Norcal Spotted and BS Thread

That's too much. Really.

 

Its still badass bro.

 

I've had the lifetime alignment for about 8 years. Dozens of alignments and have never been told they don’t do lifted trucks.
It could be that one store.
They suck for other reasons like Ferny mentioned.

 

Anyone know a shop in Sac area that can max caster? Had firestone but went to StellarBuilt for their ‘offroad’ alignment. Asked them to max caster which they said they did, but the numbers show they actually lowered caster on both sides to ‘keep it in spec’ and the ‘best they could do’ Not too happy as they seemed to understand what I needed but now I’m rubbing the cmc even more.

 

Awww shucks, turns out to get the evap sensor she just needed some off road time, pewpew and puppy slobber

 

I'm pretty sure I went to alignment specialties. They maxed my caster and he has a 2nd gen taco with icons. I think this is the place. It was like 3 years ago and I should probably go again with all the work I did. He even adjusted my preload to remedy to taco lean

 

I mean for the thief. What a tosser.

 

Maybe. But the dude was pretty adamant about no lifted trucks and pretty adamant that Firestone didn't either.

I went down the street. In and out. It's not perfect but it's a lot better than it was.

 

the one in north highlands in Roseville road? That’s by my FILs place. I’ll try and give them a call next time I’m in the area. Might even go back to firestone since I have lifetime to fix what stellar changed. I really only needed the passenger side re-aligned since I lowered the preload a little bit. Upset with stellar that they took off caster when I asked to max it as much as they could. Went from 3.8* to 3 on driver and 3.6* to 3.1* passenger IIRC. That was them ‘maxing’ caster. Waste of $100.

 

You’re probably better off.

Ive had a lot of just shitty service and stupid long wait times that I really don’t want to go back to any of their locations. The lifetime alignment thing paid for itself a long time ago. It’s time for me to move on.

 

Well here's the old set tires. Set of 5 - 285/75/16 E-load... lowest tire measures 11/32 and new is 18/32 so they are about at 60% tread. Let me know if anyone is interested.

 

How much you looking for?

 

Here is the correct spot!

ProTech Auto
3245 Elkhorn Blvd #11, North Highlands, CA 95660

 

search for Toyota drive cycle you may find other answers but this link looked helpful. It’s a bit of trial and error but both warm and cold cycles may be needed.
https://www.monkeywrenchracing.com/toyota-emissions-readiness-procedure/

 

My auto surgeon in roseville. Have heard nothing but great things. I made an appointment and were honest from the beginning. They would not even align it because i had too much play. Any other shop woulda done what firestone did on my civic. @Speedo uses them too

 

Today is already dumb as hell. My vacation next week can't come soon enough. Pretty sure my boss just quit...oof.

 

It's super hit or miss with Firestone. I had them trained up at the one in San Rafael to do my "weird" alignments with my SPC's but then that shop closed. It's a real bummer because their techs were super cool and would let me hang out in the shop with them to make sure I got what I wanted. Now I've got the one up in Santa Rosa trained up. It took them two tries, and one pissed off tech, but they fortunately have one really good tech there who actually gets what we're trying to do and will listen. They did try to give me grief about the lifetime alignments being only for periodic checks and not for really having to adjust things. I said, well that's not what was sold to me and there's nothing in the contract that says anything to that effect, and since they messed up my last alignment so badly they needed to fix it so I could actually drive my truck. They ended up being cool about it, but it definitely takes some persuasion and some may flat out refuse to do it because it's not worth their time.

I also learned from the manager that all the techs there are contractors and they get paid hourly by the franchise. They make more if the job comes in under the time the job SHOULD take, and less if it's over. It's such a corporate production mentality that they don't want to take jobs that aren't sure to make them money. I've gotten my moneys worth out of the lifetime alignments now too, but it's always a battle. I might go back again, but it sure would be nice to have a shop that just listens to what I want and doesn't worry so much about what the computer says.

 

I was thinking 600

 

It sounds like the techs are paid flat rate and not hourly. I can tell you that both pay scales have advantages and disadvantages. But if the book rate for a job is 30 minutes and you can do it in 15, you win and the shop wins. If it takes you 38 minutes, you work for free those eight minutes.

Hourly employees are paid from the time the clock in until the clock out.

Ive had techs refuse work because it will take them longer than allowed. The reality is, it takes time to learn. I also have had Techs who just know how things work and how to get the job done without compromise and through their own efficiency-they almost always meet their numbers and earn bonuses. Not always, especially when assigned diagnostic work.

If you pay by the hour, efficiency usually goes down which is bad for the shop.

Anyway, those are the two basic ways a
Shop pays. There are variations for sure. And in California at least, there’s a push away from flat rate and toward hourly because of the way minimum wage is calculated.