Should I be mad about a unwanted alignment...

[6500rpm]

So I ran my set of Continental DWS 06's down to the 3-4/32" mark and had my local Firestone dealer replace them with a new set. The service manager was pushing an alignment and specifically called out toe angle from the first call to order them and when I dropped the car off to have the tires replaced. Both times I told him that I was fine, I rotate every 5k miles when I change the oil, that I check and log the tread depth inside,center, and outside on each tire before I rotate, and I have no signs of an alignment issue (especially the typical saw tooth associated with toe angle issues).
Sure as shit, I get a call telling me that they did a complimentary alignment check and the toe angle was off. Once again I let him know I was fine, the car has a pending recall for rear suspension parts, and not to align it.
Sooo, when I pick up the car I'm told he didn't want to see me ruin a good set of tire and they went ahead and adjusted the toe for free (but didn't offer any before and after sheet). I cranked the wheel all the way in both directions and you could clearly see wrench flat marks on the lock nut and inner tie rod, so they did do "some" adjustment.
Here's the issue, although my wheel is still straight and no pull, I feel like it now has some instability when driving (slightly twitchy). Tire pressures are the same 35psi that I normally run. It's only been a day, it could be the fact that the tires are new, my imagination, or they could have jacked the angle up. They could have sincerely thought they were doing me a favor when they changed it, but I kind of want to choke someone out right now....

 

[Jordan_R]

I hate the whole we should feel grateful for shit we didn't want. If they did an alignment on your car when you explicitly said to not to do then they did you wrong. Free or not.

 

[SM105K]

I hate the whole we should feel grateful for shit we didn't want. If they did an alignment on your car when you explicitly said to not to do then they did you wrong. Free or not.

100% percent agree with this statement.

 

[Jeff2017]

I wouldn't let Firestone touch my car with a 10' pole.

 

[limited02]

Sucks! Give Discount Tire a try next time because they'll easily match any price and they don't do alignments. It's been very headache free since I've been using them.

 

[rubydist]

I also would be ****** that they did an alignment when you told them not to.

The rest of the story is that new tires will feel more twitchy than the old ones, because those taller tread blocks will be more affected by the grooves in the concrete or ruts in the asphalt, so you don't have enough information from that to know if its better, worse, or no different.

 

[802SHO]

When you say twitchy do you mean if you let go of the steering wheel the steering wheel is twitchy? Slightly shaking?

 

[SM105K]

Sucks! Give Discount Tire a try next time because they'll easily match any price and they don't do alignments. It's been very headache free since I've been using them.

Yes sir, I only use Discount Tire.

 

[GotGrip?]

I hate the whole we should feel grateful for shit we didn't want. If they did an alignment on your car when you explicitly said to not to do then they did you wrong. Free or not.

100% agree, at our shop we will sometimes do freebies like touch ups (since we already mixed paint anyway) or buff a scratch or something. We let the customer know before we do it if they're interested but don't expect praise for just doing the right thing, can't say that about all shops though.

 

[luigisho]

Yes sir, I only use Discount Tire.

...and Costco. They can only do tires there anyway

 

[6500rpm]

When you say twitchy do you mean if you let go of the steering wheel the steering wheel is twitchy? Slightly shaking?

By twitchy, I mean that any slight movement seems to be overly reactive. Very small movements. Say your driving down a straight highway, any little non intentional movement of the wheel is usually kind of buffered out (steering stability) which is how my car had always handled. Now, you can actually feel them like little micro steers back and fourth. It's almost like a car with too much negative caster (think back to when you were a kid on a bicycle and turned the front tire 180 deg and tried to ride it). They didn't adjust caster, only toe, but that's the general feeling. I have no way of knowing how much they adjusted it, but in looking at the tie rod threads, if they spun it at all, it would have gone more negative (turned into the tie rod ends) or I'd see fresh threads sticking outside the jam nut. As I view both sides there are clear witness marks on the jam nut and inner tie rod. I photo documented it, took a breath after posting this and called the manager. He offered to put it back on the rack and give me a print out on where it's at. I can live with that, time is at a premium for me right now so Im going to drive it the rest of the work week (250 mi) and see if things settle down.

 

[rubydist]

Sounds like too much toe, or not enough toe. For some reason the factory thinks that fwd (or fwd biased) vehicles can have toe out, but my experience with that is they drive like crap if they are aligned that way.