11/03/2026
Here’s what a alignment report looks like and it’s very important. It allows me to see what the car was before. You brought it into the alignment and what the specs are after the alignment. It also shows me the thrust angle as well as what parts are potentially wrong so if it has a bad camber or Caster on one side and the parts are non-adjustable then it’s most likely that part that’s bent or has an issue now if there’s a front end noise a lot of the times I won’t be able to diagnose it unless the car is on an alignment rack where I can be underneath it and move all the parts around. I can try to put it on ramps to see if that will show the noise but a lot of the times you’re just chasing around something that you can’t see it sounds like a bad ball joint, but it’s actually a bad rack and pinion or you could have a motor mount that’s bad and mimics a bad control arm. That’s why it’s very important to get the alignment report so that the mechanic can see what’s wrong with it to see if the part can be adjusted or it needs to be replaced so I would have to go to Mavis and have them put it on the rack and pay the our diagnostic time to see if the car would be able to take an alignment. Some of these cars in the past, the subframe had to be shifted in order to do the alignment or you needed to have a driver and somebody in the passenger seat and that would shift the alignment as well it’s just like if you take air out of the tires and then go and try to balance them. Even five psi will make a difference so if the tires went flat, but you just had them balanced they would show a different balance when I put them on the balancer after they have to be filled with air just like you need the car aligned cause then if you take it on a long drive, that’s gonna throw off the balancing as well because you just chopped up the tires on the highway. It doesn’t take much you can wear a set of tires going from here to Atlantic City and back. So if it’s an insurance job, let’s say I asked the customer to take it to Mavis to get an alignment and an alignment check and a shakedown of the front so the front and check they did and they came back with the rack is bad so now I can take it to the warranty company and diagnose it with the warranty company as well. The customer took it to Mavis to get an alignment and it didn’t pass because they said it needed a rack. We hear a noise in the front. They confirmed that the rack was no good and I confirmed was at fault by removing the rack and visually seeing the bushing worn. So this particular vehicle shows that there’s no caster adjustment there looks to be camber adjustment and it’s way off there going set your tow off as well if they tried to adjust it let’s say on a Subaru and it won’t come within specs then we need a strut and lower control and ball joint.
If your vehicle feels completely unstable, darts around, or pulls hard on the highway, shakes the wheels but your alignment printout shows your Toe is in the green while your Camber is way off (in the red) like here you are experiencing a classic geometry mismatch.
Even if your toe is perfectly tracking within factory specifications, severe camber misalignment will violently affect how the car behaves at high speeds.
