4 wheel alignment

[USAFbuckeye]

Is the dealer the only place you'd trust to align your LR3, or can you trust a tire shop?

 

[ryan-in-oregon]

The air suspension needs to be put into an alignment mode prior to the alignment. All this really does is tighten up the tolerances for wheel position thus a more precision alignment. I tried my local tire shop twice and they couldn't even get it close so I just took it to the dealer...With the faultmate I can now place it into that mode so I may try them again for the next time...

 

[e24kgold]

There are only two shops I trust to even put my LR3 on a lift. 1. my indy (who i trust) 2. The Dealer

 

[Count Laszlo]

I wouldn't even trust a tire shop with a Honda. They can put on tires pretty well (you can train any high-school student to do that) but when it comes to four-wheel alignment, especially something like a LR, I'd take it to a good indy or dealer, rather than trust a tire shop to do the job correctly.

 

[dry_fly]

most tire shops are not able to do an alignment on the rover since the don't have the computer to put it into the proper setting.

 

[USAFbuckeye]

Thanks for the advice everyone. Still one of the things only the dealer can do...

 

[Rix92x]

Not to jack his thread but I have an additional question....
Placing the truck into access mode is not the same as an "actual alignment setting" for the air suspension?
I let Firestone try it last year, but the dealership told me 3 months later, it was still out of alignment on the left rear...at least the dealership did it again for free-I grew a little testy since they had just doen it less than a year prior and politely insisted they rectify this issue without further cost to me....and the obliged

 

[ryan-in-oregon]

Not to jack his thread but I have an additional question....
Placing the truck into access mode is not the same as an "actual alignment setting" for the air suspension?
I let Firestone try it last year, but the dealership told me 3 months later, it was still out of alignment on the left rear...at least the dealership did it again for free-I grew a little testy since they had just doen it less than a year prior and politely insisted they rectify this issue without further cost to me....and the obliged

For any alignment you want the vehicle at normal ride height with the normal load (ie if the driver is 250lbs you want 250lbs in the seat) Same goes for passenger seats if you "normally" have passengers. Setting the alignment at access height simply puts the suspension out of position during alignment. The "tight tolerance" mode actually tightens the tolerances seen by the sensors to make the rig more consistant in its stance and there for more accurate for the alignment. This is actually important because as the wheel goes up and down it doesn't move in a straight line, toe and camber actually increase/decrease dependant on wheel position.

 

[USAFbuckeye]

I remember printing out the article Nwoods complied and taking it to my dealer. They said it didn't apply to my model year or vin. They performed an aligment nonetheless, but it still had cupping issue on the inner most edges of the tires.

 

[hell pie]

Here are a couple of alignment related pdf's for the LR3, courtesy of the folks at disco3. The first is for the actual alignment procedure, while the other two are for the front and rear alignment tolerances.