tpizarro

I'm gonna be bringing in my car to Exact Motorsports to get my Tein CS installed and sooner or later I'm gonna need an alignment. I'm thinking of taking the car to firestone for the alignment/toe/balancing. They offer a premium service which is I guess is a life time alignment for as long as I own the car. Anyone have any thought on them?

l1tech

No...When you buy one of these packages through Firestone you MAY get a good alignment the first time in. Initially this job will get assigned to one of the more qualified techs there due to the fact that they can pay him full value on the job and not loose money. Now the next time that you come in they will more than likely give this job to the oil change guy who is "trying to learn alignments" and has had no formal training simply because they don't have to really pay him to do it. The oil change guy is hourly and is getting paid the same for anything he does whereas the qualified tech is getting paid flat rate and being that they would have to pay the tech alot more than the oil change guy..well you get the picture. IMO you are better off finding a shop that specializes in alignments, you may pay a little more but I guarantee that you are going to get a better result.

ULTiMaX99

iTrader: (5)

don't you get a computer print out of the before and after results? even if the "oil change guy" is doing it... the end results should still be within factory specs.

anyways, I got that lifetime alignment thing on my last car. brought it in every 6 months or so to get an alignment. i had no problems with them. they always gave me a before and after print out to show me what they adjusted n junk. one tech even went as far as to adjust my camber kit for me to get it back within specs. now with my is, i just got the teins installed a few months ago. i plan on going to firestone to get my initial alignment then after i get wheels, going to an alignment shop to get it cornerweighted and aligned.

Technique

Firestone lifetime alignment is OK. I've had it on a few of my cars... Here are the things to consider:

1) Do you care about having a perfect alignment? (Yes, the equipment may be similar, but a skilled tech can properly align your car, not just put it within specs. A skilled tech, which is rare at a firestone, will know that even though a camber spec may be ok from 0 to 0.5, that it should be as close to zero as possible and will spend the extra 15 minutes to make it happen. <-- Just an example

2) Is there a firestone near you? I moved to DC and the closest firestone was 10 miles away... Not that far, but there were 2 other places within a mile...

3) How often will you need alignment? I have owned cars that have NEVER needed alignment.

4) How much is an alignment? I found a great place near me that does full complex alignment for $50. So, it would take 3 alignments to equal the lifetime. So I'd have to do at least FOUR alignments to have a benefit. I don't think I'll do the lifetime again since I tend not to knock my car out of alignment.

Hope these data points help!

lobuxracer

iTrader: (2)

It really doesn't matter. There's nothing but toe to adjust. There are no adjustments for camber or caster, so just about any monkey can do it.

It's not like the IS got a decent adjustable suspension from the factory. It's the same as my '88 GTS Corolla. Replace parts until the alignment is good again. That was probably one of the best chassis features on the Supra - fully adjustable for camber and toe on both ends of the car and caster in the front as well. I hope the IS-F isn't as crippled as the ISx50 are. (Small caveat, the AWD IS250 does have adjustable camber in the front only.)