waynelittle1

Ok, previously I brought my then 2500 mile GS in because of a vibration...all 4 tires were out of balance...and
my alignment was off...they RF'd all 4 tires..

Corrected alignment on 11/19/12 was:

Left Front Right Front

Camber -0.5 Camber -0.6
Caster 7.1 Caster 7.2
Toe 0.04 Toe 0.02
TOTAL TOE 0.06

Left Rear Right Rear

Camber -0.7 Camber -0.7
Toe -0.02 Toe 0.01
TOTAL TOE -0.01
THRUST ANGLE -0.02

Vibration came back within a week, noticed pulling to the left, vibration through my seat and at higher speeds, through the steering wheel...
Took it back today 12/17 (19 days later...3210 miles)

When I brought it in today:

Left Front Right Front

Camber -0.4 Camber -0.7
Caster 6.7 Caster 7.3
Toe 0.10 Toe 0.04
TOTAL TOE 0.14

Left Rear Right Rear

Camber -0.5 Camber -0.7
Toe -0.13 Toe 0.01
TOTAL TOE -0.06
THRUST ANGLE -0.10

LEFT REAR had Toe and Camber out of spec, and LEFT FRONT Caster out of spec!!!

CORRECTED/Current Measurements when I picked it up tonight:

Left Front Right Front

Camber -0.6 Camber -0.6
Caster 7.4 Caster 7.2
Toe 0.05 Toe 0.04
TOTAL TOE 0.10

Left Rear Right Rear

Camber -0.6 Camber -0.7
Toe 0.06 Toe 0.07
TOTAL TOE 0.13
THRUST ANGLE 0.00

HOW in the world did these things happen?? What would cause these things to shift/not HOLD alignment???

OH and by the way, 2 of the 4 tires were out of balance---AGAIN...Road Forced all 4...again!!

Can anyone help me understand? Disappointed, to say the least...didn't have these issues with the '11 Coupe....

pewter99

someone didn't tighten bolts to spec...they just half assed it.....BTDT a couple months ago....went for an alignment and it wasn't right thought it must have a suspension issue took it to my buddys shop he put it on the lift and turned the bolts with no effort....the tech didn't even tighten them

FWIW this was on a C5 but still

bearphoto

Hard to say how/why its happening. Did the service person tighten everything after alignment? I'm assuming they are using stick on weights on the inside barrel of the wheel, did they clean the wheel prior to sticking the weights on? If not, perhaps the weights are coming off creating the imbalance?

Did you say this is the dealer doing the work?

waynelittle1

Probable, yet freaking ridiculous

Yes, Coyle Chevrolet, a large Chevy store on the Indiana side of Louisville KY....

And with my 2011, when another dealer balanced the tires, afterward, one tire had the whole row of weights fall off...for that reason...they didn't take the time to CLEAN the area first! L-A-Z-Y and unprofessional.

pewter99

I would go back ask them to put it on the lift and SHOW YOU what the bolts are torqued at...I bet they can turn them with hardly any effort or at the very least they are not tight enough....then demand your money back

waynelittle1

No money involved...warrantied...but was in a loaner all day today, and previously spent 4 hours at the dealer for the FIRST alignment and tire balancing...

More aggravated and disappointed than anything....maybe this time, they actually tightened them, because they HAD to now know that THEY were responsible for the misalignment after their first attempt!

johnodrake

I have my alignment marked with a marker. I clean off the old mark after the alignment and remark.

MikeyTX

What John said !

carpe dm

Our '10 GS vert took three tries (and sets of tires) to get the alignment right. We never had such trouble before, although all of our Corvettes needed alignment work. PITA!!

Wayne O

I tend to agree, the problem is with who did the previous alignment and not with the car. For tire changing and balancing I always use Discount Tire (and I have tires changed a lot). I found it interesting DT basically stopped using their Hunter Road-Force Balancer. My friends who work there say it's still fine for diagnositc work (provided the operator knows what he's doing) but for virtually everything they use their new Hunter 'Smart' Balancers. My friend says this machine does it all and it does it well. I've never had any tire balancing problems.

thatonedude1

Just because the alignment bolts are loose does not mean they were not torqued properly. It could be that the fastener or joint is incorrectly designed to withstand the loads and vibrations seen. That could cause vibration loosening, which is a topic I am working now in the aerospace field. You may want to mark or torque stripe the bolts when they are torqued and see iff they back off. Locktight is a possible easy cure.

thatonedude1

They also might have added a thread lubricant or incorrect lube that could also have effected loosening. Suspension parts see a lot of loads and if something was not robust in the design, some cars could have problems.

pewter99

ok...in MY case they were so freakin loose a 1 year old could have turned the wrench....there is NO WAY they come that loose from normal driving...I might add that I have never before in my lifetime of owning cars had an alignment last less than a day

phatmaxx87

or maybe you hit a big *** pot hole and never thought to mention that.

thatonedude1

Agree it's unlikely that they vibrated loose, just saying it's a possible way to come loose, and I deal with this issue frequently on jet engines. I will say having had a dozen GM's in my life, the front end alignment and integrity is something that always seems to stay good on them. Ford front ends always seem to stray. Seems the big tire GS have much more alignment than the base C6 like I have.

gsflyer2011

I checked my bolts after the aligment, they were barely tight, took it right back and sure enough aligment was off after 20 miles, got them to re-align it, gave him my torque wrench, told him the values and I supervised so that he properly torqued every bolt. No problems since than.