Alignment

[midlandtech]

Hey guys and gals,

I just did shocks and struts on the car and am wanting to get an alignment. My question is where do you go for your alignment and how much can I expect to spend on it?
Is this a dealer only thing or are there chains that you would trust your car to?

Thanks in advance,

Steve

[danewilson77]

You can go to a euro indy and will pay between $115 and $150.

I take mine to www.autohausva.com just to give you an idea.

Sent from Williamsburg, VA USA

[Stu]

Ideally, the dealer is the best place to do an alignment. They follow it by the books - sandbags and all. It's just...a whole lot more expensive.

I did it at my local indy Euro shop, no complaints here. They did a great job. Most places do not do the sandbag thing (funny story, that is a BMW part - 81129427785 ;)) I paid $120.

If you want to be sure that you get the perfect alignment, you can just ask the shop if you can sit in the driver's seat during the alignment to add weight. Just as effective as sandbags.

There's a Groupon for a local BMW indy around here that does alignments - $50! I'll be taking advantage of that very soon. Well-reviewed shop, found them on bimmershops.com.

[midlandtech]

what does the dealer ship cost usually? I don't have any experience with any indy shops around the KC area

[Stu]

I think the dealer cost is $150

[midlandtech]

well I guess it could be worse... thanks for the speedy responses guys. I'm a little concerned with the wheel gap I now have post strut and shock install. Its decreased since install after driving but I am hoping that things will settle a little more especially after an alignment.

[Stu]

Yeah give it a good 50-100 miles to completely settle, then after do more troubleshooting if it is not where you want it; however, an alignment is still a good thing to do after doing shocks.

[midlandtech]

yikes... well I have put about 300 miles on it since install. wheel gap isn't HUGE but it is noticeably higher than before. The struts and shocks I removed were OEM and were in pretty bad shape especially the rears (car has almost 100,000 mi on it). As of right now the wheel gap in the front is 3 fingers between tire and fender and about the same in the rear. think its normal?

[Jorge86]

I installed the oem struts and shocks and the wheel gap in the front is huge. After a year it has not come down almost nothing.i used to have a lowered Acura cl and got tired of slowing down on rough terrain or bumps. So I don't mind the wheel gap.

[M0nk3y]

I went to BMW to get my alignment because I wanted them to put it at certain specs (all which are outside of OEM recommendations). IIRC it was about $125.

Did you remove OEM and replace with OEM or did you go aftermarket?

[midlandtech]

I replaced OEM with bilstiens... wheel gap isn't massive but is noticeably more than before. I'm hoping that the alignment will help a bit I checked to make sure the springs were installed in the same position as when they were removed. Perhaps the OEM struts were just that bad...


~Steve
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Mike V]

Steve, Kendall @ AutoTech is highly regarded in KC and is reasonably priced.

[midlandtech]

Awesome thanks Mike I really appreciate it


~Steve
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[johnrando]

Check yelp (or some site) for indy or tire shops in your area. Where I live, I've heard about a 2 location tire shop that has ratings/reviews off the chart. I drove by one day and lots of BMWs and other high end cars there, so I stopped by to talk. They were very knowledgeable, they guy even said that while he can align strictly by the book, he prefers to also tweak it based on driving style, so we talked about that. So, don't feel pressure to just got with BMW dealers or BMW shops. I think we have a thread on alignment in the tire/wheel section. Mine costs somewhere over $100 but less than $200, I just don't recall.

[jsfbmw]

what does the dealer ship cost usually? I don't have any experience with any indy shops around the KC area

Here in NJ my BMW dealer quoted $135, while the euro indy shop I've used for the past 20 years charges $125.

[midlandtech]

Steve, Kendall @ AutoTech is highly regarded in KC and is reasonably priced.

Just got off the phone with Kendall 79.99 is the price for the alignment and the guy sounds like he is pretty familiar with the ZHP package. I am stoked about the price and excited to see his handy work.

[sketchyd]

Ideally, the dealer is the best place to do an alignment. They follow it by the books - sandbags and all. It's just...a whole lot more expensive.
HA! not all dealers...jus sayin.



If you want to be sure that you get the perfect alignment, you can just ask the shop if you can sit in the driver's seat during the alignment to add weight. Just as effective as sandbags.

this. a lot of shops will be ok with this. and especially if the car is mostly driven empty except the driver, that's how it'll sit most of the time and how you want it set.

over about $100 seems like a lot for an alignment, IMO, unless they specify "extra time" for one reason or another (custom suspensions are a common time adder). if your indy shop doesn't have an alignment rack, tire shops do alignments all day, every day. may be worth checking yelp for one people like.