I need an alignment again... Man, this car needs alignments often. The first year I had this car, I had four alignments and each time, the alignment machine showed that it was off. Now that I have to pay out of my own pocket, it hurts that I have to pay $70 this often to keep the steering and balance tight.

What has been other New England area drivers

 

i do it every few months but i have a lifetime alignment from firestone so its free. i think ntb offers that also.

 

Hmm... I've had it done once (after 7000 miles), and it was out... probably why my tires wore down so fast. I've gone through another set, and I'm up to 28K, but alignment seems fine to me. I thought it was just bad from the factory.

 

I had mine done at 5k, currently at 12k, will have it checked again next spring. Havn't noticed it being out of wack.

 

Ok guys, here are my thoughts about this.

1. Alignment is part science, part art. It depends on a lot of things like how your tires have worn, who is doing the alignment and how often the machine is calibrated.

2. Try to go to the same place if they are good at doing this and try to make sure you are on the same machine. Some places have two machines.

3. Get to know the mechanics and try to get the same one each time.

4. The settings have a relatively narrow range. Remember that the alignment is measured at your wheels. Tires wear out at different rates and can change the readings to a small degree. Your mechanical settings might not have changed at all. (In theory, the settings should be the same no matter how your tires wear, but the mechanics I have spoken to say that the change in tire wear can move things a degree here or there.)

5. Make sure your car weighs the same each time you have this done. A full tank of gas versus an empty tank, or you in the car versus you out of the car, or a full trunk of junk versus an empty trunk can all make a difference.

6. UK settings will make the car "wander" a bit and pull when you are breaking. This is because of toe-out. The factory recommends 0 toe. The UK settings call for a bit of toe out which helps with the oversteer, but induces some wandering. Try the UK settings for camber and caster, but keep the toe at 0.

7. Have the alignment done every time you put on new tires.

 

34k miles and never had an alignment done.

daily driver, 3 years old, swap snows with so2's 6 months for each set.

Second set of so2's on rear, originals on front.

Snowies still looking good (put 'em on November).

Car drives fine, no uneven tire wear or anything.

Maybe I'm just used to wacky alignment???

 

I bet that anyone who thinks they're alignment is fine and have 7k+ miles, would be suprized what the car is really doing. You grow numb with the car. The numbers off the machine don't lie, and the alignemt tech should take it for a ride first, tell you what he thinks the car is doing, put on the machine, and he should be right.

I thought the Euro alignment specs had toe in, not toe out? I'll have to look at them again. Either way, I am going back to US Specs, the car does wander a lot and is too twitchy at high-speeds.

I have an appointment at DirectTire on Oct 2nd, can't wait. Since I put on new rear tires (even since before that), handling has been scary and the car wants to oversteer quite easily. I can't even push the car hard right now, the car feels like it could just spin out from under me, and this has been developing for the last month (or a least the last month I've started to notice it).

 

Moses, good luck!

 

Just a question. Would my 2002 benefit if I used the 2004 alignment spec.?

I know Honda made a lot of fine adjustment in the suspension department of the S.

 

A quick answer would be maybe, but as Legal Bill mentioned, alignments are both science and art