Rough ride- alignment

[Firesong]

For quite a while I have been noticing a noise.. Vibration etc.

I was getting worried about my front end or the tranny. I changed a couple u joints in the drive shaft. Still there. After the vacation we had the noise was getting worse.

Last week I had a really good look around and finally noticed the cupping on the inside edge of the tires. Okay. Something I could pin down and follow. The van was just brought in to the province this spring so I was hoping the inspection would have caught any worn out components. I had my tires put on rims and balanced at the time as well.

I made the mistake of stopping in at Kaltire and the guy was adamant that it was upper ball joints. Hmm

So I called my shop who did the inspection and booked it in again. I took the specs off the l400 service manual in the FAQs area. They also show how to adjust everything.

Just got the van back. Rebalance the tires and rotate, no charge. Guys someone didn't do a good enough job. Alignment showed excessive toe in on both, one tire was over for camber and the other for castor.

$135 later. I'm very happy. The front end feels amazing. I can tell the difference. Did I say that I'm happy?

I worry about customers who go to places like Kaltire (in this instance) and get ripped off for 'upper ball joints'.