Alignment

[snow_bound26]

I just tried to get an alignment after replacing wheel bearing and ball joints. Shop told me they couldn't do it because they need a specific part that plugs into the DCC on the dampers. I'm not disagreeing with the shop as I trust them, but how does this affect doing alignments with coilovers? I will be installing some later this summer. For those of you with coilovers, how do you make sure your alignment is correct?

 

[Salami]

Shop told me they couldn't do it because they need a specific part that plugs into the DCC on the dampers.

What function did they say said part performs?

To the best of my knowledge there is nothing that plugs into the shocks or DCC module. Calibration of certain sensors may need to be done.

 

[OSC4R]

Either a misunderstanding/communication issue between you and the shop. Or the coilovers you are mentioning are not DCC, you need to purchase canceler plugs which some will ship with, but most will not...

Any modern euro independent shop should be able to do a DCC calibration. All it is should be putting the car on a lift with the wheels at full droop and running the calibration procedure, if the coilovers are DCC compatible or have canceler/simulator plugs.

 

[snow_bound26]

What function did they say said part performs?

To the best of my knowledge there is nothing that plugs into the shocks or DCC module. Calibration of certain sensors may need to be done.

He told me a warning popped up on their screen saying they needed to plug in a sensor to the DCC port on the dampers. The system wouldn't allow them to go any further until it detects this. Based on the research I did last night, it sounds like some kind of calibration tool.

 

[snow_bound26]

Either a misunderstanding/communication issue between you and the shop. Or the coilovers you are mentioning are not DCC, you need to purchase canceler plugs which some will ship with, but most will not...

Any modern euro independent shop should be able to do a DCC calibration. All it is should be putting the car on a lift with the wheels at full droop and running the calibration procedure, if the coilovers are DCC compatible or have canceler/simulator plugs.

Don't have coilovers installed yet. Only replaced ball joints and wheel bearings recently. I don't have any indy Euro shops within a couple hours of where I live. Decided I'm going to use a shop that did my track alignments on previous cars after I install coilovers and just deal with the 6hr drive to them.

 

[Salami]

He told me a warning popped up on their screen saying they needed to plug in a sensor to the DCC port on the dampers. The system wouldn't allow them to go any further until it detects this. Based on the research I did last night, it sounds like some kind of calibration tool.

Never heard of such a thing

@scrllock is this info he was given incorrect?

 

[scrllock]

You can do a DCC calibration but that's something you can easily do at home, just need to jack the car up to full droop.

There's zero need to do this to perform an alignment, the shop is very misinformed.

 

[snow_bound26]

You can do a DCC calibration but that's something you can easily do at home, just need to jack the car up to full droop.

There's zero need to do this to perform an alignment, the shop is very misinformed.

Thanks for the info. Considering VW's and such aren't popular where I live, being misinformed doesn't surprise me