This spring I got a four wheel alignment with the normal annual service. I had recently put new tires on. What a difference. I used to think my wife's BMW tracked slightly better than the 360. Now there is no comparison. The car is much more fun and less twitchy. I never thought it was seriously out of align. Tire wear was pretty even and not at all excessive. I did notice from the service records that it has been eight years in the northeast potholes and never had an alignment. Anyway, as I said, it made a major difference in driving enjoyment for me.
Hello, Also in NJ. South Jersey to be precise and I use Algar for service. I visited there today and toured the newly renovated facilities. They have a BRAND NEW laser system to check the alignment of the tires. Paddle like devices are attached to the tires and a laser does the rest. Tres cool!!!! I will get a price and maybe have it done at my next annual. Yours, Tom
I really like Algar for service. I had them do my belt service. They picked up and delivered my car and gave me a good price on the service. Super nice people also.
Sorry for the dumb questions but how would you know the car needs an alignment? Is it just a routine thing to do for every tire change? Thanks!
worse alignments are the ones done by Ferrari dealers. Race shops do the best alignments. I do my own alignment way too often (testing different settings), but on a road car (no track use), every 5,000 miles you should check the alignment. All brand new Ferraris from the showroom come with wrong specs, it must be a shipping thing.
Uneven tire wear can show it, but the alignment has to be pretty bad. After driving without alignment and freshly aligned I could now tell a difference by driving. Every F-car I looked at prepurchase had no alignment in the maintenance records. I was surprised but lots of drivers seem to skimp a little in maintenance, even when they can obviously afford to do it. Since I never saw it in the records and the manual dosn't mention it in the scheduled maintence I assumed it was something you had to address when/if a service tech draws a problem to your atention. It looks like with Alger's set up, your alignment can be checked at trivial time and expense. I'm going to check it every spring because having it on really makes a difference.
As others have posted it is a radically different feeling when the car is running correct with good geo settings vs the wheels all pointing in different directions. Not only geometry but also go to a pro racing shop and see if they can "corner weight" the car with you in it! It results in the best possible handling and chassis balance to give you the confidence to press on hard in the twisty bits with no nasty surprises.
Here are the figures of my last alignment after changing the springs for Scud springs and lowered the car. As you can see, my car needed a serious alignment even if my tires has a very even wear. (From thread http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=307048&page=2 ) Rear Alignment values (before / after) Camber Left: -2°47' -> -1°47' Camber Right: -2°46' -> -1°44' Toe-in Left: +4.8mm -> +1.6mm Toe-in Right: +1.0mm -> +1.6mm Toe-in Total: +5.8mm -> +3.2mm Toe-in Diff: +6.7mm -> +0.8mm Front Alignement values (before / after) Camber Left: -1°56' -> -1°37' Camber Right: -1°45' -> -1°31' Toe-in Left: +2.1mm -> +1.5mm Toe-in Right: +1.6mm -> +1.6mm Toe-in Total: +3.7mm -> +3.1mm Toe-in Diff: 0mm -> -1.1mm Caster 20° Left: +5°58' -> +5°50' Caster 20° Right: +5°56' -> +5°49' Left Max steering Left Wheel: +21°36' -> +29°00' Left Max steering Right: +20°57' -> +26°19' Right Max steering Left Wheel: +29°29' -> +26°41' Right Max steering Right Wheel: +32°48' -> +29°29'
