How long should an alignment hold..

had my truck in for service today, apparently my right front wheel is out of alignment. This same one was out of alignment in February and they 'fixed' it. certainly haven't driven it hard (16000 kilometers between then). Alignment was also out after the first 8k (bought new, may 2014). Seems a little too often to me, and I don't wheel it at all..thoughts?

Oh and the dealer wouldn't rotate tires cause of plastidip... guess they'll be explaining why they charged me in the past to do it if they 'cant'

 

Should hold forever unless something is loose, broken, or you've hit a giant pothole

 

Hang them out to dry bro.

 

All 5 free services my plastidipped rims got rotated

 

6 years, 175,000 miles, never needed an alignment, never changed any steering components, never wore tires, and averaged 45,000 miles per tire change after I got rid of the crappy OEMs.

To answer your question, Toyota cars and trucks are great at holding an alignment. Same goes for my 2 Camrys.

 

Thats saying something pittsburge roads are shit

 

Once your alignment tabs are bent...

 

Yep, I agree.

 

Wheel alignments are one of the most oversold services.

 

It depends where you live. If your roads are shit and filled with potholes and such, alignments are a routine necessity.

 

IMO, only need an alignment if you have a steering problem

 

No problem= no need to fix what ain't broke. I only get it done if I notice an issue such as pulling or uneven wear

 

A lot of times shops get aggressive with the call for alignments, its possible they are seeing old wear from the alignment previously.

I would do a diagonal rotation and see if the wear appears on the former opposite side tires.

The eccentrics on the control arms do come loose, but usually its on lifted trucks that needed major adjustments and they are typically driven on service roads.

 

Your tires will tell when you need an alignment.

 

yeah..NO! If the nuts are torqued properly, the eccentrics shouldn't be moving at all. I have a tab missing and alignment is fine, and it has been wheeled hard in Moab.

 

A properly aligned front end should last indefinitely as long as it isn't knocked out from and impact or from wear on various items such as bearings, ball joints, tie rods and so forth...

Part of ( and very important ) is properly torquing the nuts and bolts holding everything in line. It sounds like somebody skipped this step.

Other than getting an alignment check when getting new tires, the last time I needed an alignment was on my wife's 1988 Camry, from a huge pothole.

 

try swapping your tires left to right. might be a tire problem if you have cheap or uneven wear on the fronts. alignment only goes straight if your tires are in good condition and has even wear.

 

I'm glad that my joke went over your head, for your sake. In my personal experience, having bent tabs, any visible rust on eccentrics, or even blue sharpie on the eccentrics will cause 7 out of 10 alignment shops to feed you some bullshit spiel about why they can't align your vehicle, or why their "alignment" didn't last out of the parking lot. I have been through the ringer with alignment shops, the excuses are fucking endless. I have literally loosened all eccentrics and tie rods in a firestone parking lot, taken the truck in, told them it was all loosened before hand, then 90min later they give me the truck back having BOTH: made the alignment worse, AND claiming that all the eccentrics were seized. This part of the OP is what stood out to me as being shop-talk excuses and BS:

"Alignment" is a bullshit industry. As previously stated, it is a vastly oversold pseudo-commodity.