NW WA Meet / BS Thread

Burien Firestone. Renton highland bent my cam tabs over But they made it right.

 

Shit, they broke mine off! What did you say to them?

 

they owned up to it actually.. and because they couldnt get it in the caster range i wanted. I'm guessing the alignment tech started cranking on the cams before loosing up the bolt. anyways, they sub it out to midas or some local shop in the area to do the weld. get it in writing too.

 

that's a pretty common issue, just drop a small bead behind the tabs and call it good.

 

Can I replace a tab with a bead?

 

I don't see why not, its just a point for the cam to push off of. You can get a small piece of 1/4" steel and weld it there, then put a tac behind each of the factory tabs.

I bent one of mine hitting a tree, then when i did an alignment it bent completely flat, used a punch to put it back in place and tacked them and it hasn't moved. I did mine with the LCA still attached, just put a really wet cloth on the bushings so they didn't melt.

 

Way south end Tacoma mall has a pretty god alignment guy. Only on certain days, but gets +3 and doesn’t bitch about it.

 

February Monthly Meet:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/february-2018-seattle-area-meet.529184/

 

I've been to the Kent, Renton and Renton highlands one. There's a tech who knows his stuff at the Kent one, and the other 2 were meh. I've done my alignment like 4 times already in 1.5 years and so far the Kent one seemed the best. There's a manager who works at both Renton who sucks; so I just go to the Kent one now.

 

I think his name is Kevin? If so, yeah, he's a dip shit.

I want to say the guy I typically use is named John. There have been weeks when I go in 2-3 times while replacing parts and no one complains.

 

Cant remember, only his looks. Bigger dude, glasses I think. But he was like "nope can't do that". Uh, yes the fuck you can. Not to mention I have adjustable camber in my UCAS but I don't want them to mess with it now that it's dialed in now.

On a different note, anyone have experience with ebay or off brand light bars?

This is supposedly supposed to be 36000 lumens. $99 bucks. You get what you pay for right?

https://www.protuninglab.com/50in48...ooglepepla&utm_medium=adwords&id=140849709898

 

My buddy got a 42" off eBay for under $100 3yrs ago, just started fogging up this last few weeks and 3 LEDs went out also. Can't remember the brand.

 

I watched a youtube vid where the guy showed that they were overdriving cheaper chips to give more output and also highly inflating the stats. Like instead using 3 watt LEDs as advertised they were overdriving 1 watt LEDs to 1.5. Makes sense why a few of your buddy's LEDs went out when they're supposed to last 40-50k hours.

Maybe I'll just get an auxbeam one, which comes from the same manufacturer as caliraised that people seem to like here...

https://www.auxbeam.com/led-light-b...-size[40inch,50inch],13-shape[Bar,Curved Bar]

 

Hm... different guy. Maybe the one I am thinking of just calls himself the manager. I wouldn't be surprised. Older skinny fella.

The boys in the Highlands gave me grief ONCE about coming in too often and I asked them to show me where the lifetime alignment had a max number of uses. They couldn't, and then told me I have to pay some fee for having aftermarket components. Asked to speak to the manager and the older fella came out, apologized, and had it aligned to the spec I had requested.

Their appointment system is a joke, but they do solid work (in my experience). The 3-4 people I have referred have had no issues, other than Sam's alignment tab.

I usually don't even make an appointment. Don't think I've ever waited more than two hours. 5 Hermanos is across the street. I don't hate hanging out there while I wait.

 

Uh, Kari Byron

 

Thank you.

 

Yeah, their appointments just mean "somewhere within 2.5 hours." I just can't seem to find any firestone that can push my wheels forward enough. Best I got was 2.85 and 3.85. Driver's side seems to be stubborn. I can set my UCA to have more caster, but I want the clearance in the rear. I still have a little rub when reversing while turning and when stuffed (no CMC yet). I need like a magic phrase to tell these guys so I can have at least 3 on both sides with 0 camber and toe.

 

So...I guess that is what they mean by getting a little tail?

 

To get Firestone to get close to the numbers I wanted, I had to actually remove caster from my UCAs (pushing the top of the suspension forward) before taking it in. This forced the guy to dial the lower adjustments more forward to match. Then when I got home all I had to do is add the caster back in on my UCAs. Not a great solution, but close enough for me.

Of course I also think I was "close enough" with my diy driveway alignment, but Firestone got the numbers dialed in a little closer than I could with my limited tools.

 

so ever since I had caster added to my truck it pulls to the right and nobody can seem to fix it. I heard that if you put more caster on one side it could fix it. Has anyone heard of this? I think if it pulls to the right then you add more caster on the right and less on left. The suspension has been removed and reinstalled like 5 times since then and everything always gets torqued down correctly.