Does "all wheel" alignment include "front end" alignment?

Well yeah, it does. What else could it mean? But why are you asking folks in a new group. Just call the dealer's service department and ask them. You might also ask if that price is for just the front or if it includes the rear wheels also.

Jack

In addition to Front wheel alignment , All wheel alignment includes alignment of the rear wheels also. hence the name all wheel alignment. Depending on the type of equipment used to align the vehicle sensors are place on all four wheels. The "Rack" that the vehicle is aligned on has Turn plates in the front and Slip plates in the rear. The turn plates in the front allow the turning of the wheels during the alignment process to take readings in the full left and right steering positions. The rear slip plates allow the rear wheels to settle in their normal position so proper readings can take place. Two wheel alignment only aligns the front wheels to an imaginary line parallel to the body of the vehicle and not to the rear wheels. If the rear wheels are off slightly the vehicle will not track properly as it drives down the road. |-- | | --| All wheel alignment corrects that by aligning the front wheels and the rear wheels together.

Fred

Thank you for pointing out the meaning of the word "All". I wasn't aware of it's meaning before. $68 is a pretty cheap price for an "All" Wheel Alignment around here, that's why I said to ask.

I still think he'd get a more meaningful answer to his question if he called the dealership.

Jack

There is also a middle ground called thrust angle alignment in which the front wheels are aligned according to the angle of the unadjustable rear wheels instead of aligning against the center-line of the vehicle. This is obviously preferrable to plain front wheel alignment.

"Mike hunt" wrote in news:28CdnSWaLpU7D9PVnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@ptd.net:

That's not _totally_ true. Leaf-sprung solid rear axles can be adjusted a little bit by loosening and shifting the axle/spring pack bolts. This changes your thrust line, and thus the required front alignment.

Fred C. Dobbs wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

More exactly, for an independent rear-end FWD car (view in fixed-width font)...

Front wheels properly aligned to thrust line as established by a dead- straight rear wheel alignment relative to car body: \ -

--+----front / -

Front wheels to left of thrust line as established by rear wheels. Steering wheel needs to be turned to right to make car drive straight. Front needs to be adjusted to compensate for offset rear thrust: \ -

-------front

- + -

Most cars dog-track to some degree. This does not necessarily mean the wheels are misaligned. There are a few vehicles that have rear toe adjustment available only on one wheel, so in those cases dog-tracking is unavoidable.

Well - yeah they are misalgined. If something does not track, it is misaligned whether it is adjustable or not. :)

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')