How often for an alignment?

[mikefocke]

my tire wear or driving feel tells me I need it. It has been 4 years and the tires are wearing true and there is no pull so I guess I'll wait again.

I have no special suspension mods nor do I hit potholes hard. I do go over speed bumps every trip.

[mylamb]

Thanks for all the responses because I have often wondered this as well. I have another question related to alignments.

Can you go to an alignment shop & give them the proper alignment specs for your Boxster & expect to get it done properly or do you HAVE to go to a dealer/specialist & pay $400 - $500 for a laser alignment? Dealers are telling me that they are the only ones who can properly align the car. My tire shop is well known for setting up autocross & track vehicles & they say they charge about $70. I'm sure it's "slightly different" from what a dealership is doing but seriously... is a dealership alignment worth 7X's the price??? I can't imagine it is.

[Adam]

Tires wear evenly and the car tracks straight so I've never done an alignment. Wouldn't mind some negative camber up front, but that will come later.

[renzop]

I would go to a shop that has high-end alignment equipment. Other than that there is nothing special about Porsche alignments. My local garage (who is very professional and honest) had no problems aligning the car and I asked for unusual (autocross) specs. Your local shop that does racing alignments for $70 is probably perfectly adequate. I would go there. If they do a crummy job you can always spend $4-500 at the dealer next week. If they do a good job you can buy a lot of beer for the $300+ you saved.

Having your car aligned every 6 months is an extreme frequency. I would like to know why. What makes you feel you need an alignment every 6 months? Does the car pull? Is the steering wheel no longer straight? Are the tires wearing unevenly?

There are only 3 reasons why you would need to do an alignment every 6 months:
1) You keep hitting curbs and/or large potholes
2) Various suspension bushings are worn and the car won't hold an alignment
3) Someone is selling you a bill of goods.

[mikefocke]

sets up Boxsters for the race track. Boxsters so he knows the car. Racing because he knows what effects being on one edge or the other can have on handling/wear. Many alignment specs are not a hard number but specified as between this and that. This might give great handling but horrid tire wear. That might give the opposite. I use my car on public roads, value my $250+ each tires and don't race. So my Porsche racing mechanic set me up for best tire wear because the car and the tires combine to give me lots of handling without being on that ragged edge. It's been 4 years and my rears have 14k+ miles on them and look like they will comfortably go another 5k..and they are not tires known to go that far on most Boxsters.