curlytom

Finding an alignment shop that know our cars has turned out to be quite a feat. All the shops that I have called in my area are willing to align my car, but when I ask them if they use a spreader bar to set the toe-in; they don't have a clue to what I'm talking about. The responses I get are frustrating - "Spreader bar? What's that?" - "We do computerized alignments...it's much better than what you're asking for" - "My tech guy says you don't need that on your car, all he needs is just hand tools" - "Our guys know what they're doing; they don't need that stuff"
Does anyone know of a good alignment shop in the Glendale/Burbank/San Fernando Valley/Santa Clarita Valley that can properly do wheel alignments on our cars? Is my only option the stealer?

neanderthal

call gary at haigs wheel alignment, on sherman way in north hollywood. dont have his number on me

curlytom

Thanks! I've called them a few times, but they're not picking up (they must not have an answering machine?) They probably don't work on weekends... I'll try again on Monday.


Haigs Wheel Alignment & Brakes
13238 Sherman Way
North Hollywood, CA 91605
Phone: (818) 764-8225

RunningTooHot

I've encountered the SAME problem. Would you trust a tech who doesn't even know what a spreader bar is to align your car? Unfortunately, that's all I've ever found.

I would LOVE it if you could give some feedback here once you have tried those guys! I've got my fingers crossed...

E2233

Check out this web site
http://www.mercedesshop.com/ You can search for an alignment shop and over service locations by state.

Tiretrack.com also has a list of shop by City and State. The list includes tire companies, front end work and services list by country of the manufacturer.

Runninrebel211

Hey good luck finding a good shop to do the alignment down south. I had our Mercedes done at Wheel Works. Oh my god what a fudging nightmare! They couldnt make the steering wheel straight and it made the car pull left or right depending on our car. Finally found someone that fixed it and now its tracking straight and the steering wheel is somewhat straight. So I know what you mean. I had about 13 alignments on my 300SE and 190E in the last 3 weeks by the same shop. WTF! So make sure the guy knows what he is doing or end up like me.

curlytom

Call me a spineless wimp, but thanks to some of the horror stories I’ve read (Runninrebel211’s post was probably one of the scariest ones – 13 alignments?!?!) I decided to go to the dealer for my alignment. After all, who would know our cars better than them and who else would have all the correct equipment and the knowledge to use it to do a simple alignment, right?
Well, sort of… I almost became another horror-story statistic. Since my last post, it has taken me this long to get my car correctly aligned by the dealer.
I made and appointment and took my car in on Monday, 12-29-08 I waited about three hours for my car, good thing they had a nice big TV, plenty of coffee and fresh baked cookies in the waiting room.
After they were done with my car, I went for a nice long drive to see how my car felt with my brand new alignment. Well, I can’t begin to tell you how I felt when I saw my steering wheel cocked to the left and my car wanting to veer to the right…WTF? It was worse than before! How the %@#$& can this happen to me…I was so careful with my selection. Well, I called the dealer and the service advisor was very apologetic and asked me to bring the car back the next day.
I took my car back on Tuesday morning and waited for another couple of hours…more TV, coffee and cookies. The Service Advisor and Service Manager came to talk to me to tell me that they found out what the problem was…their machine was out of calibration. They were very apologetic (again) and asked me to come back the following Monday, 1-5-09 to give them a chance to call Hunter to get their equipment up to snuff and that they would give me a loaner car so I wouldn’t have to wait anymore.
Went back on the scheduled day and got my loaner car (a new C300 - very nice car but I didn't like it. Couldn't wait to get my car back), a few hours later got my call that my car was ready. Well, all is good now, steering wheel is nice and centered and the car tracks perfectly straight now. Other than the initial shock of seeing my steering wheel crooked and the car not tracking straight after paying $125.00 I feel that the dealer treated me right and that they finally came through and did an excellent job on the alignment.

YNVDIZW124

WTF? I know some mexican guys in east l.a that will align the car to whatever you want i.e sport suspension for mine since it's lowered. The use a 4 wheel alignment machine and the do have a spreader bar if you want. They charged me 60 bucks and my car drive pretty damn straight. It only took about 30-45min btw.

Glad you got it all figured out....but for $125 that alignment should have a pretty nice warranty.

curlytom

YNVDIZW124 - Thanks for chiming in. My car’s suspension is totally stock so the spreader bar would not be an option in my case; it would be a requirement. For future reference; where exactly is this Mexican guys shop in East LA? Do they have a giant screen TV, coffee and fresh baked cookies?