a little back story... i was changing out the front wheel bearing and one of the guys busted off the bolt that goes in the top of the tie rod stud. (i did start a thread about it earlier). well no biggy, i changed out the tie rod end and when i did this the steering wheel aims to the left when the car goes staright and when my hands arent on the wheel the car pulls to the right. well i drove it for a a day or two and adjusted it the other day. i had to screw the tie rod in like three revolutions just to get the steering wheel parralell, but the car still pulls to the right a little. so im bringing it into the vw dealship to get an alignment done for 90$. is this too much? anybody know something i can do to get this thing right?

 

go to firestone they have good deals. they have a 3 year for like $110 i think and lifetime for $150

 

A bit much, but if it's a 4-wheel alignment then it's not highway robbery (but still not cheap). I would never go to a dealer for an alignment, though.

 

yeah its a 4 wheel alignment. why would you say avoid the dealer? i am purposely going to the dealer because if somebuddy other than me is taking a wrench to my car, i want to make sure they know their ****. he did say it would take two hours though so if you break it down its 45 bucks an hour for shop labor, which isnt that bad. too bad there is no audi dealer in town though. nearest one is over an hour away.

 

I did the Firestone lifetime deal, had the car done in under an hour. When I asked about the lifetime alignment deal he told me I could bring the car in every day to align it if I wanted to. It's nice to know because of all the pot-holes here in NJ.

 

IMO, just because it's a dealer doesn't mean they're any better than any other mechanic. But I wouldn't take my car to a shade tree mechanic for an alignment, either. I'd go to a well known company like Direct Tire, etc. Firestone can be good, but not all of them are.

 

I took my car to the local Ford dealership

$55 for a 4-wheel using a laser machine.

 

damn know you guys got me double guessing my (what i thought was) very thought out and justified plan. on that lifetime alignment deal, is it only good for as long as you have your car or can you use it for other vehicles? cause i plan on gettin rid of the a4 next summer and upgrading to (you guessed it) b5 s4.

 

$90 damn thats a deal audi charged me 198. firestone or ntb will be cheaper, but if the camber is off they wont touch it because you need to move the whole engine cradle to zero in camber. id start by having a local place do a free alignment check then if the cambers good and toe is all that needs to be adjusted, go with one of those places.

 

lifetime for the vehicle only......