Dealership wheel alignment dilemma

[Blue)(Fusion]

Last Wednesday I took my car in to my local Lincoln/Mercury dealership to get a wheel alignment. My reasoning for the wheel alignment was because my passenger side front wheel appeared to have quite a bit of toe out. My previous wheel alignment was at a different dealer when I had all 4 ball joints replaced 2 years ago.

The dealer service rep they told me that I had play in the outer tie rod on my passenger side wheel. I opted to not pay the $450 to replace the part and do it myself. Since I figured that tire was toed way out and I didn't recall the play being much when I wiggled the wheels when I installed new ones a month ago, I opted to just get the alignment done and I'll replace the part and bring it back in the coming weeks.

Upon getting home, I noticed that the wheel STILL appeared to be toed out like it was before. I figured their alignment machine MUST know better than my untrained eyes. But I did notice that although they sprayed some penetrating oil on the inner tie rod of the driver side, the sleeve clamp bolts were otherwise untouched and no other adjustments seemed to have been made.

Through some luck, I actually got a brand new Motorcraft outer tie rod and idler arm completely free. I replaced those two components yesterday on a friend's lift.

After putting in the new parts and while on the lift, we decided to do an adjustment by eye on that wheel, because even he noted it was toed out an easily recognizable amount. After a full turn and a half of the adjustment sleeve we tightened it back down and I was on my way.

Today I got an alignment at a different, Ford dealer because the LM dealer was closed. I also asked for a before and after sheet which they provided.

Surprisingly, the passenger side tire that we had replaced the tie rod on and adjusted inward quite a bit was no within spec (pretty good for adjustment by eye if you ask me). The driver side wheel was out of spec, however.


The fact that the driver side wheel was out of spec and the passenger side wheel was within spec after bringing the toe in so much at the second alignment leads me to believe that I payed full alignment price for nothing more than a quick check f the alignment parts. Do you think this is true? What can I do about this? I can't imagine it would get out of spec again within a week. Again, no adjustments were made or anything replaced on the driver side steering.

Here is an image of the before and after summary from today's alignment at the Ford dealer.

[veedubmechanic]

someone reported this post for some reason, I dont see one.

on a side note, there is no "full" alignment prices. You either get a 2 wheel alignment or 4 wheel alignment. In your case the car can only get a 2wheel alignment.

[shorod]

Originally Posted by veedubmechanic

someone reported this post for some reason, I dont see one.

Take a look at post 2 of the reported post thread. It appears another mod has already deleted the phishing post.

FWIW, there's also a "thrust angle" alignment which is in between a 2-wheel alignment and a 4-wheel alignment. Many places may refer to a thrust angle alignment as a 2-wheel alignment I suppose.

-Rod