Does this alignment look right to you?

[mustang_52]

[IMG]ok, so I had some shop put new tires on and they cranked on my lugs to the point where I snapped two studs. Went ahead and replaced the rear hub. This is on a '03 AWD vibe. I went over to NTB to get an alignment and both times I question whether I am getting shafted or not. Im no expert in alignments but this doesnt seem right and no matter what I tell these clowns they suggest its right. here are some pics of the left side in question and the right side that looks normal.As you can see it doesnt look like the accentric is locked in between the tabs, but instead over top of the one.This last pic is the right side, notice how the accentric in in between the tabs.

[djkeev]

Those "CLOWNS" are working with computer guided lasers if they are worth their salt.That car is 7 years old and God knows how many potholes or even frontal accidents it's had. You may very well have bent front end parts and you should be thankful that they were able to pull it into alignment WITHOUT selling you a thousand dollars of replacement parts and labor!They have nothing to gain by NOT doing a proper alignment and everything to gain by selling you additional parts and labor......which they did NOT do.Easy casting such judgement.The wheel lugs? could have been them, could have been the previous dozen people who over torqued and stretched the stud out and it broke on these guys doing a proper torque. Who knows?? If you know me, you'll know that this is really unusual for me to be defending mechanics, they are usually on my most hated list!!!!Dave

[VforVIBE]

David, take a chill pill man... I don't know a lot about mechanics, but there does seem to be a discrepancy between the pictures. How does the car drive? It wouldn't hurt to have another shop take a quick peek at it if you are worried.

[mustang_52]

ok, let me furthur clarify my post. This is the rear left and right tires were tlaking about. While its possible that they may have done it right, he tried to tell me that the lip that supposed to be there was bent from other reasons. its easily clear that that lip is supposed to be there just by looking at the other side. SO, its fair to say hes a clown. as far as the lugs, I had the tires off right before I had them put new tires on and I torqued them to the 76 ft pounds they call for. it took a breaker bar and pipe to break them loose on all four tires so yes they did do it. I just need to know if its proper to have that accentric over top of that lip or not so I can have this done right. Ive only had the car for a week and it feels fine but when I pay someone to do the job right I expect it to be, I think thats fair dont you?

[joatmon]

Disclaimer - I don't have an AWD, haven't looked at one, and am no master mechanic, so this is conjecture from looking at your photos and looking at the service manualI think the first two picture show wrong, the bottom one is correct. I think the cam is intended to fit between the two bumps, and that by rotating the cam between those two, you can change the position of the bolt relative to whatever part that is that has those two raised guides (one the bent edge of the part, the other a bump)Here's a shopped version of your third pic, showing how I think the parts are supposed to be, with different cam positions. Again, I have no idea if the parts allow such positioning (if the bolt has clearance to move about the way the shopped picture shows, hard to know without seeing the parts disassembled) but I think the top pic showing the cam over the raised cam guide is not right. The cam is not against any cam guide, and should not be on top of the cam guide, on that side the cam is just a glorified washer, not contributing to the alignment stability.

Attached files

[mustang_52]

Thats what I thought. I'm going to call another ntb and see if anyone else knows how to properly get this done. Ive got 6 months or 6000 miles to find one

[Old Tele man]

...yep, that ain't RIGHT....it needs to be corrected promptly or you're gonna be eating tire(s) soon.

[mustang_52]

thanks guys.. appreciate the help!

[mustang_52]

Glad to report that I had another shop do the alignment and all is well now. Somebody apparently needs to go back to school.