Wheel Alignments... What ever happened to Old School??

[rob_macca67 Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close rob_macca67]

Well.....

We have only recently fitted some new shoes under our Prado and part of the deal included a Wheel Alignment (part of the leaseplan package). All good at this point..... After the Missus had driven it about a 1000kms I went for a drive and noticed some tyre noise coming from the tyres which shouldn't be the case with new A/T's.... When I got home, I had a quick check of the tread & noticed a slight bit of "feathering" from the inside edge. This had me concerned, so I booked the Car into a mates Steering Specialist workshop where I get all my cars done so he could check out the alignment that the Bridgestone Tyre shop had done. Now, my mate had done his apprenticeship long time ago as a front end specialist which is no longer available as a apprenticeship & hasn't been for years. When he put it on the machine, he said to me that it's out a bit and when was my last wheel alignment. I told him when I bought the tyres some 3wks ago. He informed that I was lucky that I bought it in otherwise I would have severely worn my new tyres by the time we would have gotten home from our outback trip. I asked how they could get it so wrong? He informed me that they would have just been setting it the recommended factory settings, same as Toyota would do.... He went on to inform me that it's just not that simple & there's a lot more to it than that....

Now, he's the last of the Old School trained "Front End Specialists" that I know of around our area and when he retires, all that knowledge & skill that he has will be lost... He even get's some of the "so-called" suspension professionals coming to him when they can't solve front end issues....

Question.... What have others found with their local tyre people when it comes to wheel alignments? I now know not to trust the likes of Bridgestone/Bobjane, etc when it comes to my car, but what about the likes of Pedders, Fulcrums, etc ??

A good wheel alignment could save u 100's of dollars in the life of your tyres & I will gladly pay $65 per year or 2 to get good life from my tyres.....

BTW.... What pressure do people run in their tyres?? I'm running around 40psi in the front & 36>40psi in the rear

[MidLifeCrisis Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close MidLifeCrisis]

No tyre expert but running pressures depend on tyre types. My Cooper ST (not ST Maxx) are run at 36psi on the black top and anything down to 8psi depending what the playground is.

[shamozzle Find all posts View Profile Close shamozzle]

Bridgestone are horrible for wheel alignments and as mentioned before will align to the factory Toyota specs. If you've got a suspension lift these figures no longer count so going to Bridgestone is a waste of time. I've always found Tyrepower to be pretty good back when I was living in Eltham in Victoria. However my nearest Tyrepower dealer is in Karratha, about 250km away, and I won't use anybody else around here in Hedland it gets a bit old paying double top dollar for a below par job, but that comes with the Pilbara tax and can be bloody frustrating at times.


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I go to an old school aligner. Greg's alignment at Regency Park. He does work for ARB Recency. Heard about him on Pradopoint and have had no problems with alignments since.

Our Tarago was aligned by a so-called suspension specialist and it wore severely on the outer edge of both front tyres. Had to get new tyres and took it to Greg and no problems ever since.

[croozza Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close croozza]

You dont get a proper wheel alignment from the tyre places because you wear out your tyres quicker so that you have to go back to them for new ones again sooner, making their profits larger.

[Sozjot Member Find all posts View Profile Close Sozjot]

I had a similar issue after BJ put the Pirelli's on- an annoying pull to the left. I went and saw Peter at Alltrac in Adelaide and they had it sorted within the hour. Now drives straight as and balanced to perfection. I think finding an old school shop is the trick especially with the price of the bigger rubber on a 4b.
Cheers,
Soz

[Syzprado Member Find all posts View Profile Close Syzprado]

Does anyone know of an old school tyre aligner either in geraldton or perth? Mine is standard suspension but has always pulled to the left even after getting the alignment done at bridgestones here in gero.

[rob_macca67 Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close rob_macca67]

Due to the camber of the our roads the Castor on the LHS should be about 1/2 degree more than the RHS (so my wheel alignment mate told me) to help compensate for the camber of the road..... so, if they set the castor the same for both sides, that may be part of the reason....??

Does anyone know of an old school tyre aligner either in geraldton or perth? Mine is standard suspension but has always pulled to the left even after getting the alignment done at bridgestones here in gero.

[stephcott Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close stephcott]

On my 120 with Toyota settings I was wearing out front tyres (Grandtreks) at about 20-30k kilometers.(The outside of the tyre would wear out)

We put 1 degree of negative camber on the front and the next set lasted 80000 kilometres.

Phil

[craigm Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close craigm]

Rob_Macca, Can you please PM me the name of your front end specialist as there isn't anyone I know I can trust...

[rob_macca67 Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close rob_macca67]

Rob_Macca, Can you please PM me the name of your front end specialist as there isn't anyone I know I can trust...

Craig.... PM sent

[Wazza2 Member Find all posts View Profile Close Wazza2]

I'll give 1 vote for Fourbys @ Moorooka as knowing their stuff. My 120 did about 45k on the first set of GrandTreks. From then on I had the wheel alignment done by fourbys about every 25k kms. Then managed about 75k kms out of a set of tyres. Pretty good for how soft they are. My 120 was stock so no lift etc.

For my 150, by 3,000ks it had some signs of tyres scrubbing on the front. As I had planned a lift kit I didn't do an alignment. If I hadn't done suspension mods I would have had it in for a w/a pronto.

Anyhow, be interesting to see how she goes now it's lifted and aligned having only 5000kms on the clock. Whoever does the w/a for TJM Southside did it. Feels good to drive but only done 500kms so far.

[starbuck76 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close starbuck76]

Does anyone know of an old school tyre aligner either in geraldton or perth? Mine is standard suspension but has always pulled to the left even after getting the alignment done at bridgestones here in gero.

Always get my wheel alignments done at Barry Curnow, Unit 3/13 Malland St, Myaree ph 93307641. He knows what he is about and I have never had a problem with his work.

[sbclover Member Find all posts View Profile Close sbclover]

Most of the tyre shops are just toe and GO! Not care factor at all.
When I had my guys doing alignments if it took longer it took longer . Still charged $77 even if it took longer than normal.
Sean

[Greigrob Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Greigrob]

I'll give 1 vote for Fourbys @ Moorooka as knowing their stuff.

I will agree that the sales staff know there stuff, but the fitters?

I guess it depends on who works on your car, I had a few issues when I got my new coopers & alignment done. They sorted the issues, which was fair enough but the lack of interest and no apologies surprised me. Lets just say I wont be going back.