Front End Alignment

I just had new struts replaced and an alignment done to my 94 GA. Itcost me a total of $240. Now here is my question....i was informed that I also have a bad ball joint (reciept says tie rod end though). How would this affect the new alignment. I ask because now my car drifts to the passenger side when you let go of the sterring wheel (which it did not do before). Would the bad ball joint or tie rod end still keep it that far out of alignment when one was just done? Or did they botch up the alignment?

When you have either of those problems the car can't be aligned to stay straight. So to answer your question yes the car can go out of alignment right after it's been aligned when the ball joints or tie rod ends are bad. To visualize it imagine trying to align the car so when the car is going straight the steering wheel is straight but the hitch is the steering wheel has 30 degrees of play so even when you set everything up perfect you can still turn the wheel a bit in either direction without the wheels moving at all. Not the best example but close because when the ball joint or tie rod ends go bad they introduce play which only gets worse over time.

To clarify my last post, it was pulling to one side immediately after leaving the garage from the alignment being done.

Like Cat states, a bad ball joint, which is usually located on the tie rod end, will send your align. west. Although, it shouldn't pull as bad as you seem to describe, unless it really whacked.

If I recall correctly, the struts are part of the align. process on the '94's. Is it possible the shop may have misaligned the struts to compensate for the slop in the ball-joint? :confused: :screwy:

I would be willing to bet on the tierod end being shot, my 96 GAGT did the same thing when the TRE went bad It is a piss poor set up the threads become stripped under the strain on the front end the mechanic told me that he has replaced many of them on the GA's. The good news is that the replacement part seems to hold up.

It could be a bad ball joint also, but the frequency of the tierod ends going bad and the fact that it is a cheaper part, I hope for your sake it's a TRE.

Good luck.

well the verdict is in on what was wrong with the front end....it had 2 bad inner tie rod ends. They got fixed (another $105) and the garage let go the price of the alignment. When the car went in on sunday, they charged me for the alignment but never did it because of the tie rod ends. Well they refunded for the alignment and then did a free one when the ends were put one (because of the mix up). Suffice it to say, the car is now 99% fixed and back on the road. It still needs heater core but I will do that myself.
Thanks for all the responses! I appreciate all the help.

By the way total prices for the work being done at Pep Boys:
2 Front Struts and alignment.....$333
2 new inner tie rod ends.....$101
and refunded $68 for the alignment

Total for parts and labor....$366

Cool, glad ya got it taken care of, sounds like Pep Boys missed the boat somewhere, but at least they took care of ya.

I am also glad you got to the root of the problem, just be glad it wasn't the balls...that gets to be costly. Like Knife said even though they messed up at least they made good to a degree. Most important the ride is back on the road. Keep your eye on the new tierod ends, like I said in my pervious post I had mine replaced on the right side a while back I havent had any problems and the mechanic said the replacements where much better but he did say that they have replaced quite a few on the Grand Am, not many replacements of the new ones, but I'm still watching them.

Good luck,