took the truck in to get the bed fixed from the popping, and look at some wear on inside of drivers front tire. guy said they checked to see if it was something faulty...no go....it's just an alignment issue. he gave me this spill about how standard alignment is 69.95, but these lightnings need some shims, 4 of them. from the factory it comes with stationary bolt, then first aligntment they are removed and these shims are placed in or something.....final price $203.

is this crap or is it on the up and up?

 

You know what I say?? **** IT!!! Welcome to the club.

 

well he is probably talking obout cam bolts - which make it easier to do an alignment but they aren't necessary but in rare cases. If an aligment shop is good they won't need cam bolts so yes- roll to a well know local shop to get it done.

Oh yeah -- what the hell is a stationary bolt ?!?!

 

Ford is way out of line with what the dealerships charge. The "ford" parts are killers on price too. The widget we sold to ford got marked up 8 times by the time the poor sap who entered the dealership paid for it. And this widget is'nt some third world made el-cheapo thing either. It comes right off the OEM production line right here in the US of A! It's litterally no different than what comes on the car/truck to begin with!

We sold our widget to ford service for approx $16 and the dealerships charged the ***end customer*** over $130 for it.

Guess where I DONT take my new truck or two other fords for work? Gee.. and guess why not?

WOT

 

yeah, well, i'm no mechanic so i made him explain it to me twice and he came up with the same story twice, but he did mention a stationary bolt in his explanation. said the $69.95 is standard alignment, then the 4 shims were like 70 more and then labor....but they throw in a free rotation....woooooohooooooo....i said ...hmm...lemmme get back with you before you start

 

Not true at all. The cam kit IS necessary to get the alignment done to spec if the camber is off. The dealer is way to high on his price though. You should be able to get it done for under $150.00 at any reputable line up shop. I paid $110.00 to have mine done with the camber kit installation. Once the kit is in, you will just need to get it aligned next time.

 

Your title is a little misleading. It's the dealer that may be screwing you, not Ford. They are independent of each other. Ford has their own problems, but at least they shouldn't take the blame for a dealers actions.

 

Just get the cam bolt kits from either Napa or Roush, install them yourself and find a good shop near you that does alignments on performance/race vehicles. Don't bother letting the dealership do it unless they are going to cover the costs under warrenty work.

 

Rotating your tires every 5-10k will help with the uneven tire wear.

 

You're correct in that it will keep your tires wearing at the same rate, but if it's out of alignment and causing the tires to wear prematurely , you will be buying 4 new tires sooner than you should have to. It'a always best to keep the alignment within specs as tires can get very expensive.

 

NOT. The cam bolt kit is not necessary to align the camber to spec. That is what the eccentric slot in the frame member is for. That's the way to do it on the cheap. Early Lightnings came with a cam bolt kit, but the bean counters decided it was cheaper to do it this way, just like it was cheaper to install cast cranks rather than the advertised forged cranks. The problem is, when you do it this way the truck will NOT stay in alignment very long. The only way to solve the problem permanently is to invest in the NAPA cam bolt kit and a set of Herb's washers. You have to have both. Not that big a deal, less than $250 including alignment, but just another pain thanks to Ford's penny wise pound foolish strategy. I guess they are trying to recoup for the Exploder debacle, but I will never buy another cheap azz Ford.

 

Aren't we saying the same thing? Sure there are always short cuts around everything, but I would rather have it done right the first time. This is the way any reputable alignment shop will do it. It's their reputation that's on the line

 

Yeppers.