The inside edges of RE040's on the fronts were wearing badly after 22K. I set up and went to my appointment with JM Lexus in South Florida. I explained I believed the car has too much negative camber or the specs used are wrong or lastly something mechanical is broke. Check this site for a good simple explanation - http://www.familycar.com/alignment.htm . Since just the fronts were wearing badly I told him I wanted just the front checked and re-aligned. The 4 wheel alignment with JM is only $63.95 with tax whether they do all 4 or just 2. I handed him some previous specs used on my car for alignments both by JM and also Olsen Tires along with details I got from the web site I listed above.

The car went out and I sat down for the wait. Soon the service writer came over and told me the service tech wanted to see me. They pointed me to the alignment area out back. My IS was up on this hi-tech stand with elctronic elephant ears attached to each wheel. He proceeded to show me the machine and just how an alignment is done utilizing radar wavs from those ears to the receiver and pc based alignment program. Every setting or movement shows up on screen in an easy to read format.

MY CAR he stated was either at the far extremes of the specs or over. The he asked what I wanted, excellent tire wear or extreme handling! Now I know some of you guys go for the max but man those rubber donuts are expensive so choose long life. He told me he'd set it up like he had on one of the Lexus mechanics IS's. It has 24K on its Potenza's and they look like new, and I saw 'em.

He showed me all the ins and outs of the machine and even showed me how a passenger in the right front affects the alignment, so if you ride with a friend up front it needs to be set that way. Now for a single driver mostly, like me, he chose a -.2 on the left and a -.1 on the right. With these settings the unadjustable caster goes from 6.3 to 6.8 on both sides. Toe was set to a .04 left and .05 right. He said he'd prefer toe at .06 but it hit the stops with no more adjstment. Each car is slightly different. Cross camber as well as cross caster went to -.1 from a previous .4 . Total toe went from 0.16 to .09 .

Anyway if you want this treament from JM Lexus ask for Paul, he'll set it up like you want and for $63.95 I consider it a very fair price. He also took me out on the road test to make sure I was happy - I am

Thanks; Paul (alignment tech) and Mr. Boykin (service writer)

 

$64 for an alignment at a dealer is very cheap. that's pretty amazing

 

Really? $65? I've been wondering where to take my car for the alignment that _I_ want. I may have to use next time I go for service...