I apologize for re-posting it from other thread (which is almost a year old anyway), but maybe someone can shed a light on my little problem.

I need to do front wheel alignment on my GC 08' and I don't know if I can pick any auto shop around Toronto that does that or I need to find special one (like dealer or else)? The thing is that van is equipped with electronic stability control and I've read somewhere that it will need more than just simple wheel alignment. Maybe some wheel sensor resetting or something similar - so that system will know at any given moment at what angle are the wheels (maybe it's BS - I don't really know guys). Thanks!

P.S. I hit the cement pole (while backing up from parking lot) with my front left tire (the wheels were turned all the way to the right). So the van just bounced off from the pole - no damage to the body (since the tire touched the pole first and van stopped) or tire. However, my steering wheel is off center now - so I guess I will need alignment to fix it.

 

you BENT something. no alignment shop can align a vehicle with bent parts

 

Hmm... I'm going to check underneath again (it was all right at first look) more thoroughly this time. What could have possibly gone bad (bent)? The bump itself was very gentle - it's almost if you gently hit the curb with one wheel while parking. The car is not pulling to either side of the road - it goes perfectly straight. There is no abnormal sound or any leak. The only thing is steering wheel slightly (about 15 degrees) turned to the left - I mean to go straight I need to keep the wheel slightly turned left. I thought it was just misalignment due to bump.

 

you admitted you slightly "bumped" an object, and now your steering wheel isn't straight. so something is BENT!!!!!!! it only takes a very slight bend to toss the wheel out of whack and unless you are a trained chassis expert, you'll personally never see what it bent!!!


you can't just have it go out of alignment. the ONLY way something just goes out of alignment is if a part is bent or worn out. You obviously stated you hit something and now you're out of alignment. therefore something has to be not OEM straight anymore.

 

Check this link out ... I haven't used them but will in the near future.

http://www.limitlessauto.com/p.html

 

22mopar22 your are very logical and probably right, it's just that I'm desperately trying find some loophole to not spent big $$$ for bent part. I was hoping maybe the steering wheel just slipped a little bit or else.

2010SXT4.0L thanks for the link! $59.99 for 4wheels alignment - that's not bad! I'll try to check them. BTW do you think that they will be able to figure out what's BENT? (or they'll just do alignment and do not bother with everything else?)

 

turn into insurance you hit a pot hole. Don't got to some $60 alignment shop, all they'll do is set the toe and let it go. that doesn't fix the problem.

a proper alignment shop absolutely will find a bent part if they do the proper sequence of alignment test.

SAI, Included angle, toe out on turns, caster, camber, toe, thrust angle are all indicators used to find bent parts.

for example, I had a guy insist his car was fine, I set the toe and found that when I did toe-out-on turns it was way out of spec. when I investigated, I found the steering arm bent.

I had a car that SAI wouldn't pass but camber, caster, toe all dead on. SAI was caused by a bent upper control arm and someone slotted the control arm holes to compensate instead of replacing the bent arm.

 

22mopar22 thank you for the info! You seem to know the subject well. Could you please tell what can happen if I don't do it right away? I mean can I drive a week or so, until I'll have a time to deal with it or it is urgent? Suppose it's bent arm - is it dangerous on road? If it will just eat tire - I can live with it some time, but if it will cause excessive wear of power steering system or if it's just dangerous to drive than I'll have to do it right away. Thank you!

 

So if your wheels are not in proper alignment, besides chewing up a tire, how do you feel handling characteristics would be affected. What if the part that could be damaged breaks? What if you get on wet pavement or have to make an emergency maneuver and the vehicle doesn't respond as expected?. choice is yours, drive a know damaged vehicle or get it fixed. I just hope i'm not on the road near you.

 

I am sure that if you tell the alignment shop that you rubbed a curb , they will check to make sure nothing is bent as they would replace parts for the extra money. It is a business and I think they would want to do the job right.....Just because a place charges 60 compared to 200 doesn't mean the quality of work would be different....I took my van to 2 dealerships and they said it was witihn specs and the tire wear and wandering was still unreal.....under warranty of course.