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To me, I believe the unacceptably large cost in alignments lies in *not* getting one whenever you mount a new set of tires. I pay about $300 to have my favorite independent tire/alignment place do an alignment with every new set and I don't feel ripped off. Before I used him, I got maybe 10,000-12,000 our of my rears and maybe 20,000 out of my fronts. But by having him perform an alignment as part of the tire mounting service, I got 27,000 miles out of the rears and even more from the fronts, all other things equal. My tire place also doublechecks the tire wear every 4,000 miles and makes any necessary alignment adjustments of any are needed. So you can pay $300, or you can pay $75, or you can even get the alignment for free, but the true value of getting the alignment in the first place is essentially the cost of a new set of tires minus the alignment cost, or maybe $1,000+ more. So shop around, but always plan to spring for a careful alignment.
To me, I believe the unacceptably large cost in alignments lies in *not* getting one whenever you mount a new set of tires. I pay about $300 to have my favorite independent tire/alignment place do an alignment with every new set and I don't feel ripped off. Before I used him, I got maybe 10,000-12,000 our of my rears and maybe 20,000 out of my fronts. But by having him perform an alignment as part of the tire mounting service, I got 27,000 miles out of the rears and even more from the fronts, all other things equal. My tire place also doublechecks the tire wear every 4,000 miles and makes any necessary alignment adjustments of any are needed. So you can pay $300, or you can pay $75, or you can even get the alignment for free, but the true value of getting the alignment in the first place is essentially the cost of a new set of tires minus the alignment cost, or maybe $1,000+ more. So shop around, but always plan to spring for a careful alignment.
What brand and model tire did you get 27,000 miles on?
Your front camber is -1.3 L and -1.8 R? Why the asymmetry?
On one side that's as far in as they could get it for some reason. Oddly enough, it doesn't seem to be effecting handling or tire wear significantly, which tells me that it's toe more than camber than negatively effects wire wear.
Here's what I'm running. '05 C2S with Stage 2 race suspension (Bilstein Damptronics, RSS LCAs, Tarett monoball top mounts, toe steer kits, camber lock kits, etc)
With that much specificity - is it warranted to do the alignment with a half tank of gas and either yourself or an equal ballast in the drivers seat ?
A good sized human (or 2) and the weight of petrol could sway things quite a bit. ~ 10%
With that much specificity - is it warranted to do the alignment with a half tank of gas and either yourself or an equal ballast in the drivers seat ?
A good sized human (or 2) and the weight of petrol could sway things quite a bit. ~ 10%
Correct. Car had a 1/2 tank of gas and 200 lb weights in the driver's seat. You can see the cross corner balance numbers on the printout. Rake was set at a 1 degree forward cant as well.
Does anyone swap sides on the rears maybe half way through the life of the tire so more of the rubber gets used? Seems like you could get ~50% more life of the tire for maybe $150 to swap the sides since the inside edges get bald presumably well before the outside edge. Would you need to do an alignment again after such a swap? Or is it enough to do an alignment when replacing all the tires together?
08-10-2018, 08:41 PM
