Your Raptor and It's Alignment

[reid_88]

Thanks for the feedback!

 

[MTGOAT]

Camber bolt kit?

I just got off the phone with my dealership. They have had my truck for two full days just to do a perch adjustment, tire rotation and alignment. They first had no clue how to adjust the front shocks and didn’t tell me that until after having the truck for 24 hours. Then they just called me saying that they cannot do an alignment on the truck without a camber bolt kit and that Ford does not cover the cost. ($225) I asked how they do alignments on the trucks without the bolt kit and he replied that they can’t. Some more back and forth went on and I just told them to leave the alignment alone, I will get it done elsewhere. Does this make sense to anyone?

He also said he never heard of a free alignment for the first year… I know this has been discussed before, is there any place I can print that information and bring it to him?

 

[Phyguy]

Mid perch may require a camber bolt set. Top perch usually does from what I hear. Some vendors here make them, and Ford sells them. Pretty common. The price seems a little high.

I got free alignments until 12k miles (at a dealership I didn't purchase from).

Good luck.

 

[MTGOAT]

thanks for the info.

right now they wanted to charge me the following:

$400 for perch adjustment
$312 for alingment
$250 for bolts
$20 for tire rotation

WTF? I am pulling out, i will deal with someone else. I already ate the $400 for the adjustment

 

[LSURaptor]

Pick it up and take it elsewhere. Mine aligned on top perch with no kit. Kit should be $100, alignment should be <$100...

Quit while you are ahead.

 

[c-ne-elk]

It's a little late now for you to do this but I just took the instructions posted on the forum on how to do the perch adjustment to a shop that does front end work. Even though they had never done a perch adjustment before, they looked at it and said no problem. Told me they would charge me by the hour since they did not know how to price it.

Was about $220.00 out the door including the new alignment. It's not rocket science to do the adjustment, just need the right tools and mechanic skills.

 

[MTGOAT]

a call to the Service Director got this taken care of.

He was not aware that I originally brought the truck in for an alignment because the truck was pulling and then asked for the adjustment. In his words he said he can write it so that the alignment and the kit are covered. I called around to two other Ford dealers and simply asked if they would cover an alignment with only 5000 miles on it and they both said yes and verified it for me. As for the labor rates, well that is just what I have to expect living in Fairfax, VA. It is high, and the fact that I can do this myself hurts a little but I was trying to kill two birds with one stone since I needed the alignment. The Service Manager started to tell me that I must have abused the truck for it to have only 5000 miles on it and the camber be out over a degree or more but stopped and said he was not making assumptions that I was driving the truck as advertised....

All in all, he was polite and for the most part was on my side. He had some defense for their decisions but when it came down to it I feel he knows the service manager was not fully knowledgeable with the product. He even said they may need to take it to a specialty shop for the camber kit to be installed... if that isn't confidence in your techs I don't know what is...

*big sigh of relief*

from now on I am doing like I did with my Goat and working on it my self.

 

[twlhunter65]

My Dealer did the mid perch no problem and said there was no need for a cast n camber kit. I pushed the issue and they said no need.

 

[khcdave]

Wow glad to hear they took care of you. We charge 250 for perch adjustments including alignment. We havent needed cams for any trucks going to second perch. Only a few that have gone to 3rd. I take the shocks out of the truck and use a strut compressor to change the settings- takes an hour for both sides- no more than 2 hours for the whole job. My customers pay for the cams if they are needed but I do not charge extra to install them- takes 5 minutes. Good Luck- Dave

 

[Wheela]

got mine aligned after mid perch no prob, WSI did my perch and with the money saved by going to him I got lifetime alignment with tiresplus so now if I ever want to go top or just need it aligned I can do it anytime for free.