WRX needed(for non-invasive testing)
Matlock's is one of the more sympathetic tire stores that I've dealt with. IT alignments with the driver in the car plus burnouts in the parking lot. I use the Lenoir City store just because I can drive the racecar on back roads to get there and not use the trailer if I am so inclined. Plus I did the divorce for the Service Mgr. YMMV
Wayne Henry
East Tenn Region, SCCA
2006 MX-5 Limited
the rest of the garage:
1984 Mazda RX-7 GSL-SE
1996 Toyota 4runner
East Tenn Region, SCCA
2006 MX-5 Limited
the rest of the garage:
1984 Mazda RX-7 GSL-SE
1996 Toyota 4runner
Carter Thompson has a 350Z but he is in Nashville. You might still try him, though since he is always looking for an edge.whenry wrote:Harley got the gig and really liked the results. YMMV Next I am tasked to find a 350Z and RX-8. Any ideas?
Mark
Mark Pilson
03 Z06 - Sword
09 Mustang - Club
01 Excursion - The safe you dropped from the 10th story
03 Z06 - Sword
09 Mustang - Club
01 Excursion - The safe you dropped from the 10th story
Matlock good/bad
I've had a bad experience with the Matlock in Farragut... I took my RX-7 there to get it aligned with some non-stock settings, and they had some serious problems getting it right -- in fact, they never did, I ended up taking it to Fisher Tire near Papermill (they didn't get it where I wanted, but were *much* closer.)
It boils down to what I believe to be a fault in their equipment, which the management would not acknowledge.
The tech was great; he worked his butt off trying to get my settings, though he was a bit confused on how to move the cams to affect the right adjustments. He let me sit in the seat while doing the alignment, and was just generally pleasant.
I believe their alignment machine had some calibration/accuracy issues, as if I recall correctly, small movement in the car's position (ie, roll it forward or back) would cause huge swings in the alignment parameters as read by the machine. This added to the time it took the tech to do the alignment, as he had to start over several times.
After he finally got the machine to bless the alignment, I drove off in the car. It felt terrible! Having spent ~4 hours at Matlock (and having already returned once that morning due to a pull to one side), I drove straight to Fisher, and had them look at it.
Their tech was as friendly as the Matlock tech, but was even more confused by the cam setup. However, their machine had a considerably different idea of the current alignment -- I don't recall the exact numbers, but the camber and caster on the front was completely off. There was something like a 3+ degree difference in caster, and one wheel had slightly negative camber (but not as much as stated by Matlock) while the other had signicant positve camber.
I later returned to Matlock and spoke with the tech -- he agreed with my assesment that the machine had issues, and confirmed that there had been other problems before. Management's reponse, however was along the lines of "We've done hundreds of cars on that machine. It's calibration cannot be off."
Yes, but did it do those cars *correctly*?
Now, this was about two years ago, so maybe things have changed. I've just not been willing to bet my money that it has.
Dave Dillow
em #184
It boils down to what I believe to be a fault in their equipment, which the management would not acknowledge.
The tech was great; he worked his butt off trying to get my settings, though he was a bit confused on how to move the cams to affect the right adjustments. He let me sit in the seat while doing the alignment, and was just generally pleasant.
I believe their alignment machine had some calibration/accuracy issues, as if I recall correctly, small movement in the car's position (ie, roll it forward or back) would cause huge swings in the alignment parameters as read by the machine. This added to the time it took the tech to do the alignment, as he had to start over several times.
After he finally got the machine to bless the alignment, I drove off in the car. It felt terrible! Having spent ~4 hours at Matlock (and having already returned once that morning due to a pull to one side), I drove straight to Fisher, and had them look at it.
Their tech was as friendly as the Matlock tech, but was even more confused by the cam setup. However, their machine had a considerably different idea of the current alignment -- I don't recall the exact numbers, but the camber and caster on the front was completely off. There was something like a 3+ degree difference in caster, and one wheel had slightly negative camber (but not as much as stated by Matlock) while the other had signicant positve camber.
I later returned to Matlock and spoke with the tech -- he agreed with my assesment that the machine had issues, and confirmed that there had been other problems before. Management's reponse, however was along the lines of "We've done hundreds of cars on that machine. It's calibration cannot be off."
Yes, but did it do those cars *correctly*?
Now, this was about two years ago, so maybe things have changed. I've just not been willing to bet my money that it has.
Dave Dillow
em #184
