Corso

It would seem that Cayennes require fairly frequent alignments to be sure they are kept in spec. Are there certain intervals that owners follow to determine when it gets done?

In the past with other cars I've owned, I let the car tell me when an alignment was needed by paying attention to how the vehicle tracked and signs of abnormal tire wear. Should the Cayenne be treated with a more proactive approach?

f4 plt

I have always been a "let the car tell me" type of guy. I watch how the car tracks down the road and weekly check the tires. Example, I have not had our current Cayenne diesel aligned since new a year and a half ago. It now has 33,000 miles on it all tires are wearing evenly and have at least 7/32 tread depth remaining and I tow some. It's a rather stout suspension as it is made for off road.

Corso

F4 pilot I see, very cool. I have 2 very good friends of the family who flew Phantoms. My dad flew Super Sabres in Vietnam.

garrett376

Where do you get this conclusion from? If you are ramming curbs, or frequently offroading where things get slammed frequently, I can understand that recommendation.

My dealer says they recommend alignments when tire wear shows an issue or due to a specific handling complaint; otherwise they don't have a recommended interval.

Corso

Where do I get this conclusion from? Maybe from the literally dozens of threads discussing the topic.

Dan87951

I only align mine when the tires start to show signs of uneven wear.

Jochy

Check tire press frequently, thats critical to avoid un-even wear.
Check every week, try nitrogen instead of regular air to keep better control of this topic.
Go to National Tire and Battery and pay "unlimited alignment program for 5 years" for less than $250. You can go as manny times you want once you pay for the 5 years unlimited alignment program. Thats what I did and is peace of mind.

Don't forget to rotate tires every 5k miles.

They check alignment for free. Then you decide based on alignment test results.

Dont let the car tell you something is kind of wrong otherwise you may be ending buying a nee set of new tires.

....and Enjoy the ride!

Dan87951

The local firestone where I live offers lifetime alignment for as long as you own the car. I think the lifetime service is like $200 or so.

bigbuzuki

Alignment every year.

cwazyeurodrivr

I usually do them with the new winter tyres just before snow season just so I know it's tracking perfectly, and then mid to late spring after all the frost heaves are gone, and pot holes are repaired.

Unless I do a few trips to Cambridge, Mass, then I drop it off to get aligned just because the roads in the city are horrendously bad.

cwazyeurodrivr

Sorry but I've tried that routine and it failed on me manytimes with my BMW and company cars. Firestone purchases the least expensive hunter equipment they can find. They screwed up many times because of their staff not being trained or keeping up with the calibration of the machine. They ruined many many tyres on me.

Personally, the cost of the tyres, time, and safety factor....I'd just recommend spending the extra $$ and goto the dealer that you know the techs are trained on our specific vehicle. Not a tech at firestone that doesn't care because they are paid hourly, and doesn't know anything about the specific vehicle ( most cases is foaming at the mouth because that person can drive a porsche and not a Scion, ford, honda, chevy, etc) or how to set the air suspension or the additional adjustments our vehicles require.

Just my 2-cents for whatever it's worth....

Matt O.

I stay away from Firestone like the plague.

Dan87951

Many years ago I took my Porsche dealer to court over a botched clutch job and won. How can this be? There the local dealer they never screw up, right? Many years ago when we owned a BMW 740IL I refreshed the suspension (tie rods, control arms) and then brought it to the local dealer to have them align it. The so called "experts" couldn't get the car aligned properly after several attempts so I decided to give my local Firestone a try -- I also have my company car serviced here as well. After the Firestone rep showed me the before and after print outs of the alignment I was speechless. If it wasn't for my local Firestone coming to the rescue and correcting the "experts" mistakes our car would be eating tires every 1k miles. We could go on and on about past experiences from dealers and service centers but when you find a place that treats you right who cares what "brand" is on the sign! Right? In this case these guys treated me right and I have no problem bringing my car back to this particular Firestone for stuff I can't do (alignments). So to say all Firestones suck is kinda like saying all Porsche Service centers are excellent! Pretty laughable... I guess the moral of the story, not all service centers or dealers are created equal.

WBYonder

I got my 2009 CS in December and am bringing it over to Seattle for an alignment this Friday. Don't believe it's been aligned in it's previous 44k miles (records I got with it are good and don't show one performed). It tracks OK and doesn't display any obvious problems, but for $180 at a reputable indy shop (Truline) I think its money well spent to maintain the vehicle and keep it (and the tire$ it uses) in good condition.

Edit: No good shops here, closest dealerships are Spokane or Seattle, but this shop corner balanced my 993 and did an AWESOME job on it.

cwazyeurodrivr

All the firestones , Goodyear and other chain shops in the northeast are high school drop outs that don't have a clue. So for me it's dealer or highly rated Indy shop only .