Best place to go for an alignment?

[CamaroBarb]

Depends on what you like but I like 0 to .3 neg camber, slightly toed in depending on the tire width. The more negative camber (top of the tire canted in) the more heavy and planted the steering will feel. Too much camber and you will feel every little defect in road surface and may feel harder to steer. I notice on most cars if you don't have a little neg camber the tires will wear to the outside. Toe depends a lot on the width of the frt tires. If you are using the stock 245's in the frt they are very forgiving to tracking so you can go with 0. I use just slightly 1/32 in BUT thats what you see while measuing it. Driving down the road is completely different. I play with the adjustments and see how the car responds till I like what I feel. Slightly toed in causes the tires to load the suspension and hold it tight. Toed out does just the opposite and causes the car to feel loose. Depends what you like, Zero toe is for CAFE fuel mileage numbers and feels ok. Keep something else in mind, if you are a big 200 lb dood put some ballast in the drivers side before they align it. It does and will effect the alignment.

[IWANTA(ss)]

Originally Posted by InFiD3ViL

I have a Firestone right near me and I know they offer that $149 Lifetime alignment deal. It is just their sales practices I don't care for. But I know they are not all like that.

Its funny I would get this concerned over something so stupid. Not sure why alignments bring out the worst in service garages, but I am obviously not alone in my concerns.

Alignments and suspension aren't exactly in my skill set, so I am not exactly sure what to ask for regarding specific settings. Currently the car is used full street, but I do plan on taking it to the track for 1/4 mile runs later down the line. I see some of you guys mentioning requesting specific settings or going with printouts. What are you basing these on? Right now I just want the steering wheel straight, no pulling to either side, and minimal tire wear. In a couple months I will be upgrading sway bars and end links, so I will have it realigned then as well, of course.

I wouldn’t brag on their service either but lifetime adjustment for 150 was worth it for me in Jackson ms worst roads in the US. Look up prostockjohn I think it was for the drag alignment specs.

[Chris49066SS]

Originally Posted by InFiD3ViL

I have a Firestone right near me and I know they offer that $149 Lifetime alignment deal. It is just their sales practices I don't care for. But I know they are not all like that.

Its funny I would get this concerned over something so stupid. Not sure why alignments bring out the worst in service garages, but I am obviously not alone in my concerns.

Alignments and suspension aren't exactly in my skill set, so I am not exactly sure what to ask for regarding specific settings. Currently the car is used full street, but I do plan on taking it to the track for 1/4 mile runs later down the line. I see some of you guys mentioning requesting specific settings or going with printouts. What are you basing these on? Right now I just want the steering wheel straight, no pulling to either side, and minimal tire wear. In a couple months I will be upgrading sway bars and end links, so I will have it realigned then as well, of course.

I take mine to Firestone and have their lifetime alignments and they are able to get my specs everytime, after I did the camber bolts that is.

[mikeman]

Originally Posted by Chris49066SS

I take mine to Firestone and have their lifetime alignments and they are able to get my specs everytime, after I did the camber bolts that is.

The problem is they give you attitude and a lot of friction for non-stock specs. Also, the OEM specs are pretty wide ranging from what I've read on here. The lifetime does you no good if you have to bring the car in half a dozen times just to get a proper "within specs" alignment. The "lifetime" angle is a sales gimmick to get you in the door IMO.

I got so fed up with this on past vehicles that I purchased my own DIY alignment tools for this car. It's not that hard once you learn the basics. The best thing is, I can dial in my own settings for better handling or just do a "tight spec" OEM alignment. From my experience, you really can't depend on a big box chain with minimum wage workers to do something like that.

[Chris49066SS]

Originally Posted by mikeman

The problem is they give you attitude and a lot of friction for non-stock specs. Also, the OEM specs are pretty wide ranging from what I've read on here. The lifetime does you no good if you have to bring the car in half a dozen times just to get a proper "within specs" alignment. The "lifetime" angle is a sales gimmick to get you in the door IMO.

I got so fed up with this on past vehicles that I purchased my own DIY alignment tools for this car. It's not that hard once you learn the basics. The best thing is, I can dial in my own settings for better handling or just do a "tight spec" OEM alignment. From my experience, you really can't depend on a big box chain with minimum wage workers to do something like that.

Thats too bad. I guess it varies from location to location. The guys at my local shop are always rather enthusiastic to work on mine and the manager is professional and pretty cool. They nail my settings every time. I go with 0 camber on the rear and a .24 TOE IN, .12 each side as per what I got from Justice Pete quite a while back. Just tell them its for a drag alignment and its always good to go

[mikeman]

Originally Posted by Chris49066SS

Thats too bad. I guess it varies from location to location. The guys at my local shop are always rather enthusiastic to work on mine and the manager is professional and pretty cool. They nail my settings every time. I go with 0 camber on the rear and a .24 TOE IN, .12 each side as per what I got from Justice Pete quite a while back. Just tell them its for a drag alignment and its always good to go

Yeah, I remember him recommending getting the rear as close to zero camber is best for these cars. He always had a lot of good advice. It's been a great loss to Camaro5 not having him posting here anymore. The wealth of info and advice he had about the suspensions on our Camaro's was amazing.