I just can’t trust tyre shops with the alignment, it’s like asking fox to guard the hen house.
It’s not in their best interest to align your tyres perfectly so that you don’t comeback for 3-4 years right?
Tyre Shops and Alignments - Can I Trust Them?
nurbsenvi on 11/12/2024 - 00:52
Last edited 11/12/2024 - 10:14 by 1 other user
Last edited 11/12/2024 - 10:14 by 1 other user
Comments
Take it to a specialised suspension shop.
The majority of basic cars on the road these days only allow for toe adjustment. It's pretty hard to stuff that up and you can feel whether the alignment was good via the steering wheel.
The few times I've required alignment work I've asked to speak to the alignment guy. If the answer is "we all do it" it's probably best to try somewhere else. If they introduce you to the alignment guy then ask a few questions to gauge your confidence in their experience level.
The majority of basic cars on the road these days only allow for toe adjustment
That would be incorrect.
Ok. I would like to withdraw my statement.
The honourable member's statement is withdrawn
They can’t be trusted, you should do your own wheel alignment.
Yeah, they all set up your alignment so you need to buy new tyres sooner. Cant be trusted! /s
Seriously, how do you get on in lufd with so little trust? Of course, im a bit cautious with mechanics etc, but most of them are actually interested in doing a decent job. Having you come back as a whiny customer is a lot more drama than actually doing it right the first time.
What is lufd? I search internet couldnt find
My fingers arw fat, my proof reading skills suck. Its meant to be 'life'.
Thanks man!
You can ask for a printout or the alignment results, before and after results. If you have trust issues with them manipulating data then I think you should use public transport and not worry about having a car.
Maybe just trains, 'cause buses and their wheel alignment🤔.
Trains need steel alignments.
Go to Bob
JaneTrain?
maybe this is all a ploy by the government to get us to use public transportation.
Create distrust with our mechanics.
It really depends on the tyre shop, the personnel and what they charge.
I worked in the tyre industry and did wheel alignments (~120/week) for years (and I was bloody good at it) and neither me or any of my colleagues would deliberately set it wrong. It's not worth the grief from a whinging customer who has the potential to spend thousands more in repeat business.
The problems I see now are:
1) Massive staff shortages so they train some random to do alignments. My best mate is still in the industry and he simply cannot get staff and those he does get can't get their head around geometry or cause and effect.2) The machines are too sophisticated and most operators just aim for the green rather than look at tyre wear patterns or the logic of what the car is doing compared to how the angles are set.
eg: Camber specification on my Pajero Sport is 0 deg +- 0.5 degrees. What idiot would set camber positive? You want -0.5 on the LHS and 0.25 on the RHS to counteract road camber plus a fraction more castor on the LHS. Green zone jockeys don't think of this.
The best wheel aligner I know still uses a mechanical aligner that was installed in the 1970s.3) Maybe I'm wrong but they no longer check the suspension joints or tyre pressures prior to doing the alignment. There are also not too many places that weight the car to simulate drivers, luggage, etc.
4) Some of the factory specs (when i was doing alignments) were just wrong & I doubt that's changed. 1970s Mercedes, Ford F100, several others were still set for driving on the RHS of the road. Tarago were nowhere near where they had to be set. Fords, Valiants & Holdens ditto. Most modern BMWs & VW group product run too much camber front & rear for Australian speed limits.
Heasemans at Sydenham are great but expect to pay $180+ for good work.
Spinning Wheel Tyres were great but I think they've gone.
I don't have access to a rack so my last alignment was at Jax Marrickville. The guy set it to my specifications and it was $80 for a 2 wheel alignment with a thrust angle check.Edit: I probably wouldn't have you as a customer. Generally, any customer that questioned my honesty or ethics did so because they were dodgy themselves. I usually suggested that I no longer had time to work on their car.
LOL
he simply cannot get staff and those he does get can't get their head around geometry or cause and effect.
Those who has basic geometry and common sense don't want to do the work (maybe they think it is below them) and those who checked out want the job (because they can't find anything with better pay). A sign of our times.
The machines are too sophisticated and most operators just aim for the green rather than look at tyre wear patterns or the logic of what the car is doing compared to how the angles are set
People in general lack common sense
dodgy themselves
Not necessarily. Maybe OP going through a set of tires after 3 - 4 years due to their driving rather than bad wheel alignment. I find people have a bias towards they do everything "right" and therefore it is someone else that must be the problem.
Probably never rotated their tyres either. Makes a big difference.
That's why I get my tyres from Costco. Free rotation
What do you mean, my tires rotate when I drive my car? How can you move a car without rotating your tires. They rotate with the wheels
Is wheel alignment for even wear and so the car doesnt lean to one side?
Please share your employment location so that we may avoid. Your attitude speaks volumes of your own work ethic!
By this logic why do you take your car in for a service? It's in the car makers interest for your car to fail, so surely they won't do a good job?
You basically end up not trusting any repair shop or service as in a sense they're all better off if you keep coming back for more fixes.
It's a sad way to live though. Many people do take pride in their work and are doing what they're meant to be doing.
It is called Hanlon's Razor. It says:
"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."Tyre fitters are just tyre fitters. There isn't any conspiracy in tyre fitting places to do a bad job so your tyres wear out quicker. Its just that they are minimum wage grunts with minimal training who are doing a crap job because they couldn't get a better job elsewhere who are under pressure to get the job done quickly because you are waiting impatiently, and so is the next customer, and their boss is watching.
More like "Kaczynski's Razor" where; The simplest explanation is over ridden by anything that can be contributed to a conspiracy theory.
Tyre fitters are just tyre fitters…. Its just that they are minimum wage grunts with minimal training
Thats not true of everyone in the industry. Theres plenty of tyre fitters and aligners that have passion for cars and got into the industry where they could. Maybe they just couldnt get a 'better' education and put their efforts into working on cars in a non-qualified way. Plus the aligners are usually the senior guys in the shop and probably under a closer eye of the business owner.
Just because someone doesnt make it to be a CEO doesnt mean they are dumb as a rock and dont care. Some might say they are smarter because they get a half decent income from a low stress job they can forget about the second the walk out the door.
The problem is that you need to find the passionate people in the industry, and that ain't easy.
So if we go down this slippery slope ie. tyre shops will bodge the alignment so you need tyres again soon." Where exactly do we draw the line?
Doctors not giving proper info so we're back in again?
Financial advisors not giving good dvice so you're back in again needing more help?
EtcI'd imagine some tyre shops are good - others not so much but all would do the alignment to the best of their abilities, would seem short sighted to as a business deliberately bodge a paid for service, in the hope that you'll resell a product to that same customer again - if word got out even once you were doing this you'd be a pariah in your community.
Make better approach surely is to do a great job and have word of mouth spread about this?
Why is OP just singling out tyre shops? The same trust issues could be said for just about any industry where there's a returning customer.
I'd suspect that a component of success for any/most businesses would be through referrals or recommendations, so it's often better to do a good job as opposed to try get everything from one returning customer.
no, had my car's tires replaced and paid for the wheel balancing and aligment. We had also booked (about a day later) in for a insurance panel repaired and also requested that they checked the alignment. They had founded that it was off ( can't remember the actual) number.
Some might argue that anything could had happened between the tire shop and the panel beater. But i find that highly unlikely.
Instead of leaving a poor google review, we'll take our busniess elsewhere.It's not a conspiratorial thing as you are putting it however in my experience it's difficult to find a good tyre alignment place that really understands suspension geometry. In other words it's trusting of their competence and that their machines are kept in proper calibration rather than an act of malice.
A lot of regular tyre change places will up-sell you an "alignment" when you go in to change tyres and it will be in and out - basically all they're doing in that 10 minutes is adjusting the toe maybe on front wheels only. They're don't ask about any of your concerns, preferences or driving style. A lot of places won't even test drive the car afterwards. This is the 'default' offering because most customers have no idea about proper alignment, don't see the value of it, think the tyre-shop is selling them unnecessary services and so only see the $. The lower the shop can make that $ and still call it an 'alignment' the more customers they can attract.
I specifically ask for a four wheel alignment, check of all suspension components and highlight any issues that I want fixed (e.g. it's pulling to one side or steering wheel not centred). This will let them know that I am not a regular customer and that they are free to quote me a higher price to undertake those services. It's been a while since I've had it done so inflation etc but I would expect to pay at least $150 for all that on a regular 2 wheel drive passenger car.
Ohhhhh, the long con, I like it… It's a conspiracy by "Big Tyre" to do bad alignments to raise their profits by making you buy tyres sooner… Nice.
They have no interest in doing this to your car, for one, it's annoying enough having to deal with customers, let alone customers you need to do re-work on their vehicles… two, stupid suggestion because they are laying the groundwork for your tyres wearing out in 4 years instead of 6 where they may not exist, you may not exist, your car may not exist or it has been sold or you moved out of the area. This is stupid because you are saying they are doing it deliberately in the 5% chance you may take it back to them?
More likely answer is, they have 40 wheel alignments booked in for the day. They have an unskilled guy who left school in yr 9 doing it while the boss is pumping him for through put, all while paying this guy next to minimum wage. His care factor is "Well jeez, I hope if I make this 3 degrees out, that these tyres will wear out faster so this guy has to come back sooner…" No. His thoughts are "(fropanity) me, it's lunch time, I've done 12 of the 34 alignments I need to get done today and the boss is riding my arse… (fropanity) it, near enough is good enough…"
Unskilled dude makes cents. Cheers
Tyre place, mechanic, or yourself are your choices..
I used to work across the road from a tyre shop. In their quieter times they would fetch a handful of nails/screws/shrapnel and throw it on the road a bit before the shop in hopes of generating work.
What a load of bullshit… JFC.
There are so many ways this is just wrong, least of all being that when you get a nail/screw/shrapnel in your tyre, it goes flat over hours or days, not in the length of time “a bit before the shop”. Added to that, most people don’t notice a flat tyre while they are driving.
Added to this, there is ZERO guarantee that these drivers would either a: see the tyre business, b: know it was even there, or c: pull in to use them.
If, and that is a reaaaaaally BIG “if”, they were out there doing it, it wasn’t to “drum up business”… it’s because they were c#%ts.
All that aside, it seems like a really good way to have rival bikies burn down the shop if they even half think someone from there is throwing spikes, or at the very least end up with a gearbox thrown through a window from one of the rougher car clubs.
I just can’t trust tyre shops with the alignment, it’s like asking fox to guard the hen house.
Try your local butcher instead.
I still remember the first time I had new tyres put on my Honda Prelude, which was 4 wheel steer.
Most shops set the front wheels off the rear wheels, and I remember the young guy yelling out "The back wheels are turning!"
Fortunately, the shop had the required gear to do the job properly, and I suspect they were playing a prank on the young guy.
To the OP …
If your tyres scrub out quickly, are you heading back to that tyre shop? No. And … you'll bag them out to everyone.
It just doesn't make sense for them to do this.
I remember them. Honda had a quite complicated method of getting th erear wheels to turn when Peugeot managed it using smart suspension geometry.
I had my Subaru set up slightly like that with positive toe on the rear wheels so it would turn in a bit quicker.
Honda had a quite complicated method of getting th erear wheels to turn when Peugeot managed it using smart suspension geometry.
That's because the Honda system actually did steer the wheels. You aint gunna get that with suspension geometry alone I shouldn't think.
The Honda system would have the wheels turn in opposite direction to the front wheels at low speed, and in the same direction at higher speeds.
Thata why the honda system was complicated. 'Passive rear ateer' is a thing with the suspension setup.
Passive rear steer. It's a thing and it worked.
I own an Accord Euro. It's beautifully engineered thing (peak Honda) except for the lack of adjustment in the rear suspension arms and the ridiculously small battery.
Most do a crap job and even worse if you have a 4wd
Took ages to find for me to find a good one
Now I go there even if tyres are more expensive.
Well , you've got a problem with their honesty ! We are all in the same boat unless you know someone in the tyre business , or you want to buy the alignment equipment yourself which will be a no . All I've ever done is read reviews in relation to their businesses and hopefully come out with a job well done .
Confused? So am I !