Alignment shop "slotted" my struts.

[cheeba]

Hi guys,

I hit a curb a few months ago and my alignment went all out of whack apparently. I am running on tokico blues and the alignment shop said that they needed to "slot" my struts in order to align my car.

Can someone tell me what this means and if the lifespan of my struts are now shortened?

Also, my alignment usually costs $70. They charged me $140 to slot and align. Is this reasonable?

Thanks.

[davemac2]

It likely means they needed to enlarge the strut mount holes on the car's body to bring the wheels back into alignment. This would imply that some part of your suspension or frame was bent affecting the alignment. The extra $70 they charged is likely their 1hr min labor charge to do this on top of the alignment charge; kind of cheesy IMHO; especially if they only needed to do this for 1 of the strut mounts. And no, it will not affect your actual struts per say.

dave mc.

[eyeball96]

Never heard of it!.... Clueless here!

I'll ask my mechanic about it the next time it see him!

[KevinACrider]

Dave nailed it on the head. Due the damage done when hitting the curb, you're car could no longer be aligned without either repairing the damage or rigging the strut. This was easier, cheaper and now you're final answer. It won't affect the life of the strut but make damn sure you don't hit anything else on that same corner.

[cheeba]

Thanks for the replies guys. Makes sense to me now.