I went to my local Pepboys for an alignment, and after waiting about 10 minutes the tech comes out and tells me my car is too low for the lifts and that the side skirts were bottoming out lol. The thing is my coupe isnt even lowered, its still at factory height. He was shocked when i told him it wasn’t lowered lol. Has any one else had this issue? Thought this was too funny not to share.

 

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Pep Boys?

Yes that its funny because that should be the last place you should trust with your coupe.
I only went there for oil that was on sale when I used to do my own oil changes.
Poorly trained, poorly paid employees and that is who you want to work on your vehicle?

Telcoman

 

First of all my question was if anyone else had this happen, not what’s your opinion on where I take my car for service. Second, I know the techs at this particular one and yeah I would trust my car to them, especially for something as small as an alignment...

 

Telcoman believes the dealer is the only option for almost everything and oem parts only work (I agree with sensors). Still thinks the g35 is a "high end vehicle". He'll give good advice every now and then but almost every post ends up with "check the fsm" or "take it to the dealer". A dealership might do a couple alignments a day while a tire shop does 50-100. So honestly, I would trust the right shop over the dealer. I'm surprised they couldn't get your car onto the lift at factory height. That would be a red flag for me as they probably don't get nice low cars often. You would think they have ramps or they are just lazy. Every time I have been at my local tiresplus they have luxury cars waiting to be worked on which is a good sign to me

 

Right, there are certain things I would only trust the dealership with, but they’re also called a stealership for a reason. Taking your car to the dealership for an alignment isn’t going to give you any benefit that a regular shop can’t(except maybe a lower lift lol). They both hook it up to the same type of computer and turn some wrenches, not a crazy difficult task. The tech did mention that their lift does sit pretty high compared to other lifts.

 

I've had a few shops express surprise that my car was stock height before my coilovers (only like .5cm down now lol); deep Virginia and one owner told me "The goldang imports are just so low! Needs a set of fat tires like my staaaaang". Scraped slightly on a few lifts at stock height.

Any reputable shop (and even non-reputable ones) that have the correct equipment will do a simple alignment correctly. It's fairly standardized.

 

Same. My pepboys tried rolling my g35x sedan up their ramps for an alignment even after i told it was low and the got it stuck at the entrance of the ramp lol I'm lowered, I have a 3 inch clearance on my sedan. Whats your clearance on your coupe?

 

One shop told me my ground effects would be damaged if he tried getting it up the ramps, he looked pissed. What ground effects?? Lol I tried several shops. How do you confuse oem side skirts and bumpers with a body kit lol
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Just have to shop around for someone with that uses steeper angle ramps or better yet someone that uses a drive-over pit for alignment. Call around and find out who does alignments on the sports cars in town, I guarantee they'll be able to get you on the lift.

 

 

Alignment racks usually require you to drive on, the skids on either side can slide around while they're making the adjustments.

 

Taking your G35 coupe to Pep Boys for alignment especially if the suspension is modified isn't a bright idea! Watching those so called mechanics work is like watching a monkey fu-k a football! Most all quality shops carry a pair of 2X4 or ramps to get any car on their racks so they wouldn't lose business. There's nothing wrong with taking our G35s to Nissan, their work is guaranteed to be better than that of a 4th rate company like Pep Boys!
Gary

 

Wish I could find a place that wouldn't scratch the crap out of my wheels when they do mount/balance/alignment. Bought mint refinished OEM wheels a couple years ago and I hate going for an alignment because they get scratched every time by those gizmos they jam on the wheels.