Alignments, Tires and Balance

By Dave Trux

More than once a week, we get a customer asking for an alignment. When probed as to why, more often than not the answer is, “My car is shaking at xyz speed.” The simple answer is that an alignment will not cure a wheel shake. As technically advanced as a BMW is, the effects of an alignment are still the same as any other car.

What an alignment will cure is uneven tire wear and in some cases a pull to one side. There are 3 major alignment adjustments: camber, caster and toe. Of these, only two will cause tire wear and only one of them will cause a pull.

Camber and toe will cause tire wear in very distinct patterns. Caster will only cause a car to drift to one side or another.

Toe is how much of a difference there is between the tread in front of and behind the tire. If the wheels are toed in, the tires will wear on the outside inch or so and across the tire you’ll encounter a fish scale effect. If the wheels are toed out, the tires will wear on the inside inch or so and across the tire you’ll encounter a fish scale effect.

/ \ = toed in

\ / = toed out

Balance issues and loose front end parts are what cause a car to shimmy or shake. Typically, if the car shakes at a certain speed and then goes away, it’s either an out of round tire or loose front end parts. The wheel, at that certain speed will reach its resonant frequency and begin to shake. When you increase road speed, the resonant frequency is passed and the shaking goes away.

A shake that begins at a certain speed then gradually gets worse is most likely the common wheel balance issue. If the tires are in good shape, we spin them up and re-balance them properly. BMW’s are finicky when it comes to alignment and balance issues. It’s why we have invested in only the best Hunter alignment and tire equipment. We do not farm any of it out as our desire is to deliver the car in perfect condition. We simply do not trust a “tire shop” to align one of our customers BMW’s.

Treating Your Family Like Our Family

By Dave Trux

When I hire somebody, one of the things that I do is tell them about our basic business philosophy. The first time anybody walks through our front door, they’re a friend. It doesn’t matter if they’re a customer, an inspector from the state of California, somebody that runs parts or a process server serving papers. It doesn’t matter.

The second time they walk through that front door, they’re family. You treat them as such and if a delivery person comes in and we have pizza or other food we’re sharing, if they were a family member, wouldn’t you invite them to sit down and have a soda and something to eat?

I feel my personal philosophy on running any kind of business, especially when its service oriented, you want to exude that feeling of contentment and happiness. People don’t come to us because they want to. They come to us because it’s a necessity. When a customer first walks in, they’re likely going to be in a negative space. I think it’s our duty to do our best to put them at ease and make them feel comfortable.

Treating a person like family is probably the fastest way to get there. If there’s any question about how I should handle something, all I have to do is ask myself, “If they were a family member, what would I do?”

We had an incident where we had a problem with a car on Friday, and I came in the following Monday at 10:30 am and it hadn’t even been on the rack yet. I looked at my manager and said, “Not only is this a good customer, he’s a personal friend. He’s been here more than once. Is this how you would treat your family?” When you set the goal of treating everyone like family, if you do fall a little bit short, you’ll probably be okay.

The goal is to show my employees how I expect to be treated. My hope is that this attitude will eventually come as naturally to them as it does to me. I truly like my customers and enjoy speaking to each and every one when I'm in the office.