i took my car to Firestone because they offer a lifetime alignment. problem is these assholes have no idea what they are doing...

when i first took the car there 2 weeks ago they only aligned the back. they gave me the spec and i noticed that nothing changed in the front. i took it back today and the service manager told me that the front is not adjustable and he recommended that i purchased an adjustable upper control arm.

besides this the steering wheel is not on straight.

i spoke to a rather educated person on this forum and he told me that he spoke to an Acura lawyer and confirmed that toe is adjustable and camber is not.

is any one else having and issues when taking your car for an alignment?

 

Horrible experience.

Where are you located? The Firestone I go to treats me well. I'm lowered, with camber kits at all 4 corners, and I'm within factory specs all the way around.

 

its the one in Hesperia, CA

they are nice guys but they are just dumber than UTI students. i only have a camber kit on the back. i thot i did not need one in the front based on other member experiences, but idk now.

what type of camber kit do u have?

 

firestone sucks ... the dealer IMO is prob the best place to get an alignment. the only reason i say this is because i took my car to a private shop and like u my steering wheel was not centered properly. so then i took it to the dealer and they did it perfectly ... just my 2 cents

 

^
You're absolutely right. The front doesn't really need one. But, it doesn't hurt.

I have Ingalls kits all the way around.

Find a different Firestone.

 

how much is the alignment there?

its the only 1 in my area

 

Just an FYI. The steering wheel is not removed and centered on the steering column. After the car is on the rack, the tech is to put the steering wheel in a centered position and lock it in place, then proceed with the toe alignment. If done correctly, the steering wheel will be contered when going straight, but if off center, the procedure needs to be done again. Some might try and shorcut the re-alignment by just turning each tie rod end the same direction to get the wheel centered, but it's recommended it be put back on the alignment rack so it is done properly.
Lazy techs. Guess I shouldn't call them techs, lazy people.

 

thanx for the info but yeah i knew that i just didnt feel like explaining all that, the inportant point is that they did not do thier job right and

I GOT MY MONEY BACK!!!! FUCK FIRESTONE

i will be heading to metro acura tommorow

 

FYI, I don't go to my local Firestone dealer b/c they don't even use Hunter equipment for balancing OR alignment, where as the other local places and my Acura dealer use Hunter for both. That is number one. Turbo will tell you this as well, but when you have a car like the TL and the tires for a car like this, you want a Hunter machine!

I paid a little bit more money, but went back to my Acura dealer and had them do an all wheel alignment. I believe what that Acura lawyer told that poster is in correct. According to the sheet they gave me and my Acura dealer, the caster on the TL is the only thing not adjustable. So they were able realign everything except the driver front caster reading. My service advisor did say that if I continued to have pulling that there is some special thing they can do to try and get the caster to change but its extremely difficult to do and does not always work.

Also, for some reason, the 07-08 TLs seem to be having more frequent vibrations, pulling, and alignment issues then the 04-06 models, according to my service advisor. I don't know if it is the difference in the wheel Acura put on the vehicles are what but I did not have any of the vibration/shimmy and alignment issues on my 06 that I've been having on my 08.

 

no i spoke to an Acura service manager myself yesterday and confirmed that toe is adjustable and camber is not.

I will be going to Metro Acura to get an alignment from some people who know what they are doing

 

I've got the before and after camber adjustments on my sheet from my Acura service department so unless your trying to tell me they doctored the numbers, camber is adjustable!

 

No caster or camber adjustment available. If out of spec, bent or worn suspension components, or the car has been dropped, naturally taking the alignment out of spec.

 

man i hope you are right! ill find out tuesday and post my appointment is at 330?

any AZ members going to metro acura of montclair, CA tuesday? MINI MEET!

 

But Don, if the camber can not be adjusted then how can the measurement's change from before to the after readings?

 

Front or rear camber changes, or both? Most cars do not change camber in the front when toe is adjusted, but will in the rear. There are some that will change the camber when toe is adjusted, but not familiar with the TL.

 

As usual Don, your right. I made the mistake of trying to remember the measurements on the sheet from memory when I was writing my earlier posts, when in hindsight I should of just went and got it out while typing. I got the sheet out this morning and you and the others are right, camber and caster are no adjustable. I was confusing the camber with the toe. The toe and steer ahead is what is adjustable and what I had out of whack on my TL.

 

so i stand correct

 

This is exactly what happened. The tech tried to turn ONE tie rod to get the toe right and ended up with the steering wheel off center. They saved 5 minutes only to have to refund the money for a screwed up job.

 

I took my old 94 accord to tires plus to have a ball joint and allignment done. First and last time that ever happened. Dealer for that stuff ever since and never had a problem

 

I had my car aligned at my local Firestone dealer with no problems. My car is also lowered with only the rear camber kit. The techs at the shop were tuner car guys & did a great job with the alignment. Both fronts & rears are within factory specs.