I got an alignment on Monday, and after that everthing was all fine and dandy. No pulls, no steering wheel shake, nothing. Perfection. Today, I pulled a hard left out of my college lot to get into traffic, and half way through the turn I hear a LOUD "POP/BANG" from the front end. Suddently, the truck is pulling REALLY hard to the right, which its never done. So I think a cam came loose or something and take it back to the alignment shop.

They put it back up on the rack, and checked it. It's still in spec, but a few degrees different from 2 days ago. They do nothing, they say it's perfect. The dude insists that my U-Bolts on the rear axle have shifted, and that's whats up. Ok, cool...I'll just fix that. Oh wait, I'm COIL SPRUNG. Then the dude's manager goes on to say thats it's "Radial Pull" and that I should go home and swap the left and right side tires. Uhh, why didn't it do this yesterday?

Anyways, I don't know whats up. Any ideas?

Oh, I have to drive 1100 miles on Friday.

 

Dude, sounds like your ˟˟˟˟˟ed. Hate to be so blunt. Good luck bro, I just went through some serious pains. The alignment shop melted my rack and pinion boot with a torch....I didn't trust them to fix it so I did it myself...best wishes...ps my alignment still sucks!

 

It pulls. They usually warranty the work. If they don't correct the pull, then request a refund and take your business somewhere else. If they refuse the refund, then request the name and number of their district manager and then ask to use their phone to call him. If they don't offer to make it right, then get the DM on the phone and tell him exactly the same thing you told us. It was fine, but they left something loose, it popped, and now it pulls, however the tech tried telling you that your U-bolts moved and blamed that, but you don't have U-bolts, etc. Demand a fix by a competent tech that doesn't make stuff up or a refund. If he refuses a refund, let him know that you're going to call the BBB when he hangs up. When you get off the phone, then ask for the phone book and call the BBB using their phone. If you don't get what you want, then at LEAST other customers will hear your problems and leave ASAP.

 

My words exactly...sounds like another place that tries to make it sound like they know what they're doing when in actuality THEY DON'T KNOW

 

Ah. I'm so sick of fighting with companies out here. I've fought with at least 3 tire shops so far, all of which over ignorant or incompetent employees. I'll go back tomorrow and bitch.

Two places won't even touch a Toyota. I went to have my transmission serviced, and they said that the dipstick was welded to the pan, so they couldn't remove the fluid. WTF?

Is there anything under the truck that I should check? The tie rods ends get adjusted, right? Maybe I should look for slack or something?

 

Oh, I forgot to mention that the rear is suddenly pushing the tolerances. The rear isn't adjustable, right? Would my panhard have anything to do with this?

 

I'd say take it to the dealership...it sucks....but at least they can give ya some hope...i think...

 

No time. If it doesn't get fixed tomorrow, I'm driving the 1100 miles to Cali as is.

Our local dealer does GMC mostly anyways, I don't trust them.

 

whereabouts to CA are yuo coming?

also you might want to check the jambnuts on the rod ends...

 

Wait, the rear is pushing the tolerances? Did you lose a control arm bushing on the rear axle or something? Check back there if that's where the alignment changed....

Your rear axle is attached at three points (not counting the coil springs). You have two control arms in front of the axle - 1 on each side - then you have the panhard bar. The panhard shouldn't effect the alignment, so the culprit is probally a control arm bushing.

 

I'm moving to the Sacramento area..I'll check those nuts too.

 

Well, both and front and rear specs changed since I had it done, but the rear is closer to being out of range.

I'll definately check those bushings right now. I never thought about that.

 

All of the control arm bushings are in tact. Although, It probably wouldn't be a bad idea to replace them, as well as my steering rack bushings. Thanks for the tip.

 

That loud bang noise would have me concerned. I wonder what they forgot to tighten before letting you leave the shop, and what they "fixed" when you brought it back in. It doesn't look like you've dropped your panhard bar after doing your lift? That would explain your rear end being close to or out of spec.

I'd tell the manager to go for a ride with you in the vehicle, have him see how bad it pulls. I'd also jack it up and see if you have any play in the wheels, look to see if anything looks out of place. You're going to trash those tires pretty quickly if its pulling that badly.

 

I forgot to update this. I took it back to the shop just a little bit ago and raised a little bit of hell. I demanded that they take it out of spec, let me drive it so I know it's messed up, and then re-align it. So far, so good. I don't know what was up, but they fixed it.

I was looking forward to fixing my u-bolts too!

 

Sometimes they won't even touch a "modified" vechicle. At my dealership, ESPECIALLY with alignments, if a vehicle has been raised or lowered then we refuse services because of company liability reasons.

 

well glad its fixed..... anyways here another bit of inside info..... lets say you get an alignment done..... its all within spec... they take the alignment heads off...... then they immediately without removing the vehicle from the rack do the alignment again, not adjusting anything... the spec is now different.... the reason is becasue of computer/human error... it really isnt that it is now out of spec, but there is a way that the user needs to compensate the heads, and even though it can be really close to what it was, it will never be exactly the same......

 

True especially when you have the old bubble style instead of the new "beep" or lazer type heads.

 

an tons of places have the bubble level..... even with the newer style, it still takes a human to level the steering wheel flat... and different people see level differently.... trust me, i know, all the alignments i ever used to do were all off until i learned a differnt way to do them.. then no problems

 

Maybe you cold teach me!! Actually we have a technician that takes all of our alignments. I told my suspension teacher that I might as well drop the class since nobody touches the alignment rack at work.