Just got the lifetime front end alignment on my truck at firestone

[mizzou]

Doubt it was worth it, but as much amateur work I am planning on doing to my suspension I thought it might come in handy

Coil springs/shocks will need to come out soon. The left end wheel bearing will go bad in about 15k miles probably (hopefully not) and you never know how things line up when you go for new tires, or when you smash your tire against the curb accidentally.

I guess what's nice is that I never plan on getting rid of my 2002 1500 4x4

Would have been nice to have on my wife's honda, she's also keeping that forever

 

[brblx]

if you smash your tire into a curb and any of the alignment specs change more than a miniscule amount, you've bent something.

contrary to popular belief, cars don't just fall out of alignment from hitting potholes. assuming nothing is damaged, small changes in the alignment are from the parts wearing over long periods of time.

 

[mizzou]

if you smash your tire into a curb and any of the alignment specs change more than a miniscule amount, you've bent something.

contrary to popular belief, cars don't just fall out of alignment from hitting potholes. assuming nothing is damaged, small changes in the alignment are from the parts wearing over long periods of time.

agreed =D

Only reason I OK"d it is due to the need of new shocks / springs coming soon, so I know positively I will need 1 more alignment fix in the next year. So I figured, I'm going to pay someone the same price again to do this fairly soon....so why not just pay the 2nd one now and then be good to go for here until Firestone ceases to exist or my vehicle is destroyed *knock on wood*

Also, it will be nice to periodically check just in case, that way it could alert me to any suspension/drive train issues affecting the position of the wheels.

 

[Zargon]

not a bad deal.

especially knowing you are doing suspension work anyways

I would also go ahead and get the car realigned everytime to get new tires, as who knows what the shops are doing to it while its there

 

[Ronstang]

The lifetime alignment is not a bad deal on a car you plan on doing further suspension work as you have indicated as long as it is an older vehicle. It is also not a bad deal if you have a classic car from the 70s on back as the suspension designs back then are much more prone to having the alignment get out of spec.

On a newer vehicle it is a complete waste of money. Newer vehicles are actually designed to change suspension parts and not need an alignment afterwards. I had to replace the lower ball joints on my Lexus last year. They had gotten so bad at 130K that the car pulled severely to one side. After changing out the parts the alignment was right back to where it was suspposed to be and the car drove just like new.