Thanks for the comments Hib. I try to filter as much of what I see here as I can. I surely did not want to replace my tires at 10K miles as some report here so I thought I'd invest in the alignment.
Your statement makes more sense to me because I just have a hard time seeing GM providing an alignment that most of us can't/won't take advantage of and that will cost thousands of dollars in early tire replacements.
When I picked the car up I was expecting to have to pay the $104 because I have not seen any wear-I just wanted to make sure that the tires do not wear because of an alignment.
The service guy tells me that this is free if the car has under 10K on it. If I understood correctly after 10K you would have to prove an alignment problem or you would pay for it.
I did not ask them to provide me with the alignment specs (before and after) and now that I think about it I wish I had.
Thanks again.
My 04 Z06 was set at production specs and its first set of tires went just a hair over 20,000 miles. In four years, one corner of the car got a little out of alignment...it was near -1 deg. camber. I'm very happy with 20K mi. tread life from tires (Goodyear F1 Supercars) which have less tread depth than the base EMTs and are on a car that gets run hard at times.
When I put the new set of F1 Supercars on, I had all four corners set at -1/2 camber and zero toe. I had front caster set at 7 deg.
I don't have '08 service data available...I ordered the 08 FSM from Corvette Centeral, but they were out of stock so I'll have to wait a week or so, but I do have '07 data and I'll guess they're the same.
The OE alignment specs for MY07 with FE1, FE2 and FE3 are:
Camber: -0.45 deg all four wheels, +/- 0.6 deg.
Caster: 7.9 deg +/- .6 deg.
Toe, front: 0.1 deg +/- 0.2 deg
Toe, rear: 0 deg +/- 0.2 deg.
Now...the tolerance is mostly of interest in warranty service. That is, if you take the car in on a warranty claim for alignment, regardless of whether the wheels are aligned to spec or not, as long as they are within the tolerance, they won't make an adjustment.
On the other hand, if it's an out-of-warranty situation and the suspension parts are in good condition, I'd make the dealer or the alignment shop hold a much closer tolerance. For example, when I go to have Tucker Tire Service in Covina CA align the wheels in my car, I give them the specs and expect them to set to those numbers. They usually are within a tenth or two.
If tread life is of prime concern and you are willing to compromise some handing, I'd reset the camber between -1/8 deg and zero then use the FSM numbers for caster and toe.
Lastly, I've seen enough new C6s with wheels not aligned properly that I feel Bowling Green Assembly may have taken its eye off the "quality ball" as far as wheel alignment goes. I encourage every new owner to, after the car has a few thousand miles on it, eyeball the camber while the car is sitting on level ground. If all the wheels don't look the same, have the front/rear alignments checked.
Also, if you're one of those types who've lowered your car, after doing that you need to have the front and rear alignments reset because a change in ride height almost always causes a change in alignment.
