How much should I pay for a front end alignment?

[swenpro]

I just called the local BMW dealer and they quoted me $170! Is it "better" to go to the dealer, or should I just pay a visit to the local mechanic?

[2fast]

I got two new tyre's and got one done at the tyre place place for $65 new zealand dollers here they range from $50-70

It did not cross my mind to get it done at the $tealer.

Your local should be fine.
Happy easter!

[repenttokyo]

i don't know where you live, but where i live it costs between 50 and 70 dollars as well.

[nizmainiac]

£20 tops at ats here in the u.k. indys will charge more depending on what system they use, but luckily for me i have access to all the right gear and can do it myself

[attack eagle]

I just called the local BMW dealer and they quoted me $170! Is it "better" to go to the dealer, or should I just pay a visit to the local mechanic?

ouch, mine was $100 for a 4 wheel alignment. If they don't do the weighting, your alignment will not be to spec.

[525SEI BRIT]

£20 tops at ats here in the u.k. indys will charge more depending on what system they use, but luckily for me i have access to all the right gear and can do it myself

Where are you based?! You don't fancy having a crack at mine do you?! Twice its been done now, and it still pulls to the right!!

[Tiger]

My suggestion is go to an alignment only shop. There, they only do alignment... day in, day out. Look them up in the phone book or superpages.com. They are the guy with most experience.

Some shop may look like they got old stuff... don't worry, they know what they are doing. I find that tire shops hate doing alignments... it takes too long and I just never see them set the alignment... For example I watch for my car to go in...gave up... then they brought my car in and done in a jiffy that I didn't even see my car on the lift. That is bad sign... very bad sign Why? because they didn't do it.

I know this because I did go to tech school and did do an alignment myself on the state of art machine at that time. It is not a 15 minutes job.

[nizmainiac]

Where are you based?! You don't fancy having a crack at mine do you?! Twice its been done now, and it still pulls to the right!!
i'm in south devon

[attack eagle]

I tried every alignment only shop and other alighnment shop in town. None of them would touch it. Some said it wasn't in the computer, some gave the lame excuse (lie) that they needed an $800 tool. BMW charged me MAYBE $20 more than those places standard charge. It was worth the $20 for the standard wash, dry, and detail alone.

[markus]

i usually pay $70 at firestone. never had a problem. the only adjustment is toe in the front.

[Tiger]

Where are you located? I am sorry to hear you have a hard time... believe me, I know what you are talking about. Didn't I say that? They hate doing alignment... but alignment shops hate alignment? That's new...

[nizmainiac]

I tried every alignment only shop and other alighnment shop in town. None of them would touch it. Some said it wasn't in the computer, some gave the lame excuse (lie) that they needed an $800 tool. BMW charged me MAYBE $20 more than those places standard charge. It was worth the $20 for the standard wash, dry, and detail alone.
that is lame, i've done loads of bimmers on either the supertraker which is a laser based system for which you get the tracking values off a poster on the wall and a hunter system which is computer based and uses 4 cameras to measure each wheel god know how many times a second to get the perfect track, if they tell you its not on the computer they're lying, if they can't download the figures they can programme them in', plus it doesn't take an $800 tool to do it,even with the rears with adjustable toe on the newer models

[525SEI BRIT]

i'm in south devon

Bit of a trek just for an alignment! dose anybody know the best place to go for a wheel on balance and alignment somewhere in the 3 counties?.. nope, thought not!!

ive never seen it done ether!..

[nizmainiac]

Bit of a trek just for an alignment! dose anybody know the best place to go for a wheel on balance and alignment somewhere in the 3 counties?.. nope, thought not!!

ive never seen it done ether!..
are there any protyre depot's near you? i don't know how far up contry they go, but they are good and they use the hunter type system , where abouts are you ? 3 countys sounds somewhat familiar

[525SEI BRIT]

are there any protyre depot's near you? i don't know how far up contry they go, but they are good and they use the hunter type system , where abouts are you ? 3 countys sounds somewhat familiar


Bottom most corner of Buckinghamshire, Marlow to be Precise. not heard of protyre. Do they have a website?

[nizmainiac]

Bottom most corner of Buckinghamshire, Marlow to be Precise. not heard of protyre. Do they have a website?
yep , they do have a web site,just search protyre, not sure how close you would be though, the reason i was intersted was because you mentioned 3 counties, i grew up not far from the 3 counties show ground in worcestershire

[genphreak]

yep , they do have a web site,just search protyre, not sure how close you would be though, the reason i was intersted was because you mentioned 3 counties, i grew up not far from the 3 counties show ground in worcestershireAll they can adjust are the tie-rods to get an accurate toe setting. It takes 5 minutes to do once its set up. We pay the same as other people that have 20 adjutsments instead of two. I guess we have to pay for the equipment. Best to get it put on a four wheel alignment machine, but I can't see it making much difference when all it helps is the measurement! They can't adjust the rears so don't let them gag you into paying for anything extra other than a good job and a printout- or you can write down the figures straight off the screen if they let you. :) Nick

[Traian]

It's true that we have only 2 adjustments to other cars' 200, but for some reason an E34 alignment costs more than other cars not less, even if you spring that argument. The dealer charges $140 - I mentioned to the service rep that there is only one adjustment, the toe, she spoke to a mechanic and told me no deal, it's a full '4 wheel' alignment whatever that means, whether I want it or no. Other shops that seem to know their stuff also jack up the price - $60 for a regular alignment, $120 for the E34, mainly because they actually do the Bentley procedure that asks to add weights (150 lb?) in each front seat, centre of rear seat and trunk. The also told me '4 wheels or nothing' and we kind of went around in circles about there being no other (simple) adjustment they can do besides the toe, but in the end the best I could get out of them is 'BMWs are precision cars and we measure everything according to the manual specs.'

[genphreak]

It's true that we have only 2 adjustments to other cars' 200, but for some reason an E34 alignment costs more than other cars... The also told me '4 wheels or nothing' and we kind of went around in circles about there being no other (simple) adjustment they can do besides the toe, but in the end the best I could get out of them is 'BMWs are precision cars and we measure everything according to the manual specs.'Yea too right. I love the types that think that pigs fly just because **** always does around them.

So many people used to lesser cars might think that BMW owners can or should pay more than them for everything including water and bread. That attitude does nothing to avoid the fact that the job is simpler to do and because it is a precision machine it requires less adjustment... one might pay as much as anyone else to put it on a 4 wheel machine, but the job takes less time to do and is simpler, so if they have spoken to someone that knows, all I can say is you should ask them if they would smoke that person's poo too, as they seem to be asking you to smoke theirs... but you probably did and got a blank look that simply showed they preferred eating it instead... we all feel your pain bud

[Dave M]

Seems like quite a hastle to get a bit of service. I just asked around, wanted to now who had the 'best' machine. Ended up being the vw dealership (no bmw dealership in town). It cost $60 CAN and they washed it :D

I'll go back there any day. Good luck not getting hosed.

Dave

[bsell]

i usually pay $70 at firestone. never had a problem. the only adjustment is toe in the front.

So what's to stop me from adjusting the toe-in in my driveway? All you need is to grab a buddy to hold the other end of a string against the rear-most sidewall of the back tire while you hold the other end against the front-most sidewall of the front tire to ensure you have the wheels turned straight ahead. Then you measure from one front tire to the other (using the identical grooves on both tires) and compare the difference in distances from the front of the tire to the back. I may not be explaining it well but the process is very easy.

Think back to the days before the high-faluting machines. How did they get the cars set up? Just like I described above.

Paying some fool $120 to adjust the tie rods ends is ludicrous!

Brian