LuxoM3
05-22-2009, 03:30 PM
Hey Guys:
It's not everyday I drive almost 50 miles out of my way to go to a car shop, but in this case I did. My normal alignment shop (Roger Krause) in Castro Valley got a new tech, who either wasn't very good OR their alignment machine was off.
Either way when I left Roger's, my 1995 BMW M3 just didn't feel *right*.
After 2 weeks of driving, I took it to Custom Alignment in Mountain View. The front and rear alignment was a whopping $240 for 2 full hours of work. What did they do?
1. They nailed the toe settings DEAD EVEN for the front (1/32") and rear (1/8".)
2. The caster is "unadjustable" but unbolted the strut assembly and yanked it to get it to a near closer 7.6 and 7.7. (was 7.5 and 7.7.)
3. The camber is unadjustavle, but yanked the assembly to even that out to -.7 degrees front and -1.5 rear
4. Road tested it... TWICE (city streets and FREEWAY)
5. Called in me in TWICE to ask about the cars history, my driving habits and styles, advise on future upgrades if I was going to do them...
6. Even asked me my weight [ laughing ]. Yep, they aligned the car with weights.
So did I enjoy the $240 bill. Hell NO! But was it worth $240. HELL YEAH!
There's nothing like leaving a shop and KNOWING your car is running better for it. Charlie, the tech, own 2 other BMWs was great in telling me about my car and handling. Joe is the shop foreman, another knowledgeable guy... and DAVE the owner... helpful and chatty.
They are a TireRack preferred installer and will also mount and balance tires with a high-end hunter machine that compensates for tire/wheel weight and position or in short... if a wheel is off (like weighs more than the others), the machine will advice the user to position the wheel/tire for best performance and handling.
How cool is that?
So yes, save some money and got there. I love them.
TAGS: Tire, Tire Rack, Alignment, BMW M3, California, Bay Area
It's not everyday I drive almost 50 miles out of my way to go to a car shop, but in this case I did. My normal alignment shop (Roger Krause) in Castro Valley got a new tech, who either wasn't very good OR their alignment machine was off.
Either way when I left Roger's, my 1995 BMW M3 just didn't feel *right*.
After 2 weeks of driving, I took it to Custom Alignment in Mountain View. The front and rear alignment was a whopping $240 for 2 full hours of work. What did they do?
1. They nailed the toe settings DEAD EVEN for the front (1/32") and rear (1/8".)
2. The caster is "unadjustable" but unbolted the strut assembly and yanked it to get it to a near closer 7.6 and 7.7. (was 7.5 and 7.7.)
3. The camber is unadjustavle, but yanked the assembly to even that out to -.7 degrees front and -1.5 rear
4. Road tested it... TWICE (city streets and FREEWAY)
5. Called in me in TWICE to ask about the cars history, my driving habits and styles, advise on future upgrades if I was going to do them...
6. Even asked me my weight [ laughing ]. Yep, they aligned the car with weights.
So did I enjoy the $240 bill. Hell NO! But was it worth $240. HELL YEAH!
There's nothing like leaving a shop and KNOWING your car is running better for it. Charlie, the tech, own 2 other BMWs was great in telling me about my car and handling. Joe is the shop foreman, another knowledgeable guy... and DAVE the owner... helpful and chatty.
They are a TireRack preferred installer and will also mount and balance tires with a high-end hunter machine that compensates for tire/wheel weight and position or in short... if a wheel is off (like weighs more than the others), the machine will advice the user to position the wheel/tire for best performance and handling.
How cool is that?
So yes, save some money and got there. I love them.
TAGS: Tire, Tire Rack, Alignment, BMW M3, California, Bay Area