Front Alignment, am I getting screwed by this shop
04-28-2004, 03:14 PM
#1
Front Alignment, am I getting screwed by this shop How hard is it to bend the kmember or front lca's?
I have my car in for a front end alignment because I dropped the kmember for an oil pan gasket swap. Unfortunately, I loosened up some bolts that attach the k to the lca's. Since, my steering has been all over the place.
I go to pick up my car today and it's not there. I guess the car is at their alignment shop and, I "must have hit something really bad because the lca and k seem to be bent and they can't align my car". I was like, no, actually all I did was loosen up some bolts attaching the k to the lca's
I asked if I could go to the alignment spot but he kinda shrugged that idea off and told me he'd bring the car over to their shop tomorrow and look at it himself. Something seems fishy.
So my question is, can those parts be easily bent or could something have been damaged in the 20 miles or less that I drove it with the alignment all off? All of my driving was easy, I never hit anything either.
I have my car in for a front end alignment because I dropped the kmember for an oil pan gasket swap. Unfortunately, I loosened up some bolts that attach the k to the lca's. Since, my steering has been all over the place.
I go to pick up my car today and it's not there. I guess the car is at their alignment shop and, I "must have hit something really bad because the lca and k seem to be bent and they can't align my car". I was like, no, actually all I did was loosen up some bolts attaching the k to the lca's
I asked if I could go to the alignment spot but he kinda shrugged that idea off and told me he'd bring the car over to their shop tomorrow and look at it himself. Something seems fishy.
So my question is, can those parts be easily bent or could something have been damaged in the 20 miles or less that I drove it with the alignment all off? All of my driving was easy, I never hit anything either.
04-28-2004, 04:00 PM
#2
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Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: oklahoma city
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Did the alignment shop know that you dropped the k-member before they started the alignment?The technician should've called you and asked if something had been done to it. unless you hit sometihing you can't bend the k-member or the lca's very easily. Tell them to make sure the k-member is centered and then go to the middle of the caster and camber adjustment and then put it on a alignment machine and then go from there. Sounds like nobody told the technician why you needed an alignment but he should have started thinking something was up because of the marks and scratches on the bolts holding the k-member and lca's.
05-03-2004, 12:47 AM
#3
Thanks for the good info. I did tell them that the kmember was dropped beforehand. It turns out that the guy didn't realize that the kmember was not lined up/bolted back up perfectly. I still don't know why he'd try to tell me that I bent both the k and lca's were badly bent. Fortunately, I kept insisting that that wasn't the case and I wouldn't pay until I saw the bent parts for myself.
