Wheel Alignment Heartburn

I have loved my 2005 Prius since I got it last October.

However, I now have that sick, sinking feeling in my stomach that comes from having to deal with a car dealer and a major warranty repair. Here's the deal:

A couple of weeks ago, on a road trip, my wife let the left wheels drift off the pavement as we were slowly driving out of a rest area on I-95. There was about a 4-inch "shelf" that she pulled back onto rather abruptly. Urp! Disconcerting, but not major.

Later on in the same trip, my daughter took a right turn a bit too sharply and drove up onto the curb of a traffic island. Urp! again, but again, not major.

Because of these two little Urp! moments, I decided to get my wheels aligned. My Toyota dealer told me they have no alignment tech, so I'd need to take it to an independent tire and alignment shop. I did so this past Friday: took it to my local Merchant's Tire in Vienna, VA, where I've had lots of this kind of work done before.

When Merchant's finished with my car, they showed me the alignment readouts. My front wheels were indeed a little bit out, and they were able to align them easily.

But the alignment tech told me that the rear end was apparently bent, both wheels, so much so that they could not align the rear wheels within the specs.

When I told him about the two little "Urp!" moments, plus a very, very light rear-ending I suffered (2-3 MPH, just enough to push me gently, not enough for a body shop to find any damage), the tech told me that my situation was not at all consistent with this kind of damage.

Rather, he suggested, the car might have been dropped hard on the pavement somewhere along the delivery chain on its way to the dealer and me. He said he wouldn't be surprised to see such damage in a car with 100,000+ miles on it, but not on one with 17,000. He suggested I go to the dealer and "see what they say." He also said that the present rear-end alignment of my car is "unacceptable."

So I have an appointment at my dealer for two days from today, Monday, and I am absolutely dreading having to convince them that the car was bent out of alignment when they delivered it to me.

Anybody got any thoughts/advice/suggestions?

Dave

 

I've got an extra copy of his alignment printout already made, plus a typed-up review of all the things he told me (a rather more detailed version of what I posted here).

Well, the alignment tech's point was that the "out-of-align" condition is not consistent with either of the two "urp" moments we had.

I must say I don't know enough about alignment to know what you mean by the wheels bending before the suspension. Part of my problem is that I don't know what to tell Toyota is "bent."

But here are the figures for my rear alignment. In both wheels it is the toe that is out of line:

Specified range is -.03 deg. to .28 deg.

Left rear:
Before alignment attempt was .34 deg, after was .33

Right rear:
Before was .45 deg, after is .45 deg.

All other alignment numbers are now within specs.

Can you all tell me what these numbers mean or imply?

Dave

 

Yeah, well, that's the thing: I didn't think at all about a 12K mile alignment warranty, because it seemed to be driving just fine. I'd never have had the alignment checked at all if my wife and daughter hadn't driven over a curb or a pavement offset.

Who routinely goes to have their alignment checked with less than 12K on a car?

Well, when I called my dealer, a service writer told me specifically that they did not have an alignment tech on premises, and that I'd have to take the car to an independent shop--which I did.

Man! This makes me sick! I now know that I'm driving a car with the rear end seriously out of line, and that it will probably cost big bucks to fix, and that I didn't do anything at all to knock it out...and I can't prove I didn't do anything to it. All I have is the spoken word of the alignment tech at that other shop.

Dave