Hi all, Just thought that I'll share what happened to me to you all so you'll be aware of it.

Just had a 4 wheel alignment this afternoon, went there at 4:30pm, they had 30min to do the alignment, which they only used 10min to do. I think that lead to their down fall, they rushed it and now I'm not satisfied with the result.

the end result, When ever i drive over sewage covers or over bumps, the rear will slightly Fish tail, if you can't guess what is wrong with the alignment, I'll tell ya, the rear wheels have excessive toe-in in order for fish tail to happen. Luckily I was only driving at 60km/h, and the rear end wasn't violent, but I was planning to go to Apollo bay (great ocean road) tomorrow, now looks like I have to take it back to them (the name starts with Bea...).

Not happy.

Tru-Track in North Melbourne; I will never use anyone else now. $90 for a 4 wheel alignment and they spent almost 2 hours on mine. 3 other shops couldn't fix my car drifting left previously.

yeah, I didn't think they would stuff up a simple alignment. But since I paid, I'm going to go back there to complain and get them to fix it properly. If not, I will complain until they fix it.

and I don't think i'll go back there again after they fix it up. I insist they fix it free!

Bloody having a Magna doing fish tails over a bump is bloody unusual thing to see. especially my heavy 3rd Gen.

Dude!!! where did u go ??

It wasnt Beau in Kew was it ? They did mine and i was happy with it.

WSDsmurf

Hey Tek.

Did you have a 4 wheel align on your KS?

I wasnt aware that you could have a wheel align on a fixed rear axle. Thought it was just for the te onwards with IRS.
Let me know as i have a KH wagon with fixed rear.
Thanks mate.

With the fixed beam axle you can still have a thrust angle alignment if the back is out for any reason. My back wheels came up pretty much spot on with 0deg camber both sides and only about 0.5deg of cross-toe so I'm v happy with that.

You should never do only a 2 wheel alignment anyway, as it only uses the chassis as a reference point. If in the case that the other end of the car is not aligned, then what's the point? Always go 4 wheel align.

Hey Tek.

Did you have a 4 wheel align on your KS?

I wasnt aware that you could have a wheel align on a fixed rear axle. Thought it was just for the te onwards with IRS.
Let me know as i have a KH wagon with fixed rear.
Thanks mate.
i was told this too!! the gen1 are propally different but i was told that never to believe that a 4 wheel alignment could be done on my car and that only the front could be adjusted. is he makin up crock or is it true

Any car can and should be 4 wheel aligned. Like I just said, if the rear is out of spec then you would align the front in relation to the rear to allow the car to track straight. This is not ideal but the best that you can do short of replacing the whole rear trailing arm assembly or whatever's bent.

In the 6 years, and probably 20 or so alignments and balances at numerous tyre shops on the central coast, there was only 1 time that I drove off thinking they've actually done it properly. This was at Kmrat Auto at Erina Fair.

I keep going back there but it was a one hit wonder unfortunately. :cry:

Why is it that every alignment and balance the car drives differently, even though i don't drive it anywhere different (ie road surface) between wheel alignments?

Is Aligning and Balancing tyres really that difficult? It must be! :rant:

It's certainly harder than it sounds.. but then a lot of places probably don't care, and how many motorists would really notice the difference between a good alignment and a half-arsed job unless the car is really pulling to one side or something..

Most places have a placard of recommended settings for each car type and just dial it in and forget it, not taking into account how those settings will change once the car is loaded up.

I remember when teK-- posted about the alignment he got.. the dude dialed in the static alignment settings then had him sit in the car and observed how the alignment changed with the different weight distribution and changed it to compensate.. also things like strut braces and sway bars change how much the static alignment can change during cornering and breaking so they can be more aggressive.. putting in x degrees of camber on a car without a strut brace results in y degrees while cornering, but with a strut brace setting x degrees only results in (some number less than y) during cornering which gives you a different feel to the car..

I've found it is worth talking to the guy doing the alignment and telling them what you're after.. if they look at you blankly, move on to the next shop :D

The alignment fixed, went to Apollo Bay and back without a problem. Got a feel of how the new Monroe GT gas shocks performs compared to the stock and it is so much better than stock, but the stock was stuffed so maybe it's a little unfair comparison, but the good news is, the car doesn't understeer as much as before (with the stock shocks). And I think I'm pushing my limits but I know the car still have a lot to good before it reaches its limit. So I'm glad.

The rear wheel alignment was incorrect when I took it back to the shop, it showed up as 5mm toe out on the left and 3mm toe out for the right. The shop fixed it up for free of-course and I took it for a test drive and it was fine so I will leave it at that. I have a fair idea in why they macked it up, Basically, I think they were lazy in the tightening process and didn't use another box end spanner to hold the bolt still while tightening the nut on the other side and must have altered the angle during tightening. Anyway, it looks really simple with the equipment they had, If we could get some sort of alignment setup made up, we can do it ourselves at home really. it's not hard, just need the machine.

Click here for more info about TruTrack (http://www.aussiemagna.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7652)

off topic.. do you have a front strut-tower brace as well? I fitted one the other week and it still makes me smile every time I throw the car into a corner :D

Hi all, Just thought that I'll share what happened to me to you all so you'll be aware of it.

Just had a 4 wheel alignment this afternoon, went there at 4:30pm, they had 30min to do the alignment, which they only used 10min to do. I think that lead to their down fall, they rushed it and now I'm not satisfied with the result.

the end result, When ever i drive over sewage covers or over bumps, the rear will slightly Fish tail, if you can't guess what is wrong with the alignment, I'll tell ya, the rear wheels have excessive toe-in in order for fish tail to happen. Luckily I was only driving at 60km/h, and the rear end wasn't violent, but I was planning to go to Apollo bay (great ocean road) tomorrow, now looks like I have to take it back to them (the name starts with Bea...).

Not happy.

I had my TE alignment done at Doncaster Bob jane T marts (along with new tyres put on :) ), excellent job for a reasonble price ($60), spent about 45 mins. Before that, my TE was involved in a smash, which subsequently, RACV recommended their own repairer who did the dodgiest wheel alignment.

off topic.. do you have a front strut-tower brace as well? I fitted one the other week and it still makes me smile every time I throw the car into a corner :D

Yep, I have a front Strut brace, but no rear sway bar yet. still thinking about whether I need a rear sway bar or not, the car isn't rolling that much now, but I guess it'll always be better with than without.
:D