $199.95 for the priviledge, plus another $80 for tire balancing (which I am pretty sure I needed, I had a small wheel wiggle).

Dealer says the alignment was a mess. I have no way to confirm this, but the car I thought handled like a dream handles even better now, so they probably aren't lying.

How often do you guys get your cars aligned? Where do you take it for the alignment? How much do you pay?

Also, my ignorant question of the day, what the hell is 'corner balancing'?

On other cars, I've pretty much neglected alignments. On this car, at $1200 a pop for tires, I am wanting to pay a bit more attention. Not to mention the incredible thrill of hitting an autocross, I bet my car will blow my mind this weekend now that all the tires are pointing the same direction...

Bos

As for confirming the "alignment being a mess", the dealer should be able to provide you with the before and after print out from the alignment machine. In fact, this is generally provided by any shop doing an alignment. Sounds like you agree though from your seat of the pants test.

In short, Corner Balancing is adjusting the suspension so all four corners of the car are exerting as equal amount downward pressure as possible. It really only applies to an adjustable suspension, however non adjustable suspension cars can be corner weighted to achieve the same balance. Not generally done to a stock car / suspension though.

IMO the frequency of alignment coincides with what you do with the car. Daily driver being far less - a track car / tweeking the suspension is far greater. I track my car (DE events) a few times a year and an alignment once a year before the season is my schedule.

nick49

Had my alignment done on my '99 in 11/05. Right rear was considerably out, evert thing was reasonably close but put spot on. I have an independent alignment speciality shop do it that has done cars and trucks for me for over 20 years. I have aligned my Jeep after doing a lift kit, and an XKE I had after completely rebuilding the suspension in the driveway with great success.

I understand how it's done and realize most shops charge several hundred dollars an hour to align exotics, it just doesn't take that long and it's not a magical process. I will have it done if I detect a problem with the steering or suspension that tire balance doesn't correct, or abnormal tire wear other than caused by negative camber.

The shop I use, did a 4 wheel total alignment for $56.00 while I waited. It took about 45 minutes. It was done by the owner who is second generation and has over 30 years experience. He also does a lot of exotics, SCCA cars, heavily lifted and custom cars. He will modify suspension components to achieve alignment if needed with the owners permission. I'm refering to the steel I beams on a Ford Truck and not the aluminum components of a Porsche.

Botsy67

I got my 4-wheel alilgnment done couple of days ago at RUF Auto-centre for $139 out-the-door. They can do for street and race mode, also corner balancing if you want to. I did not know what that was but they did not even propose maybe bc I have stock supension as explained by BOS. After 45 min the Tech took the car out for a short test drive around the block and then put the car back on the alignment system again, tweaked some more and tested drive again. Total time is about 1 hour. Looks like they are very careful. My front wheel toe was slightly out, pointing outward and the tech explained that will cause the steering wheel to be shaky. Though he mentioned that my front cambers were out of specs by -0.08 deg and he cannot bring it back within specs but he said that it won't affect the handling much or tire wear. My rears are within specs for both camber and toe. For sure, the car now feels smoother on straights. That was my 1st time at RUF and it was a nice experience, Hans and his team are friendly and you can walk around freely. I enjoyed checking out their supercars, they have couple of CTR2 993 for sale, only 16 ever built by RUF, very low miles of course, just amazing. I did not even ask for the price, very expensive they said They have a bunch of modified 996, 997 RGT turbos, a lambo Countach, a Viper GTS as well, not sure those are for sale or customer cars. I plan to bring my car there again for other services that I cannot DIY like tire replacement and balancing bc I don't think their prices are higher than Porsche dealers. At least their Techs are careful with customer cars and when they drove-in to a sloped driveway, they went in at an angle and slow to avoid scraping the front bumper, I like that
Cheers,

Analog Theory

We specialize in performance street and full race suspension and have a mobile Porsche approved alignment rig for use in our shop and at the track. We even add driver weight to the car and consider your intended use and driving style. If you were racing your 996, we'd actually set the car up specifically for the track you would be running on and most of our track oriented customers will re-align for each track. Corner balancing adds a whole new element (a very positive one at that) but it's only possible if you have an adjustable suspension that enables ride height setup also. It's not cheap (our motorsports alignments are up to 3.5 hours @ $100/hour). We capture and print before and after settings for your records and will adjust toe, camber, etc...based on initial driver feedback.

The benefits from a proper setup are significant. Your car will feel infinitely more surefooted on the road and braking will be greatly improved as well especially is the car has been corner balanced. All of this adds up to improved track times and greater driving enjoyment on the street, especially in the twisties. The primary difference with our approach and the dealer is the margin of acceptability. We split atoms to make it perfect, they have a "green zone" for settings (toe, camber, etc...) that once within is considered "close enough". Doesn't take as long (which is why it's cheaper). That said, on the street, it may not be noticeable if it's close but on the track, it will make a big difference at 10/10'ths without a doubt. Also, the factory alignment spec's are relatively "benign" for obvious reasons....we have a more "sporting" approach for the same obvious reasons!

- Jordan

Benjamin Choi

for a 100% street driven car (my cars), i get yearly alignments for two key reasons: 1) even tire wear; 2) arrow straight driving.

all the other reasons are minutiae to me as i can't tell or don't care to tell on public roads (e.g. corner balancing). keep in mind that most 911s are not corner balanced from the factory as most if not all do not come with height adjustable coilovers (pls correct me if i am wrong as I am new to the 911 world).

Irksome

Thanks for the info, guys, this has been very helpful. =)

I ran the autocross today, and did pretty well. I think I did better than last weekend, especially with a significantly reduced amount of understeer, but I can't be sure how much was the driver improving and how much was the alignment. I think I'll need a ton more track time before I am able to tell for sure.

But, for my first real autocross, I'm very pleased. Came in second in class at 1:04.95 vs. 1:04.56, with 6 or 7 in class. And no cones when it counted, though I did get very familiar with some during practice.

Of course, the best time of the day was around 56 seconds, so I have lots of room for improvement. I may be by soon enough, Jordan!