Having SPC UCA's costs extra when doing an alignment

My truck's been at the dealership for a week now for the frame replacement. Toyota says normally the alignment is covered under the warranty but because I have SPC upper control arms they are charging me an additional $135 and because the upper ball joints have camber and caster adjustments they said it will take them much longer to do the alignment. I figured it would be a little extra but not this much! Here is one picture they sent me saying they're having issues with the control arm rubbing the tires. The tire size is 305/70-16 they are pretty big but I had no issues with icon uniballs coming close like this. I told them to try loosening the top nut and try rotating them. Once they did they called back and said they're no longer rubbing. They said they will have to put it on the alignment rack to see if they can even get it to align properly.

 

Kind of sounds like they don't know what they're doing. Some vehicles have this sort of adjustment from the factory, I wonder if they'd charge them extra for an alignment too? Good ol dealerships

Also looks like you could benefit from getting some spacers or different wheels.

 

I originally had Icon uca's with a uniball.
I would have left them on but I lowered the truck about an 1" in the front. the original owner had it maxed out at about 3" I didn't like the way the truck was steering not to mention the annoying bump steer along with some other issues so I dropped it 2" and it was a lot better but I couldn't get it to align because the Icon ucs's were not allowing me to get proper alignment. I had way too much + caster angle.

 

I have been debating lowering my truck in the front some too but was also worried about my caster being too far jacked to do it. I have the camburg uniball uppers.

 

Yeah, the way the front suspension geometry is set up on these trucks is the upper control arm moves rearward as the suspension compresses causing more positive caster. When we lift our trucks 2" and 3" the caster goes more negative. These aftermarket upper control arms are designed to compensate for that. When the truck is lowered you will no longer get proper alignment due to the control arms having too much caster.

 

Go somewhere else. An entire alignment costs half that.

 

And that pic you posted will give you WAY too much camber.

 

I had Toyota align mine with SPC UCAs and they charged me the standard price. I could see that if they were having issues with clearance due to your oversized tires, and they have to start taking things apart to fix it that it would cost more. $135 might seem like a lot, but that is typically a 1 hour shop rate charge at a dealer.

 

The SPC UCAs would've solved your bump steer issue at 3".

The trick with alignments is to set the UCA yourself and let the shop do the rest like a regular alignment.

 

I know that the SPC uac's would solve my bump steer issue at 3" lift but there was probably only an inch of downward travel due to the truck being so lifted so high. it just causes too much wear & tear on the drivetrain and other components that's why I decided to drop it down a bit. I couldn't go too far because my tires would rub.

 

So is there something different done when having spc uca. Because I just got mine installed by 4wp in Fresno. Should I go back to them when next alignment is due or the dealership is just as capable?

 

I wish I could find someone on Maui that did a good job aligning for half of $135. The best I've gotten was a mom and pop shop for $125 and they did a good job. Aligning a lifted truck with oversized tires most likely wont get done properly at a discount alignment shop unless you happen to know the tech that work there takes great pride in his job and knows what he or she is doing. If you've found one in your area, then that's actually pretty sweet. I just don't think that's applicable to everyone unfortunately.

CrashnBurn is right though, $135 falls pretty in line with what I've seen for an hour of labor at different shops. I definitely recommend looking around for other shops to do your alignment. Curious, so the alignment is under warranty; how much would you be paying minus the $135? If it's no charge at all and they are just tacking on $135 because they have to deal with an aftermarket upper control arm, it's hard to blame them even if it probably isn't going to take them an hour of work to actually adjust it. Those SPC's are incredibly easy to adjust, I use to have them on my 2001. Now if they're already charging you for an alignment under warranty and they want to add an extra $135, I'd tell em to pound sand and shop around. Either way, it doesn't hurt to call around and ask for alignment quotes, give them full disclosure of your upper control arms.