Hi guys,

I got told that aligment have to be done at the dealer or I am wasting money on nothing.
all other aligment shops align from outside of the rim and mini dealer align from middle of spokes. is this true? am I wasting my money if i get it done in other shops? but the dealer charge like 350 just for aligment and indivisual shops charge 150 the max. let me know where you get your aligment done!

 

Who told you this, the dealer? Any shop (worth a salt) can do the alignment or recommend a place that can.

 

Wow, thats the first of heard of the alignment being done from the middle of spokes. Now the professionals have been doing this for so long aligning wheels from the outside, why or how could you align the wheels from the middle?

 

Never heard of this myself, but I am not an alignment specialist. Good question...

 

To the OP any alignment shop can do the alignment. It does NOT have to be done by the dealer.

For the rest of you.

BMW has for a long time done the alignment on the HUB rather than the actual RIM.

Take a look at any OEM BMW or MINI rim and you will find small holes that go all the way thru the rim near the center hole. These are there for the BMW alignment machine to have pins go thru the rim and touch the hub. Alignment is done off of that.

Is it a better way than attaching to the rim, I don't know the answer to that. But BMW states it takes away any bent rim issues and aligns the suspension to what it is supposed to be.

I have mine done at a shop in central Mass and he has refused to put certain rims on my car due to them being out of round or bent. This is checked by his balance machine and if the rims are correct then doing the alignment IMHO by mounting to the rim rather than the hub is just fine.

Now I will say this not all shops do the alignment properly. The car is to be wieghted down with a certain amount of weight in each front floor and in the rear so as to show the proper load of the car for the alignment specs. Measurements are to be made at each corner of the car to make sure that the car is sitting at the proper height for the alignment as well with the weights in the car.

Of course none of this applies if the car is not running a stock suspension or ride height.

 

Thanks for that explanation, that really was interesting. I'll have to look into that myself. I never heard of it but definitely makes sense why they would measure from the Hub rather than the bent rim. But now that you mentioned about this, something comes into mind when I remember they put something on the middle of my wheel which I've seen when they aligned my Nissan Maxima years ago because I complained it was not straight while driving on a level surface. I think he used this method over the rim method because he might have thought the wheel was bent. Oh well, thanks again!

 

I'll add that finding a GOOD alignment shop is like finding a good dentist. There are lots of 'em out there and one in 100 is a GOOD place.

While the equipment is fancy and highly automated today there's still MUCH to be said about an experienced operator who gives a hoot versus the high school kid working part time.

This is also NOT an endorsement for the dealer who may not even have equipment, but drives your car down the street to a place that does . . .

If you really care, ask around the other car enthusiasts. Folks who care about their hot rides know the good places which may be little holes in the wall on back alleys . . .

I had a guy for a time which was the place all the area amateur racers brought their cars. He ran a small shop, packed with first rate equipment, did all the work himself or under his close supervision and charged no more that the local tire stores . . .

They're out there if you are willing to look . . .

 

Nothing super special about our suspensions that a good alignment shop can't do. Dealer is blowing smoke.

 

Hm...so at the dealer alignment from the center is some what true huh? but it doesn't have done only at the dealer. that ****..I could smell he was trying to rip me off. thats crazzzzy. I am in search of ghood aligment shop right now.

 

LOL, usually dealerships have no alignment station. They just send them out to a local place and add money to the cost.

Go to a good local place and don't worry about it.

 

Wait then.. is this mean dealer can do aligment on bent rims??

 

Now you know how much to believe what your dealer tells you!

 

Just look for a shop that is known to do good alignments. I have been getting mine done by someone other than the dealership since day one. The shop I use only charges $65 and probably does the best job of anyone in town. I price shopped a bit and one shop wanted $350 plus for a "6 month alignment"...

 

BMW does have some strange ways to align their cars. For example the E36 needed to be weighed down by lead filled bags before the alignment was done.

I have seen the machine that my BMW/MINI dealer has for alignments, its much different than the one we used at the dealer I worked at and that one is only about 5 years old now.

 

My E39 is the same way and so it the MINI to get the proper alignment the cars needs to be weighted properly. There are also height measurements that are to be taken at each wheel well to make sure the car is sitting at the proper height.

In reality there are many other cars that are supposed to be weighted as well but most alignment shops do not do it.

 

I recently had an alignment done at a shop and they did not add weight. I also did not see them take any height measurements.

They attached some mirror/reflector devices to the perimeter of each rim and adjusted it while looking at readouts on a computer.

I wonder how far off the alignment is when done without weighting. Could this result in excessive tread wear or other handling issues?

 

I went to the dealer for a noise problem that turned out to be a bad wheel bearing. They aligned it just to make sure nothing else was wrong (at no charge). They weighted the car and made sure it was at the right height. They said the alignment was way out of spec so either it does make a difference to use factory equipment and weight the car or the shop where I had it aligned two months earlier did a bad job.