I recently had my car lower with comptech springs and the Acura dealer initially told me that the car would need an alignment, but when I went back to get my car they told me that they were not able to align my car due to the design of the rims and did not want to take a chance in damaging the rim. It sound like a bunch of BS, Are they try to tell me that is not possble to align any Acura CL because of the design of the rim. How many of you guys with stock rims have had your car aligned? Has there been any damage to the rim due to the process? The car drives without any pull at 40, 60, 70, and 80MPH, but from what i understand is that anytime you tear down the shock/spring system you most likekly need an alignment. Is this correct or am I wrong?

 

That is a question of what sort of equipment they have for alignments .We have a a fairly decent Hunter and there are a few wheel/tire combos that can make the job a genuine hassle but not impossible .If they have older equipment not designed for todays edgeless wheels then they may have a genuine problem with it .
You should without a doubt get your car aligned ,my suggestion is to do a search or another post to see if anyone on the forum from your area has gotten an alignment done without problems.There is a memeber who is also I believe a service writer from a dealer in Texas and I think his shop is quite capable of handling the work .

Jens

 

Jens

Another question, If the car was out of alignment, wouldnt it shake/vibrate at high speed (70 and 80MPH) and pull to one side or the other while driving down the road.

 

Vibration is unlikely ,a pulling condition may exist however .But the pulling may also not be noticeable simply because the car may be equally out of adjustment .One effect of a toe problem can be noticed in a CL right away .The car will have a very heavy feel when minor steering is applied going down the road (mild swerving as an example) .The car should feel fairly light in terms of steering effort at mild road speeds (20 to 45 MPH) .The pulling may not evidence itself simply because as i mentioned the amount of toe out is equal on both sides of the car .This happens frequently .Typically when I lower a CL I see that the camber is not an issue in the front suspension and it goes out of spec in the rear anywhere from .1 to .6 degrees in the back .The camber is not an issue though unless it exceeds 1.0 degrees .I typically see a toe increase ( toe out) of about 3 to 8 MM which is more than enough to significantly affect tire wear in the front suspension .The rear suspension usually picks a only a few degrees of toe but it should be set up so that toe is equal on either side ,4 mm is a good number the shoot for as this keeps tha car light on it's feet .
If you are experiencing some short shake you probably have some sort of other issue acting on the car such as defective tire or out of balance wheel/tire .

Jens

 

You need to find somewhere that can do the allignment with your wheels. If you don't get the allignment now, you'll be getting new tires in about 5k miles.

 

If the car is out of alignment, you typically will not know it. I lost a set of front tires when I first purchased the car because the front was out of alignment (even though I took it in 6 mos prior). I have to have mine aligned every 6 mos at least. Good luck.

PS I have stock rims and the Computech and both dealers in Phoenix have no problem what so ever.