Hello. Im quite positive my alignment is bad since i am about halfway into steering lock and my steering wheel takes over and turns to lock for me and wont go back to the center by itself. But how much is an alignment? i got quoted 250 dollars... but im quite sure it should be 70 to 100 dollars at the most. I asked why is it so expensive and he said its an old car, and theres an extra charge because its dirty underneath and they dont want to touch it, and to me that is complete bull. So how much is an alignment and they said you should align the rear too? I never heard of that.

 

??,,,call another shop

 

That is the plan lol. But that was the closest shop to me so seems i need to travel. I was trying to see what the average price is as well.

 

The Jeep is one of the easiest vehicles they will align. They are trying to get you. Regardless of how dirty it is.

I did my own alignment after rebuilding my front end. I literally adjusted one item. Then took it to a computer alignment the next day to be sure. It was about .01% from their final number. Made me question whether I will ever pay for an alignment on the Jeep again. We'll see. They only charged $70, and that of course included a front end inspection and one of those nice data sheets showing the before/after of each point (most of which can not be adjusted on an XJ).

 

Wow thats a huge difference in price. I suspected as much from this place. And tbh it being "Dirty" sounds like theyre just lazy and dont want to work on it, I looked under there and if their dirty is just road grime which actually feels like dust and rubs off with ease then what do they consider clean lol. How did you align yours?

 

A shop afraid of getting thier hands dirty? They are in the WRONG business. Charging 250 for an alignment??? I would avoid that shop like the plague. Last time i needed an alignment (the Mustang), it was around $60 for maybe 15 minutes of work, if that, using a computer.

 

My thought exact. Used to be a good shop till i read the recent reviews keyword recent and the shop went under new management and fired all the previous employees and hired monkeys it seems. Sad too because we used to go there alot but seems it isnt worth it now. You know its bad when the mechanic forgets to put oil back in your engine. The google reviews lists the best reviews which to me sucks! id rather have recent ones. But yep that shop is BAD now i was actually dumbfounded when he told me that price like hehehe good joke whats the real price now.

 

Time to revive this post. So i went back there for fun and see what they say this time..... Get comfy and a nice cup of coffee

First off they told me theres an extra charge to clean underneath because its to dirty under there which i find very very stupid and pointless as there is literally nothing under there. Second this will be copy and pasted because this was to good to not tell anyone else

: My upper and lower ball joints are shot and IMMEDIATELY needs to be replaced as there is no bushings at all in there and its metal on metal.

: My steering box is shot

: My trackbar and drag link is bent

: My springs and shocks need to be replaced

: My steering damper needs to be replaced

: My wheel bearings need to be replaced

: My sway bar needs to be replaced

: I also apparently need new axle mounts because mine are shot and my axle is quote on quote " Not even attached to the body"

And before i can even get an alignment i need brand new tires as well, So the grand total of the bill would be $3957.18...... Only an hour wasted

 

That doesn't sound like a bad shop - that sounds like a lengthy call to the Better Business Bureau, the local news investigative team and your Attorney General.

 

Post some pictures of under the front of your Jeep. I am curious to see what they consider "dirty".

 

x2

I'm serious about the call to investigative outfits. Assuming you know the majority or all of the items listed are good - they're crooked and are screwing people who know little about cars over.

I'm taking both my XJ and "family car" in for rotations/alignment in the next month or two. I doubt it with the shop I go to since they're excellent, but if they told me I needed 4k worth of work I'd laugh in their face. I don't know how it is where you are but in MA we have yearly inspections - safety and emissions. My XJ is old enough it doesn't get emissions tested, but it gets safety inspected. I would demand to be shown the movement on the ball joints and laugh again and say that they're full of it since I just passed the MA inspection. MA is SUPER strict so any one of the listed items would cause a failed inspection,
Also wheel bearings are obvious when they're really bad. I had a bad wheel bearing that my shop described as "about to come apart"... it was not even close to that bad... and the guys I go to when I can't do it are amazing and cool guys.

 

I could understand a shop saying - hey, this is a 20 something year old vehicle, it's got rust - we're concerned about breaking the studs on the control arms or what-not. Then letting you go ahead with the risk you might pay a little more if something breaks sort of thing, but that shop is crooked and needs to be shut down.

 

Yup my grandfather went there because it "used" to be good but they recently charged him 500 bucks to do a tune up. And also thats one thing i forgot to mention before i had a chance to even ask or see they took it down and brought it around and came in telling me everything and i even asked if i can see it but he said sorry we already have another car were doing. and the lift was empty so yeah just blowing smoke up my *** but hang on its at night so it may be a little hard to see but nothing "greasy or dirty" nothing bent or broken and i understand the steering damper but the other stuff no lol

 

Little piece hanging down is the was used to be the splash shield lol



WOW its so filthy under there i can totally understand why no shop wants to touch it i mean look at all that dirt and grease

 

And surprisingly no one has... I should sic the news crew to them lol