Four wheel alignment - Is this for real??

[Sailor Bob]

In my recent efforts to sort out the steering and suspension I removed the struts steering gear and rear struts. When I finished I put on new wheels and tires (balanced), the wheel was of centre and the front wheels were off even though the new tierod ends were carefully installed to the exact position of the old. Wheel alignment was required.

At the shop the guy at the desk says "do you want a four wheel alignment", so I say "how are you going to do that?" He rattled off some bs about the benifits but could not answer how they were going to do it. Further they had no information on the car at all (fortunately I had my trusty shop manual). I declined and paid the lesser amount for the basic wheel alignment.

My point is that there is no adjustment for the rear wheels that I have seen, maybe I missed something.

Please advise if you have information.

[Ed]

In the stock "mode" there is no rear wheel adjustment. There are however some aftermarket products that will allow you to change the rear end geometry. FWIW when I take my car for an allignment I tell them to do all four. And I ask for a print out of the results. This is good information to hold on to incase you ever decide to make suspension modifications.

[Carl Beck]

Not only a good baseline for later - if you don't have the rear checked, how would you know if something has worn out, gotten loose or even bent etc.

You may not have to have the alignment "checked" every time on the rear if you are the only one driving the car - but it is a good idea to have it checked every so often and before you start to get uneven tire wear..

FWIW,

Carl B.