Took my car in to local and very reputable shop that does a lot of track cars and race cars. told me it would be done by 2 pm. 5:30 rolls by and still on rack. i was there waiting for four hours. guy was working on it the whole time. Started first thing in the morning too.

Two boxes of MB shims. Now looking at picking up the next day by noon I’m told. Does this make any sense ? i get these cars are more challenging to align but this seems very excessive. I’m also concerned that the already high alignment of $600 is going to be a LOT higher if they charge me by the hour. I mean could i be looking at a $2k alignment ??

Making me nervous….. Some of this is def on the tech. at one point i overheard the owner talking to him saying the specs were too far off and the tech says he’ll have to take it all apart again 🤷‍♂️

 

It doesnt take that long, they must have messed up something else in the process, which shouldnt be charged to you

normally alignments are quoted before hand unless u have suspension damage which can then change price

 

My first alignment, which also required 2 boxes of shims, cost me an arm and a leg (maybe over 1.2k?) despite being done at a highly rated shop that handles high end European cars. I was really unhappy about it, but the shop gave me plausible sounding explanations.

My most recent one, after new tires, was about $350 (with San Francisco markup). Maybe because I had the shims already installed.

 

my understanding is they have to take the shims out and add new ones every time they make an adjustment anyway. That was the same shop? What I’m worried about is if they are charging me to teach their mechanic how to do an alignment on these cars. Agree with the above poster. I shouldn’t be charged for that.🤷‍♂️. will see today when I pick the car up.🤞

 

Nah, my most recent alignment was from a different shop.

 

good news didn’t charge me any extra. Little surprised at final numbers. talked about doing -2.5 and -2.3. mentioned others going -2.7 etc. I was clear i only cared about track performance. Has specific reasons for starting where we did. He was afraid even this may have been too aggressive. They are full on race team and setup tons of track cars. front was really wonky from factory. he said if anything you’d want it reversed

 

The advantage of the shims is that once you’ve set your preferred alignment, that alignment won’t change. Maybe toe and/or caster might be changeable after the shims are exchanged, but that should never cost $350, surely?

 

My shop was able to get a square -2.5 although they had to work at the rears some.

 

My GTR Pro ended up at a square -2.45 F/R (+/- 0.02) and took 6 hours, including pre/post test drive and machine setup (about $1K CAD IIRC, plus shims). It was about what I was expecting. He said the time is in the "going back 'n forth" having to change shims each time. I also know that he's meticulous.

I'd told them to go higher, but he said that was the max with the (2 boxes of) shims. I was wondering whether others are stacking shims to get higher camber?