Any Shop guys who do alignment? need some advice

[Charn Gill]

So my car was at Kal Tire today (not much options up north) to install front and rear camber kit and alignment etc etc.
 car was there for most of the day and when they called me to pick it up saying it was done, the guy who had worked on my vehicle had gone for the day and i was in a rush. long story short i picked up a front and rear camber kit. same one from the pic

 the shims and the screws are the ones that get installed on the rear.

so when i picked up my car a few hour later i went to go look at what was done and i cant see any shims in the back. not even the new screws were used. in the front you can see the screws the sleeve and the bushing thingy. but in the back no new screws, no shims used to adjust the camber, nada.. pics included for your viewing pleasure

Also i received a vehicle alignment report and I just want to know if any adjusting was actually done or could more have been done? any alignment experts out there who might know a thing or two?
Also I didn't get the box back or any unused parts.  im pretty sure nothing was done for my rear camber yet i was charged for it...


you can see the fronts have the new shiny bolts and the bushing thingy installed, but absolutely nothing was done to the rear..
so before i go back and bitch at the guy for possibly not doing his job, i just wanna make sure i have all the facts.


Thanks for any input you guys!!

[Brett Haviland]

im a certified red seal mechanic and do custom alignments and kit installs at work all the time.

yup... looks like a problem there.  First of all, the cheapo style of front camber kit you got are no good.  used them a few times and they do not offere enough adjustment to fix really any lowering kit.  also after a year they usually fall apart and start clunking and the job just has to be redone all over again.  They definalty installed your camber "bushings" in the front and set them up for max adjustment, but the camber is still way way out of specs.  it will still wear front tires on the inner edges.  With the proper ingalls kit's i recommended you would have been able to get it back in spec and not wear tires.  but i guess the cost of those were too much.  either way, they set the toe on the front, and installed the customer supplied parts, so kal tire is not at fault for anything there.

As for the rears, it looks like they didn't do anything at all for camber. (probably because they spent there time installing that style of labour intensive front style camber kit (press out old and new bushings) and didn't have enough time with the price they quoted to screw around with the rear, maybe also the bolts were seized... And also, as with the front, it shows on the printout as being out of spec as well (as far as camber) on the rear as well.

So now, you have paid for parts that wont work, and do what you wanted (besides the rear kit should have worked if installed)... and also you will have to re-do the whole alignment again (toe and camber settings) after you get the parts installed that will work they way you want them to and to have a car that will not wear tires in the end.


Its too bad you don't live nearer to Chilliwack.  I could have got the job done right, the first time.

[Charn Gill]

thanks for the info brett. i got it sorted out. I understand that the kit I purchased probably wasnt the best to get the job done right. but i got it for cheap off CL Kal tire charged me twice for labour for a camber install for the front and then again for the rear. which they didnt even touch. So I got a refund for the rear install that was not done. they also gave me my parts back. i ended up going to another place and the mechanic there installed my rear camber kit and got my rear camber within spec and realigned my vehicle saying that my toe was still out and that the alignment job that kal tire did was shitty and to take my new alignment page back to them and ask for a refund. which i did and i got.  So agreed that i probably didnt get the best parts for the job but it seems that kal tire didnt give two shits to inform me about what they could do and couldnt do.. but still charged me full price for everything including the job that they didnt do. that still left me with a bad experience at that particular kal tire. just shitty service all around. even when i asked the tech if he installed my camber kit he flay out said yes. and then i asked him to show me where he installed the rears, then he finally said "oh yeah i didnt install those cause the vehicle didnt need them"..

[Brett Haviland]

yeah, you gotta be carefull!  At least you got your money back.  Helps to have someone that knows what they are doing for sure.