Yesterday, when I got my new tires installed (direzza Sport Z1 Star Spec 215/45-17) my tire guy also did an alignment and found the right front caster was waaaay out of spec (his words) and said he couldn't adjust toe to spec without replacing control arm and bushing for big $$$$.

Went to dealer this a.m., got alignment and all readings are now in spec with 0 thrust angle. The report I got indicated caster wasn't even checked at the dealer.

Question is do I have anything to be worried about if the dealer isn't even checking the caster angle? Don't want premature wear on the new traction patches and I really don't want to fall off the Dragon and associated roads in two weeks.

 

Caster isn't adjustable on our cars, so if you have crazy differences between left and right, then that would indicate some sort of problem. I would think.

It shouldn't affect treadwear much.

 

Something is not right.

The two places you went to, describe conditions that are incompatible.
One is correct and the other is not.

Shop one claims caster is out of spec and cannot set toe to spec. They recommend new parts.

Yet the dealer was able to set toe to stock specs? If the car drives well and tires wear well then all is good and shop one made an error and did not make the right call.

If shop one wanted to create more work then you might have let them do the fix but looks like you did not need anything but a basic alignment.

The dealership may not have written the caster down but all the alignments I have ever done show all alignment specs even caster settings which are not adjustable. Ask for a full print out sheet whenever doing alignments and specifically tell them to check caster if you are concerned about that based on the information from the other shop.

 

Minihune, I did get a detailed post alignment printout, see below. As you can see, it doesn't include any caster measurement at all, but it clearly shows that they WERE able to get the toe adjusted to nearly the center of the range, not at an extreme, contrary to what the first mechanic said about not being able to even get the r. front into range.

 

I would guess that the lack of a caster measurement on the sheet is due to the alignment equipment being smart enough to know that caster isn't adjustable on the car so it doesn't bother including a value for something that can't be changed.

 

Your alignment sheet looks fine.

You might ask why they do not check caster even if it cannot be adjusted.
Otherwise this proves you are doing fine as far as toe and camber are concerned. I would not trust the first shop to do any alignment or any recommendations on repairs- get a second opinion first. Could have been an honest mistake but it's pretty basic to check the alignment.

Had the first shop tried to make the toe settings they might have discovered their mistake but I think since they thought something was not right with caster they didn't even try to set toe and confirm the problem. Also if they just checked your current toe which is easy they would have seen that toe settings were within stock range most likely which would disprove that caster was going to make alignment hard to do and set toe to stock range.

 

Thanks all, I will quit worrying and go enjoy the dragon in a week and a half.