Wheel alignment

AllterrainX440 · September 18, 2019

To the more mechanically inclined, I need you help. I recently bought a brand new 2019 2500 Duramax (I know wrong forum but its the same generation and there's a lot more people in this subforum) and upon driving it home from the dealer (300 miles from my house) I noticed the alignment was off with the truck pulling to the right and the GMC logo on the steering wheel being cocked 10 degrees to the right while driving straight. Was heading right out of town for a trip so I didn't get the truck in til a week after purchase and the new dealer claimed to align it. Fast forward a couple days and I finally get on the highway and notice the alignment is still off. So I go back to the dealer that aligned it and after a few hours they admit that they can't finish an alingment because their machine isn't big enough for a 2500 and they don't ever work on the larger trucks. So I schedule with a chevy dealer and take it in on Monday. After 3 hours they blame their machine for failing and they need to keep it over night so the alignment machine can reset. Mid day yesterday I get a call that my truck is all good to go. Driving home I definitely felt an improvement but today on the freeway it seemed just as bad as ever with the wheel being cocked to the right (not as much pull to the left tho). Think I am going to take it back in to a third dealer but after 4 alignment trips in 3 weeks Im almost ready to threaten talking to a lemon lawyer. I don't want to as I love the truck otherwise but it seems GM is jacking me off (thankfully they haven't suggested that I pay for these alignments as the truck has 1600 miles on it and 1100 when I first brought it in). My question is do you think they just suck at aligment or is their an underlying issue that could be causing the truck to quickly fall out of alignment? Appreciate any and all insight. Thanks.

1SLOW1500 · September 18, 2019

Underlining issue is they don't know what they are doing. Make sure the steering rack is at Zero. Not just eye ball the steering wheel and call it good. Then known there is a crown in roads and you may see it off a little but when I say little I say little so little its noticable. If you need there are electrical programs that plug in and diagnose the steering tacks. I am not saying buy one I am saying find a shop that has it and knows.
I had mine at alignment shop 2 times to get right. I had.to gonback and show him what to do.

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Grumpy Bear · September 18, 2019

Also ask for a before and after print out of the alignment alone with the trucks alignment specs. It keeps people honest and educates you. That said you will find that there are alignments and then there are ALIGNMENTS. When you see the printouts you will understand what I mean. It isn't the truck sir. It's the guy twisting the wrenches. These IS someone in your area with a stunning public record of service. Find him/her.

1SLOW1500 · September 18, 2019

Also ask for a before and after print out of the alignment alone with the trucks alignment specs. It keeps people honest and educates you. That said you will find that there are alignments and then there are ALIGNMENTS. When you see the printouts you will understand what I mean. It isn't the truck sir. It's the guy twisting the wrenches. These IS someone in your area with a stunning public record of service. Find him/her.

As always spot on GB. I had a semi truck shop that also did frame straightening. They did my road track cars. Perfect every time. Best there was in area. With truck on 24" I used Belltire. And got print out. They fought me saying truck was lowered so the spec are good for that. I refused and demanded stock parameter specs. 3rd time they got it and it is perfect.

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Bash74 · September 19, 2019

I have has issues at dealers but I have never had a problem when I take my truck to a 4x4 shop. The 3 I have used have always done alignments correct the first time. Might want to look into a place like that.

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AllterrainX440 · September 19, 2019

14 hours ago, 1SLOW1500 said:

Underlining issue is they don't know what they are doing. Make sure the steering rack is at Zero. Not just eye ball the steering wheel and call it good. Then known there is a crown in roads and you may see it off a little but when I say little I say little so little its noticable. If you need there are electrical programs that plug in and diagnose the steering tacks. I am not saying buy one I am saying find a shop that has it and knows.
I had mine at alignment shop 2 times to get right. I had.to gonback and show him what to do.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

Thank you. I respect your insight a lot from all of your posts on this forum.

14 hours ago, Grumpy Bear said:

Also ask for a before and after print out of the alignment alone with the trucks alignment specs. It keeps people honest and educates you. That said you will find that there are alignments and then there are ALIGNMENTS. When you see the printouts you will understand what I mean. It isn't the truck sir. It's the guy twisting the wrenches. These IS someone in your area with a stunning public record of service. Find him/her.

Thanks for the advice. Conveniently both the dealers I've been to have been having printer issues with the printers connected to their alignment racks. When I go to the third dealer on Monday I'm going to say tell them to take a picture of it or write down the specs.

7 hours ago, Bash74 said:

I have has issues at dealers but I have never had a problem when I take my truck to a 4x4 shop. The 3 I have used have always done alignments correct the first time. Might want to look into a place like that.

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Yeah I've been reluctant to do that but probably will if this third dealer doesn't work out on Monday. It's just its a brand new truck with 1800 miles on it and GM should be paying for it to be within spec.

timber74wolf · September 20, 2019

The front end isn't even broke in yet. I wait til the 1st oil change at 5K miles and do a 2nd check at 7,500 or 8K miles. Then I know it is good. But if it is that noticeable then Yes I would agree it is the wrench turner... especially after 2 or 3 realighnents.

Grumpy Bear · September 20, 2019

Example:

This is my current alignment. Starting with the camber. Left front needs to be a quarter degree more positive than the right front. As I prefer a hair negative camber this means the left front is less negative to be more positive. If you look at the spec range for example of the front left it is +0.7 to -0.9 which is .02 more positive that the right fronts +.05 to -1.1. It is dead center of the spec.

Castor ditto. 0.25 more positive caster left side than right. The machine reads only full tenths so 0.2/0.3 is good and again dead center spec.

The quarter positive camber and castor RF is for the roads crown. Keeps it from climbing the crown and putting you into the on coming lane.

Toe is positive and dead center spec.

While you can't see it in this sheet the steer ahead and thrust angles are zero. On a flat piece of straight road I can take my hands off the wheel for over a mile and stay in my lane.

Some shops are good if each spec is in spec, Example of such an alignment might be:

Camber RF +.06 LF -1.0

Castor RF 1.5 LF 3.0 (cross castor would be near center spec even though this is really messed up)

Toe RF 0.0 LF -0.5

He isn't lying when he says it's in spec. It just isn't close to right.

This is how it left the factory. About as messed up as it can get. Both camber and castor are more positive right side, backward. Castor flat out of spec. Toe, steer ahead and look at that trust angle. (dog tracking). Amazingly this went down the road pretty straight. Why? Look at that castor!!!.

Grumpy Bear · September 20, 2019

Forgot to mention. I had castor set to the lower half. This helps calm the jar when you hit an expansion joint or a rail road track. Still centers itself after a turn. Think that's it. Sorry to be so scatter brained. YIKES!!