Can any shop do wheel alignment

[PACEMD]

I'm not sure what it is, but when I dropped by my local body shop the owner said he kept the special piece when they moved even though he no longer has an alignment lift. I've checked with a few tire shops that do alignments, and they all agree that they are not equipped nor certified to do Tesla alignments.

There is no equipment difference you just need a shop that knows what they're doing, meaning how to get the specs and courageous enough to tackle the unknown.

 

[afadeev]

Can any auto shop do wheel alignments on an M3?

Yes.
But not every shop know what they are doing.
Inquire with your local performance car club buddies (e.g.: SCCA) for a recommendation.

is alignment really needed if the car drives perfectly straight and tire wear is acceptable?

No.

The inside of my original MXM4 tires wore slightly faster than the rest... but at a rate of maybe 0.5mm - 1mm. So by the time the inside is down to 2mm and the rest is still at 3mm ... you are looking at replacing the tire anyway. If the car drives straight a bad alignment job might be more of a hassle than what it's worth ?

1mm in tire wear during the lifespan of a tire is reasonable.
All modern alignments are set with some degree of negative camber (to preserve contact patch shape during cornering), usually more in front than the rear.
Some additional wear on the inside of the tire is the result, unless you take corners with passions, and even out the wear ;-).

HTH,
a

 

[Frisco Dude]

I was quoted $317.75 for a wheel alignment yesterday by Tesla SC in Plano Texas. In Jan 2021 I was charged $117...a $200 jump! I asked what the reason for the price increase was and sure enough..."Labor Rate Rates Adjustments" was the response. Seriously? We all have bills to pay...Tesla owners are not immune to inflation.

Anyone have luck with a non-Tesla technician in the Frisco/Plano Texas area? if so, please do share

 

[Jeremy3292]

I was quoted $317.75 for a wheel alignment yesterday by Tesla SC in Plano Texas. In Jan 2021 I was charged $117...a $200 jump! I asked what the reason for the price increase was and sure enough..."Labor Rate Rates Adjustments" was the response. Seriously? We all have bills to pay...Tesla owners are not immune to inflation.

Anyone have luck with a non-Tesla technician in the Frisco/Plano Texas area? if so, please do share

That $318 quote is to do everything...camber, caster, toe, etc. They usually only do toe bc everything else is ok and you are charged less than $150. That was my experience when Tesla aligned by M3 a few months ago.

 

[texas_star_TM3]

I was quoted $317.75 for a wheel alignment yesterday by Tesla SC in Plano Texas. In Jan 2021 I was charged $117...a $200 jump! I asked what the reason for the price increase was and sure enough..."Labor Rate Rates Adjustments" was the response. Seriously? We all have bills to pay...Tesla owners are not immune to inflation.

Anyone have luck with a non-Tesla technician in the Frisco/Plano Texas area? if so, please do share

does the car not drive straight or do you have excessively uneven tire wear?
if not - i would skip an alignment at that price point. especially as you can buy a set of new tires for the price of just 3 alignments...

 

[electricar]

is alignment really needed if the car drives perfectly straight and tire wear is acceptable? The inside of my original MXM4 tires wore slightly faster than the rest... but at a rate of maybe 0.5mm - 1mm. So by the time the inside is down to 2mm and the rest is still at 3mm ... you are looking at replacing the tire anyway. If the car drives straight a bad alignment job might be more of a hassle than what it's worth ?

Absolutely. This falls in the category of - Don’t fix it if it ain’t broke. At best you’ll pay someone to say the alignment is fine and at worst they will perform an alignment that makes things worse. Some of best alignment advice that I have seen was done by a racer who drove in the Indy 500 many times - he looked at the tire wear, drove the car, and let you know if you needed any adjustments.

 

[Msjulie]

If toe is out, it might drive straight but increased tire wear can result. Camber as well, look at the edges - inner or outer based on which way it might be wrong

My 2018 came new imperfectly aligned but many wouldn't have really noticed as it was just a bit but I'm obsessive about stuff like that especially since the steering wheel was just ever so not straight on center.

 

[drpheta]

No special equipment is required. We use strings to align our cars and toe plates when making quick adjustments at the racetrack.

Was going to say we could use string to align these cars. Firestone claims they need to have access and ability to calibrate the cameras after alignment, but they're just misinformed at the corporate level.

You supposedly need to drive the car for 30ish miles without autopilot, and then let it deep sleep afterwards to reset the steering sensor.

Not sure if that's true, but that's what I read on this forum before. There might be some truth to that, cause after I did one alignment (before hearing about the no AP and deep sleep thing) the car randomly had the steering orientation shift left over the course of 2 days. Took it back, realigned it, and we found out about that sensor reset. Something about adaptive steering in Teslas. It's either that, or they didn't tighten the lock nuts for my adjustable toe arms.

Either way, I do the 30 mile drive without AP and deep sleep the car after any alignment.

@MountainPass you guys ever have random steering wheel orientation drifts after alignment?

 

[SK360]

No - there's a special piece of equipment needed - and the mechanic needs to be Tesla certified. We have a local body shop here that has the equipment and training, unfortunately they moved to another building that doesn't have the basic alignment setup - so our only option is the Tesla SC. So, unless you have a local shop with the additional equipment and training your only option will be a SC.

Yeah this is complete bullshit

 

[dbeiler]

Steps 10-13 of the Model 3 alignment procedure copy and pasted from the Tesla service manual:

10. Connect a laptop with Toolbox 3 to the vehicle.
11. In Toolbox 3, click Actions, type "angle" in the search field, click Play to the left of "PROC_EPAS_ESP_CLEAR-ANGLE-OFFSETS", and then select RUN.
12. Click Actions, type "angle" in the search field, click Play to the left of "TEST_EPAS3P_X_CHECK-APPLIED-ANGLE-OFFSET", and then select RUN.
13. Disconnect the laptop from the vehicle.

Toolbox 3 access costs a few hundred dollars a month at minimum. It sounds like several people here have gotten successful alignments even though they skipped resetting the power steering assist and stability control angle. Probably not a big deal if the toe needed only minor adjustment. The alignment technician might be unwilling to purchase Toolbox 3 access to work on a single Tesla. Poor ROI. The alignment technician SHOULD be unwilling to adjust toe without an angle reset for liability and safety reasons.

 

[SK360]

Sounds like the same people that think that is actually required also feel TPMS is required to drive a car.

 

[Occhis]

"They said they did have a problem because of the Tesla's automatic systems (shutting down the car when it was exited, IIRC), but they worked around it by having somebody sit in the driver's seat while the work was being done."
Exactly what you said here.

One reason some shops have problems. The work around is it requires 2 people. I believe there is a procedure for enabling the steering while out of the vehicle, possibly a service mode option. Some shops are cheap and don't want to pay 2 people do do one alignment and refuse.
Reminds me of when I wanted to put the windows down and listen to music outside the vehicle without it shutting off. I had to reach inside (after the door was shut), push down on the seat to get the screen to come back on, then turn up the music.
One of these days hopefully all shops will figure it out.

You can use Camp Mode to keep audio and HVAC active when not in driver seat.

 

[CoolBuddy]

This is exactly the thread I was looking for. How do we convince garages that would normally do alignments that there is no need for special equipment? Point out we can put a weight on the driver side and putting it in Beach Buggy Racing 2 will allow them to turn the steering wheel without a person in the car? By the way, has anyone figured out how much weight is needed? I figure it has to not be much because putting things in the passenger seats often triggers the fasten seatbelt indicators.

 

[texas_star_TM3]

this seems excessively complicated by Tesla engineers to do a mundane alignment. Crazy. Maybe the same engineer who designed the location for the AC filters.

that being said - for all the ones who got an alignment: a) did your car not drive straight - noticeably pull to left or right? b) did you have excessive tire wear indicating alignment need?

without a) and b) there's really not much need to do an alignment.

 

[RandyS]

My understanding is that a small amount of camber adjustment can be done on the front (like a couple of 10ths of a degree), but you have to take out the frunk tub and adjust some bolts. I don't see a shop like Firestone doing that...

And...Since the rear camber arms are fixed length, for those people who are saying it is no problem to do an alignment, how would you make any camber corrections or adjustments on the rear without aftermarket adjustable camber arms? Are people just saying that camber is okay as long as it isn't more negative than -2.0 or something big and just not make any adjustments?

 

[drpheta]

My understanding is that a small amount of camber adjustment can be done on the front (like a couple of 10ths of a degree), but you have to take out the frunk tub and adjust some bolts. I don't see a shop like Firestone doing that...

And...Since the rear camber arms are fixed length, for those people who are saying it is no problem to do an alignment, how would you make any camber corrections or adjustments on the rear without aftermarket adjustable camber arms? Are people just saying that camber is okay as long as it isn't more negative than -2.0 or something big and just not make any adjustments?

If you don't have adjustable arms, you max out the settings for stock suspension. I think you can get about -1.0 up front and -1.9 on the rear for camber. I had the shop max out my camber and zero my toe, and those were the numbers they could get for me. Those are realistic numbers to get by pushing the front strut tower inboard as much as possible. Beyond that, you'll need adjustable arms.

 

[SK360]

My understanding is that a small amount of camber adjustment can be done on the front (like a couple of 10ths of a degree), but you have to take out the frunk tub and adjust some bolts. I don't see a shop like Firestone doing that...

And...Since the rear camber arms are fixed length, for those people who are saying it is no problem to do an alignment, how would you make any camber corrections or adjustments on the rear without aftermarket adjustable camber arms? Are people just saying that camber is okay as long as it isn't more negative than -2.0 or something big and just not make any adjustments?

If you have more than -2.0 in the rear and aren't lowered significantly then you have damaged or broken factory parts. There is some influence in loosening arms and taking advantage of loose tolerances but nothing significant.

The front strut tower adjustment is in a lot of newer alignment machines instructions now so they absolutely should be aware of it.

 

[Ev_Rider]

Car drives straight, but inside tread on all 4 tires is essentially bald with 1/32, outside tread at about 5/32. I go see Tesla tomorrow to let them tell me why the excessive inside wear on all 4 tires. Yes, I rotated. and yes, I know that even at 5/32 if it was all even, it would be time to start considering new tires. I just don't want to adversely wear the next set.

 

[CoolBuddy]

Someone on the NE Ohio Tesla Facebook group shared this excerpt from the service manual. He stated "You need access to teslas diagnostic tool to reset the steering center position. Highly recommend getting the alignment done at Tesla."

I'm wondering what in this differs from an alignment for other vehicles and how critical these steps are. My guess is the spec it is looking at is so wide that it would be very hard to be out of spec on them. Any thoughts?

I'm scheduling with the Akron, Ohio SC just in case to see their rates. Sucks to drive 75 minutes to get it done though and 1.6 hrs is probably going to be expensive.

 

[drpheta]

Someone on the NE Ohio Tesla Facebook group shared this excerpt from the service manual. He stated "You need access to teslas diagnostic tool to reset the steering center position. Highly recommend getting the alignment done at Tesla."

I'm wondering what in this differs from an alignment for other vehicles and how critical these steps are. My guess is the spec it is looking at is so wide that it would be very hard to be out of spec on them. Any thoughts?

I'm scheduling with the Akron, Ohio SC just in case to see their rates. Sucks to drive 75 minutes to get it done though and 1.6 hrs is probably going to be expensive.

Just need to drive without AP for 30+ miles then let the car sleep before you do activate AP.

The model 3 has an adaptive steering rack. I had an issue after the Tesla service center did an alignment on my car.

you need to drive the car WITHOUT autopilot on the freeway for 30+ miles. then let the car go in to deep sleep and it will re-calibrate the adaptive steering racks 0 center.

1. Get alignment.
2. Dive the car WITHOUT autopilot on the freeway for 30+ miles, then let car go into deep sleep.

I got my alignment done at Sullivan Tire and they don't do any of that accessing to reset steering center. I just drove on the highway the 30ish miles, went home. I had to run errands before the sleep came, so my entire day of driving didn't involve AP. After the car slept overnight, AP was tested and the car was still perfect.