Here's my deal. Anyone who knows what they're talking about, please chime in. I know a lot of you work as techies so you'd be very valuable here.

All of my driving is highway; ~200 miles / week and somehow any time the car finally gets aligned it doesnt last long (and I'm one of those people who drives in the slow lane just to avoid a known rough area of the highway-- and I try to be very careful not to hit potholes often)

The last 4 times I've had my '02 aligned at Jim Falk Lexus (beverly hills) they have had to re-do it two or three times. The last couple of times they supposedly put their best man on the job and the end result was pretty darn acceptable.

The tires were replaced 3,000 miles ago b/c of premature uneven wear (which the dealer comped for ripping me a new one by blaming my Eibach Prokit and making me remove it and then continually charging me for alignments-- blaming the prokit for throwing the alignment off)

--------> So here I am. 40,280 gently driven highway miles, stock suspension, nearly perfect tires. And guess what? I need another f&(#n alignment!

I called the dealer and was told to give Brake Masters a shot b/c they have higher-tech alignment machines than their frikin Lexus dealership! My service advisor goes on to tell me that the ones they use are very dated. Is this possibly true?

My car has a habit to always pull to the LEFT (very dangerous may I add) and in order to go in a straight line, you have to steer a bit to the right (and fight it on the highway to stay there).

This is a re-occurring theme each and every time. When I brought the car to Lexus of Thousand Oaks they did a great job aligning it (steering wheel too) but soon enough, the car starts pulling to the left all over again.

I'm at the end of my rope. I want this taken care of immediately and I'm not sure where to go. Is the dealer BSing me about their alignment machine? Is there a better, more accurate place to go?

Is there something possibly wrong with my car that I should suggest them looking at? I have a 7yrs 75K mile warranty so if any of you think theres an underlying problem, shoot it out, it'll be no $$ out of my pocket .

Thank you very much for any help.
~~Nic

 

This is true. The lowering spring does give you uneven wear on the rear tires noticeably.

That sounds pretty fishy, they shouldn't have to redo it unless something was messed up....

One guess is a bent frame. They usually don't do alignments because it wont do any good, but helps a little.


I suggest taking it to couple of different shops, different dealers, different places that does alignments. If in fact the dealer is trying to hide something from you, someone will notice the problem.


Good luck, and hope you get this resolved.

 

^well thank you. i hope to god it isnt a bent frame! (ive never been in an accident). i dont really trust places to work on my car other than the dealer (not that it has helped in this situation) but i may need to. ahhh what a nightmare.

 

Yeah, I had a similar situation where my sub-frame was bent after running over a curve... My alignment was off so I took it in to a tire place, and they told me they will not work on it due to the bent sub-frame.

Took it to my friend's shop, and they made it to where the sterring wheel was straight, but after about 1-2 weeks, it just went back to being messed up.

Good luck and hope its not something major.

 

ugh. that sounds too similar to whats going on with mine. i guess i need to find a notoriously good place to take a look at it.

 

have had your tires replaced or is it the same tires everytime they align it?

 

before it has been with the same set. its now happening with a brand new set, currently with 3,000 total miles on them (they were rotated at 2,000 miles).

 

Bolts


there are two bolts on the front arm

and if one is missing on either arm.. than it can send you flying.

i've had this happen when i installed my coils.



(if already stated above i apolize)

 

pmmed you about your issue.