ergo Posted August 23, 2012 Share Posted August 23, 2012 Is AWD(Subaru)wheel alignment less stable than others? I had my 2000 Legacy's wheels aligned 11 months ago and now it's tires are wearing more wierdly(inside wear) again. I'm very careful about going slowly over speed bumps and the like and not ramming the tires into the curb but alignment still needs attention again. My FWD and RWD cars all have all gone tens of thousands of miles before needing alignment attention. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikaleda Posted August 23, 2012 Share Posted August 23, 2012 (edited) im not an expert but i can tell you i have five awd subies at my house and none of them have ever needed to be re-alined before 10k they have all gone at least 10k on one alignment and i live on a bumpy dirt road one of them just got is first alignment at 90k (since we bought it that is) one thing you can check is to see if your steering rack boots are ripped that could cause contaminants to get in and were out the steering gears so your alignment gets messed up Edited August 23, 2012 by mikaleda Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnceggleston Posted August 23, 2012 Share Posted August 23, 2012 (edited) who did the alignment? fronts wearing or rear too? i had 3 alignments done on my 97 GT in 19 months at merchants tire and they were all wrong. ended up eating up the tires. and i made them pay back all the money i spent . i didn't however get them to replace the tires. they were old and came on the car when i bought it. but i should have. here's why they did it wrong: the software on the alignment computer told the tech that the camber was out on the front but in order to adjust the cam you had to buy after market cam bolts. (true for the rear not the front.) the tech didn't know any better. and he didn't look to see if there were cam bolts on the knuckle. i watched him do it the last time and showed him the adjustments. so if the guy who did yours is as useless as the guy who did mine, that could be your problem. although it was relly the fault of the software. Edited August 23, 2012 by johnceggleston Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1 Lucky Texan Posted August 23, 2012 Share Posted August 23, 2012 worn steering/suspension components may be allowing too much 'toe in' while accelerating/driving. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ergo Posted August 23, 2012 Author Share Posted August 23, 2012 My 2000 Legacy doesn't have that many miles on it (less than 68 k) so it's not likely that suspension is worn. The outfit that did the alignment told me that they regularly have their system recalibrated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1 Lucky Texan Posted August 23, 2012 Share Posted August 23, 2012 My 2000 Legacy doesn't have that many miles on it (less than 68 k)so it's not likely that suspension is worn. The outfit that did the alignment told me that they regularly have their system recalibrated. my wife's car needed a strut at 65K. It has 70k now and needs a lower control arm bushing. Just depends - low miles BUT with lots of secondary road and start-stop type driving is very stressful on a car. so, if that 2000, sat for 5 days a week, that's one thing, but if it went to the grocery store, came home, went to elementary sscool, came home, went to middle school, came home, went to high school, took a kid to karate practice, stopped by the drugstore, came home, went to Burger King, came home, picked up a kid from karate practice, stopped for ice cream , came home - 5 days a week....that's a lot of brake, suspension and steering wear but low miles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nipper Posted August 23, 2012 Share Posted August 23, 2012 Cars are made to be driven, and low mileage cars can be more troublesome then high mileage ones. How old are the tires. The struts can be tired, there can be tired rubber parts. There is no reason for the alignment to go out unless you hit something hard, so there may be a component failing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caboobaroo Posted August 23, 2012 Share Posted August 23, 2012 Take it to someone that knows what they're doing. Most chain shops don't have a knowledgable person doing them which is probably why you're having issues. I'm a Subaru alignment specialist and have done thousands of Subaru alignments and never had issues unless there was worn suspension/steering components. If you have a printout from the alignment shop, please post up the before and after specs they gave you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fairtax4me Posted August 24, 2012 Share Posted August 24, 2012 Legacy L, GT, and Legacy Outback models have different camber specs. If they selected the wrong vehicle type in the alignment program they could have set the adjustments incorrectly on the car. What kind of shop did you take it to? Often, even though they are more expensive, a dealership will be better able to correctly align the car since they primarily do Subarus. But that doesn't mean they'll get it right every time. The machines calibration could be off as well. It might have been several months since the shop had the machine properly serviced. The specs could be incorrect in the alignment program they use, or they just did it wrong. You could take it back to the shop that did it and see if they will correct the alignment, but you might have waited too long. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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