I rotate my tires every 5k miles, and every once in a while, this makes the car go out of alignment, I don't know why.

But it is out of alignment now, and I want to fix it. At the moment, I have neither the time nor energy for trying the DIY method explained on this board (I know, I know-- heresy!), but I was hoping for some general advice on what to look for at potential shops I could go to (specific machines?). And what's the difference between the $80 job at Big 0 and the $130 charged by the dealer?

And if anyone happens to have a recommended shop in the SF Bay Area, please pass it along. Thanks!

Mc,

You didn't indicate how your Brick is telling you it's out of alignment? If it's pulling to the left or right it may be a tire problem not the alignment. A tire with a radial pull on the rear won't be noticed untill rotated to the front where it will cause a pull. A quick way to check if it's a radial pull or not is to swap positions of the front right and left tires/wheels ... if your Brick still pulls but in the other direction it's one of those front tires, not the alignment. This would explain why rotating your tires may cause your Brick to suddenly start pulling and seem out of alignment. Hope this is helpful.

My experience with allignment shops is look for the one with a manual rack ( non computerized ) who works on all the local high performance cars ( and I don't mean rolling stereos ). These are the guys who can think and solve problems.
I've not had much luck with the computer rack shops the machines are always out of whack and are run by simple techs who generally can't think outside the box when the machine is out of whack ( as in, "it cant be pulling hard to the left.... the machine says it's right on" )Although one time I was actually able to get one of those guys to dig down into his brain cells and think what it should take to compensate for the problem and forget the machine.....45 minuits later ,he had it perfect. The guy looked shocked that he could out think the computer ( I was certified in front ends a LONG time ago...before they had allignment computers )
A few years back I had a computer allignment done on a van before heading out on a vacation and about 1000 miles later the front tire was getting eaten up on one edge. I fixed in a parking lot with a torpedo leval and a tape measure, and when I got home had it checked at a real allignment shop and it was within specs.
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-------Robert, '93 940t, '90 240 wagon, '84 240 diesel (she's sick) , '80 245 diesel, '82 Mercedes 300SD