Best Alignment Shop West Metro

Looking for recommendations on a solid alignment shop in the west metro or west of the metro. Wife has a 2016 Volvo AWD that we put new tires on 2 years ago. Not the best decision but I didn’t request an alignment at that point because I wasn’t seeing signs of an issue. Within 9 months I noticed excessive wear on the rear tires. Took it to a local tire shop and had them replace the 2 and do a 4 wheel alignment. They supposedly checked and did not find issues with the suspension at that time. Fast forward to now and the rears are wearing the insides again. Research I’ve done is that there is a bit of a trick to correctly align these to minimize wear. And what I’ve read is it may not mean simply putting it on a rack and adjusting to spec. Pretty sure that’s what the last shop did. AWD’s are notorious for wearing tires out faster that a FWD but these are nearly bald on the inside and almost full tread on the outside. The weird thing is it seams to drive fine. Do I bite the bullet and bring it to the dealer and hope they know what they’re doing? Or do any of you mechanics have any good suggestions?

If they’re wearing that bad, you more than likely need parts, not just adjustments.
Number one most important thing with AWD vehicles is to have 4 matching tires and religious tire rotations. I could recommend shops north of the metro, but not the west.

Joe Jarl wrote:

Took it to a local tire shop and had them replace the 2 and do a 4 wheel alignment. They supposedly checked and did not find issues with the suspension at that time. Fast forward to now and the rears are wearing the insides again.

If it were me I would take it back and ask why the rear tires are wearing. Any shop with a decent guy should be able to do an alignment. If you are looking for the best alignment shop in the metro it’s not west but Hoover down in Minneapolis would be my recommendation.

FWIW…I took my wifes BMW (2010 with 210K) to “The Alignment Guy” in Hopkins after the stealership was doing a recall and recommended an alignment. Of course they charge an arm and a leg so I shopped around. This guy was highly recommended so I gave him a try. I have not been too impressed with “tire” retailers doing alignments in the past but that’s my opinion. He’s a different cat to be sure but I think he knows his stuff. He has a less than impressive shop but I wasn’t looking for a best friend…just an alignment. He has a little dog I sat and petted the whole time and I was able to watch the whole process. He was questioning why I needed an alignment as it was very good to begin with. In the end, I won’t even tell you what he charged me…I still feel guilty as he spent a good hour on it but he wouldn’t take any more for it. I’d use him again but here’s the fineprint: He doesn’t have a phone number, you just contact him on his website and he will return the email with available times. He likes to talk music…alot while he works which is fine. Don’t expect coffee and pastries in a nice waiting room! Like i said, I had a good experience and I do think he does good work.

I’d take it to the dealership or find a shop that specializes in Volvo.

Kind of like Karl, we’ve owned a few BMW’s and they are finicky. We found a couple shops locally that only work on BMW so they knew how to handle them. I assume they are shops that specialize in Volvo.

Better to spend the money and get it done right than continuing to buy new tires.

Grubson, I wonder the same thing regarding worn parts. I’ve tried to keep up on rotations but admittedly probably not enough for an AWD. The wear I’m seeing and the timeframe leads me to believe it’s far more than inadequate rotations though. John that’s not a dumb idea to go back to these guys. They have always been good to work with. Just not sure I trust them to get this right. I’ll maybe have a talk with them and go from there.

Tim Hesse at Richfield Wheel Alignment is the master. He is old school, his dad started the shop in 1958. Very fair and honest shop that does quality work on all kinds of vehicles.

What is the vehicle model and how many miles are on it?

Is it correct to say that with each pair of tires, the wear issue appears more quickly and the wear is more severe?

I would want to know if there’s something going on besides just alignment because this kind of severe wear even after an alignment would make me suspicious. The problem with just going to an alignment shop is you’re going to get an alignment. You may or may not get someone familiar with what parts wear on your particular vehicle and how they wear, so now you’re playing the waiting game to see if you burn up yet another pair of tires in the process of NOT fixing the problem.

Control arm bushings, wheel bearings, etc. All of those need to be checked by someone who actually knows what they are doing and what they are looking for.

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

What is the vehicle model and how many miles are on it?

Is it correct to say that with each pair of tires, the wear issue appears more quickly and the wear is more severe?

I would want to know if there’s something going on besides just alignment because this kind of severe wear even after an alignment would make me suspicious. The problem with just going to an alignment shop is you’re going to get an alignment. You may or may not get someone familiar with what parts wear on your particular vehicle and how they wear, so now you’re playing the waiting game to see if you burn up yet another pair of tires in the process of NOT fixing the problem.

Control arm bushings, wheel bearings, etc. All of those need to be checked by someone who actually knows what they are doing and what they are looking for.

FWIW, Richfield wheel alignment does a fairly comprehensive check. I was advised I needed some control arm work to get the most out an alignment job and they handled that as well.

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

What is the vehicle model and how many miles are on it?
Is it correct to say that with each pair of tires, the wear issue appears more quickly and the wear is more severe?

Vehicle is a 2016 XC70 with 110,000 miles. I don’t believe the wear is progressively occurring faster. When we replaced all 4 tires 2 years ago the wear was there but I made the mistake of assuming it was lack of rotations. I don’t doubt it could need bushings replaced.

Joe Jarl wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>TheFamousGrouse wrote:</div>
What is the vehicle model and how many miles are on it?
Is it correct to say that with each pair of tires, the wear issue appears more quickly and the wear is more severe?

Vehicle is a 2016 XC70 with 110,000 miles. I don’t believe the wear is progressively occurring faster. When we replaced all 4 tires 2 years ago the wear was there but I made the mistake of assuming it was lack of rotations. I don’t doubt it could need bushings replaced.

I guess my point is that wherever you get it aligned, they know how to check for other issues that could be causing the wear.

I remember one time I had really bad tire wear on one tire and I also thought alignment. Took it to a tire shop and they worked on it for a long time before finally a more experienced guy pointed out a bent control arm as the reason why the original tech wasn’t getting thing to line up. Good thing he stepped in.

Volvo’s used to be tricky. The specs changed depending on ride height. Newer vehicles I can’t tell you if that is still true. The newer alignment machines walk a tech right through the process.