Jump to content

Couldnt get my alignment done.


Q-Ball

Recommended Posts

I took the car for its alignment yesterday cause I got all my new KYB GR-2's installed. I come back about an hour later and I was given a list of more parts to replace. Earlier in the summer I went to get it done and I was told I need new mounts and outer tie rods. So the outer tie rods were changed first. Now I'm told I need:

 

2 Bearing Plates (Causing 'Memory Steer')

2 Lower Ball Joints (I do hear like a knock/grind when turning hard)

1 RH Inner tie rod (Might as well and do both)

 

Is this a lot of work? The outer tie rods werent so bad to do.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I still say get a second opinion... That shop will try and take you for every penny... only reason I recommended going there is because they have the lowest price for an alignment in town...

 

-1 year ago they told me I had a bad strut... I'm still driving on it and, while its not great, its not in dire need of replacement...

-When my head gasket blew they told me my only option was to change the engine cause my bearings would be shot... I found a sketchy shop to do the work for less money and the engine has been fine since

 

Go to Muffler Man on Dundas street and get a second opinion...

 

Jamie

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i don't see how the shop is trying to take him for every penny if they are telling him to do the work. its certinally not unbeliveable that the car needs most of its front suspension parts replaced, it is a 92' after all.

 

i don't see how it needs new strut bearing plates, unless they are REALLY bad however. but balljoints and inner tie rods are just part of owning a old car. theres a few threads in this section about replaceing them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just went through the same thing today. I went to Frisby Tire to have an alignment done, after my bro changed the alternator, and they didn't want to do it. They told me that my left outer tie rod, and strut bearing need to be replace. They gave me an estimate of $660 including the $85 alignment. :Yikes_anim: :flipa: I told them that I'll get a second opinion, so they only charged me $35 for an inspection. I'll have to let my brother know about it, and see what he wants to do.

 

Great! More money to waste on the car. Frig, every time I save up any amount of cash for something else, any car I have breaks, and I have to dump all my saved money into the car. :willynilly: :motz2:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i don't see how the shop is trying to take him for every penny if they are telling him to do the work. its certinally not unbeliveable that the car needs most of its front suspension parts replaced, it is a 92' after all.

 

i don't see how it needs new strut bearing plates, unless they are REALLY bad however. but balljoints and inner tie rods are just part of owning a old car. theres a few threads in this section about replaceing them.

X2 on the balljoints and tie rod ends, thats pretty typical, ball joints arent hard at all really, I did mine in a couple of hours.

 

I'm kinda confused on what the strut bearing plate is, maybe thats why the regal always pulled whichever way i turned last.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

All I'm saying is that that shop is good at telling you stuff needs replacing when it actually doesn't... sure they are highly likely to be bad, but if they aren't whats the point in fixing them?

They tried taking me for a ride when my head gasket blew... saying I needed a full engine swap...

 

All I'm saying is a second opinion won't hurt...

 

Jamie

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i don't see how the shop is trying to take him for every penny if they are telling him to do the work. its certinally not unbeliveable that the car needs most of its front suspension parts replaced, it is a 92' after all.

 

i don't see how it needs new strut bearing plates, unless they are REALLY bad however. but balljoints and inner tie rods are just part of owning a old car. theres a few threads in this section about replaceing them.

X2 on the balljoints and tie rod ends, thats pretty typical, ball joints arent hard at all really, I did mine in a couple of hours.

 

I'm kinda confused on what the strut bearing plate is, maybe thats why the regal always pulled whichever way i turned last.

 

Thats what Memory Steering is called. It's due to bad Beating Plates. I've heard it called "Strut Mount Bearings", "Bearing Plates" and "Upper Bearings". I was told by a GM Mechanic and the place where I got my alingment so called done.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Instead of taking it to a shop take it to like a Canadian Tire or whatever else you guys have. Down here we had Discount Tire and Bell Tire.

 

My point is, take it to a place that just cares about alligning it and thats it. The shops will try to own you.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Problem is, up here, there aren't many places that do alignments. The ones that do are the chain shops like Crappy Tire, Frizby Tire, Speedy Muffler, Midas, and so forth, that I'm not willing to put my full trust into. Hardly any of the trustworthy small business "mom & pop" shops do alignments. I've yet to encounter one that does.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Canadian Tire would probably be the worst bet period. The last vehicle we brought into canadian tire left there with no brakes, and when we bitched to them about it, the manager told us to drive it untill they had time to take it in :eek: And the catch here is that the car only went in because the fucking FUEL FILTER was leaking.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well mines a '94 and both bearing plates where shot. And seeing as how yours is '92 well it prolly needs all of the listed. But when you get the outer tie-rods, get the greaseable ones ( and if you get the ones from napa, replace the grease fitting because its a POS )

 

The inner and outer tie-rods you could do yourself, but the bearing plate, youll need to remove the strut and compress the spring. Sofi your going to do that, just get new fronts struts, but you already have new ones so disreguard that

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Agreed. The last car I took to Crappy Tire had 3 starter changes in 2 years, cause they never put it in properly, and it kept on falling out. The first change they apperently couldnt get the old one off without removing the headers, and they charged me $600. The second change was due to the first change almost fell out, but atleast it was under warrantee. the third change was a repeat of the second one, but that time they didn't warrantee it, cause my "flywheel had damage that inturn damaged the starter". Umm NO! It was the starter that damaged the flywheel, cause the starter wasn't installed properly in the first place.

 

I've never been back with my car since.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm gonna buy everything today. Good thing it's payday. I'll try and get it all done on the weekend and take it back in for an aligment. I was told by someone that after I get my STB's and sway bars my car will need to be re-aligned. Is this true? Cause I plan on putting on my winter tires/rims, my Addco Sway bar should be in soon, waiting to get my cutty stb, and pulling off a 3.4 bar.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Gonna do all that work next weekend. All I did today was get my brake lines fixed/replaced. So next weekend I'm getting the following put on:

Strut bearing plates (They go on the bottom of the spring)

Inner Tie Rods

Outer Tie Rods (Buying new ones)

Ball Joints.

 

Im going with everyhing from Monroe. Its got lifetime warrenty and I'll be selling my white box Outer Tie rods soon enough.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, I just got back from Frisby Tire, for a second attempt at an alignment. After I told them that the tie rod was fixed, they refused to touch the car when I told them that the left strut bearing wasn't fixed. They say that it would be a waste of time and money to do an alignment without fixing the bearing first.

 

So I don't know what the hell to do anymore.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, I just got back from Frisby Tire, for a second attempt at an alignment. After I told them that the tie rod was fixed, they refused to touch the car when I told them that the left strut bearing wasn't fixed. They say that it would be a waste of time and money to do an alignment without fixing the bearing first.

 

So I don't know what the hell to do anymore.

 

 

Crappy. It is a lot of work to do it. You have to take everything out. I'll be doing mine next weekend. I'll take a few pics than too. But since I'm doing that, I'm replacing everything. Might as well since your at it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...