My car is presently in the dealer for the new front tires and a four wheel alignment. That by itself is a long story that I will chronicle in a soon to be released thread.

BUT, they called me today and said that they can't do my alignment with the new specs because my Kaminari front lip is in the way. They said that the alignment machine shoots some kind of "beam" to do the alignment and it is in the way.

Is this legit or BS???

They said they would now have to remove the lip and I am worried that they are going to bust it since (as you'll see in my future thread) this supposedly minor procedure has thus far been a comedy of errors!

What do you guys say?

Thanks!

 

There might be an alignment machine that uses lasers but all the four wheel alignment machines I've seen uses metal braces that directly contact the wheels to adjust camber and caster. I'd go to another alignment shop.

 

Yup I agree with hfm, They put reflectors on the wheels and the machine hits them with a signal to see if their properly aligned. Thats the only ttype i've ever seen.

 

But how does the front lip get in the way of that? I am not understanding where these reflectors go and what path the "beam" takes.

 

Just noticed that there is a similarity between the lip on your Z and Yoda's upper lip. That makes me wonder, does Yoda have a little spoiler above his @ss?

 

it's not bs.

what they attatch to the front wheels has an arm that extends towards the front of the car and shoots a beam across to the other side, it's a straight line across underneath the front bumper. if your bumper sits too low, it will block it.

the place i went to was a body/wheel repair shop that also does alignments for lowered cars. the owner explained everything to me, but i don't remember exactly what the purpose of this was. he helped me remove my bumper at no cost. (his son also has a 350z that was in his shop for repairs).

 

Dr. B. Once I lowered my car, I took it to Goodyear for alignment. They were barely able to get the car on the machine, but once they did, they told me the EXACT same thing. My bumper was too low for the alignment mechanism (whatever that my be) to perform the necessary "sighting". I ended up having to get my car aligned at the local Ferrari dealership. They did a great job.

 

DIY alignment ... I'm going to try this next time i need to align my car.

http://www.allpar.com/fix/alignment.html

 

another pretty good guide

http://www.vtr.org/maintain/diy-alignment.html

 

Thanks everyone. Great info as usual!

 

how much did that cost you?