Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2011 19:01:20 -0800
Reply-To: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Subject: Re: Which came first, the alignment or the new tires?
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Hi Jeff,
in all cases like this a good front end inspection is in order.
Many tire and alignment shops will do that for free ..
because, of course, they want the job.
and obviously ...if you have bad front inner tread wear..
either something is badly out of adjustment ..
which only occurs from parts wearing really.
Alignment hardly 'goes off' by itself..
well maybe if you smash into curbs a lot ..
but most likely there are tired and worn parts in your front end.
then you hope they don't say it needs all four ball joints and tie rod ends
and strut bushings etc. etc.
for $ 950 ..
and they may tend to oversell a little sometimes ...
also wheel bearings ..
need to make sure those are serviceable, have enough grease, and are
adjusted right ..
and ....it wouldn't surprise me one bit for a front end shop to sell front
end repairs and an alignment when the front wheel bearings are out of whack.
I check all that stuff myself.
You kind of don't have a lot of control over what they'll say ..they may
not outright lie ..but ..
commonly they may want to do a pretty significant number on your front end.
in any case...try to get 'the facts' on what is worn.
I can already imagine that that right front has too much negative camber..
and perhaps it towed out .
You might get a couple of estimates.
you don't need a new tire on there to get the front end inspected.
to check alignment ....should have two matching front tires, but to just
inspect the front end parts for wear ....they just need to see the van.
they'll also tend to automatically call any ball joint with a cracked boot
completely shot.
I'm a little unorthodox....if the ball joint has no play, and just a cracked
boot ..
I kind like that since I can then lube it with spray motorcycle chain lube
through the boot.
and dont' tell anybody, but that works great actually . But don't expect a
shop to understand that ..
to them it's all about parts and labor and ..what they do actually is sell
'justifiable profitable repairs.'
if they can determine your front springs are say half an inch lower ..some
shops will sell that job .your van needs new springs sir, which isn't always
really true.
upper ball joints are easy to deal with and not too expensive.
lowers are seriously difficult. Upper inner a-arm bushings also wear, I
wouldn't be surprised if you had wear there.
lastly ...some people don't realize that having worn out shocks contirbutes
to the trashing of the front end . Need decent front shocks to help
preserve the life of the front end parts. Decent rear shocks too actually.
so a good inspection is the first step.
Scott
www.turobvans.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jeff Lincoln" <magikvw@GMAIL.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Monday, January 24, 2011 6:21 PM
Subject: Which came first, the alignment or the new tires?
> Ok, I know this is a silly question but here it is anyway.
>
> I bought new tires this past summer - well apprently my alignment is off
> (although not real noticeable while driving) and it seems the front
> driver's
> side tire has some terrible wear on the inside.
>
> So I need a new tire - but do I get an alignment first or the new tire
> first? Again it may be a silly question but I really am not sure.
>
> --
> Thanks,
>
> Jeff
> '85 GL (Gertie)
> '90 Carat (Grover - the noble parts donor)
> '86 (We call this one Scrap)
> '78 Bus (Melissa) Patty's Bus
