Just a friendly reminder to check your alignment...

Discussion on wheel & tire issues
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elc32955
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Just a friendly reminder to check your alignment...

Post by elc32955 »

I just hit the 50K mark on my car yesterday. The local tire store had done a flat repair on one of my RSA's recently and did a poor job of balancing the tire, so I hit another branch of the same company for a re-balance. While my car was on the rack, some uneven wear was noticed on one of my tires so I had a 4-wheel alignment done.

I was shocked at how far the car was off. Ever single value on the rear was out of spec except for the left rear camber. On the front the left front toe was out, front total toe was out, right front camber was out. It's all back within spec now, but it was an eye-opener when I looked at the alignment sheet.

Eric
System Manager and your tour guide for the day. 2015 Caprice w/LFX, former NC DPS staff car. Partial hybrid G8/SS/Camaro SS interior mods, SS MyLink radio upgrade, 2016 Camaro V6 rims, GMPP Malibu chrome exhaust tips, otherwise bone stock for now.
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toyguy5538
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Re: Just a friendly reminder to check your alignment...

Post by toyguy5538 »

I have 13,000 miles on mine, and the tires have been noisy since the early days. I rotated them at 7,500 miles, then again at about 12.500 miles. This week I took it to Goodyear to see if there is a common noise issue on these RS-A tires, as mine were feather-edging on the inside tread row. We checked the alignment and found the front camber out on both sides and the rear toe out on the left. Front camber was -0.08 degrees on both sides and the rear toe was -0.08 degrees. We realigned it, and even without rotating the tires side to side, the noise is much reduced. I also found the right rear stabilizer link was separated from the bottom mount, so that was replaced under warranty. Check your cars over, folks.
9C1fanatic
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Re: Just a friendly reminder to check your alignment...

Post by 9C1fanatic »

Eric,
I know this is an old post but was curious if you actually got 50,000 miles out of the original set of RS A's?
Garner Ames



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CrashTestDummy
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Re: Just a friendly reminder to check your alignment...

Post by CrashTestDummy »

I doubt the Aussies do it any different, but in the US, they have a guy, or two, who do the alignments, and they're done by eye. 'Bump and roll' is the term they use on the line, 'cause they tap things into place with mallets, eye things, tighten the bolts/nuts and roll them down the assembly line. Pretty good for just doing it by eye, and your senses, but yeah, most cars can benefit from putting instruments on them to verify.
Gene Beaird,
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