[s-cars] Alignment shops in NJ?

[Fred Munro]

Well, I'd say that shop definitely has lots of experience with Audis :o).

Yes, the fasteners seize up, particularly the front tie-rod adjusters. IMO
part of the problem is the shop not understanding the adjuster design. The
adjuster uses a compression sleeve which the locknut compresses to lock the
thread to the adjuster body. If the shop just loosens the locknut, the
compression sleeve is still holding the adjuster locked. You have to whack
the compression sleeve loose or rattle it loose with an air hammer to free
up the adjuster. I watched a hapless CTC mechanic struggle with my old '86
5ktq until I finally took pity on him and strolled over to explain how the
locking system worked. Piece of cake after that. He did slop grease all over
the adjuster when he was done :o)

Having said that, tie rod end replacement is one job I always take in to the
dealer. The last one I had done ('91 200q) took the mechanic 2 hours, about
30 minutes of that with a flame wrench. Man, that guy had an extensive
vocabulary. Obviously well educated - a lot of his cuss words were more than
4 letters in length! They only charged me 1/2 hour labour, bless them.

HTH

Fred Munro
'94 S4


-----Original Message-----
From: s-car-list-admin at audifans.com
[mailto:s-car-list-admin at audifans.com]On Behalf Of CL Wong
Sent: November 1, 2002 9:59 PM
To: Audi s-car list
Subject: [s-cars] Alignment shops in NJ?


Since there's been a few posts from listers in NJ, I
thought I would throw out this question:

Going to need new tires soon and I figure I'm due for
an alignment too.  The shop I was planning on doing
this work (Precision Tire and Wheel in Paramus NJ)
tells me they will have to charge me by the hour to
align my 200Q 20v due to their past experiences with
frozen fasteners on the older Audis with a minimum
charge of $70, I think (I guess this is in case they
manage to complete the alignment in under an hour).

Does this sound fair or ridiculous?  They seemed
pretty good whenever I've dealt with them for petty
stuff and I know they're popular with the BMW crowd.

So are there any worthy shops in Northern NJ?   Taka
mentioned a place in Montclair but I can't find
anything on them.

(I live in Rockland NY but there's NOTHING here)

Thanks,

Chi
200Q20v w/ BIRA sys2-UFO

__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Y! Web Hosting - Let the expert host your web site
http://webhosting.yahoo.com/
_______________________________________________
S-CAR-List mailing list
S-CAR-List at audifans.com
http://www.audifans.com/mailman/listinfo/s-car-list