Mechanic Advice

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Why can't any shop/dealership I've been to do an alignment right? (self.mechanicadvice)

submitted 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) by venusaur to c/mechanicadvice

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I’ve been to smaller shops, I’ve been to dealerships, and the only time I’ve ever gotten an alignment done right was after I complained to a general manager. I know alignments are hard with the laser machines. It shouldn’t be a problem, right? Are they just being lazy? I hate having to go back to the shop and wait another 2 to 4 hours to get something done that should’ve been done right the first time.

EDIT: I’ve had this happen with my 2001 QX4 4WD, 2019 Q50 2WD and now with 2019 Atlas AWD

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 days ago (11 children)

What's your complaint with the alignments?

[–] venusaur 4 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (10 children)

The steering wheel is never centered. Alignment could be off too but I have little way of knowing that in the short term.

[–] duffer 4 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Probably because it is quicker to align one wheel to the other, rather than align two wheels to a centred steering wheel.

I never really thought about it before, but I used to have a car where the steering wheel was about 10 degrees off after having the wheels aligned. I assume they used the nearside wheel as the datum and aligned the offside wheel. Unfortunately the nearside wheel was getting a beating when I was curbing it.

[–] venusaur 1 points 6 days ago

They’re supposed to be using their fancy laser machine (Hunter)? I wouldn’t be surprised if they cut corners though.

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