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I went to Wheel Works a few days ago and I bought a lifetime wheel alignment. I don't know much about my cars but they wanted to charge $241 to shim my rear tires so they can realign. Here is the paperwork they gave me. I asked some people on a different platform if I was getting scammed and I was getting conflicting answers. Some people said I would benefit from getting shimmed and others said to never get the rear shimmed because the design of that axle is that it doesn't need shims or adjustment and changing the angles with shims is a bad idea.

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If you were me, would you spend $241 to shim your 2012 Prius C rear wheels?

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    Get it checked by the dealership.
    – Solar Mike
    Commented Sep 30, 2019 at 8:30
  • $150 labour to change the spark plugs looks a lot as well, even allowing for the fact that to change the plugs on a Prius you first have to remove the windscreen wipers (no, I'm not joking).
    – alephzero
    Commented Sep 30, 2019 at 9:23
  • I'm a bit unfamiliar with the platform, but why is it necessary to shim the rear wheels? Is the target alignment beyond the adjustable range of the rear? (are there many potholes in your area?)
    – Kitsunemimi
    Commented Sep 30, 2019 at 13:16
  • Either way, $241 seems rather steep. You could buy two whole new tires with that, and it's not terribly out of spec besides.
    – Kitsunemimi
    Commented Sep 30, 2019 at 13:20
  • I still don't understand why you have to shim the tyres. Besides a car is easily adjusted to spec without the need of any extra changes. Unless of course you were rear ended. Lastly on the wheel alignment they mount the machine on the rims not on the tyres, which means that I wouldn't give that money. Did you got back a review that shows of how off your alignment is?
    – Alimba
    Commented Sep 30, 2019 at 13:45

1 Answer 1

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Camber and Toe on rear wheels is not adjustable on many newer cars, so shims have to be used to bring it back in spec. Check with a dealership to see if it is indeed non-adjustable on your specific car.

Your right rear Toe is in spec according to the specified range, and the left Toe is only out .08 of a degree which is next to nothing, I would not correct it.

Modern wheel alignment machines are very accurate down to a hundredth of a degree, manufacturers of these very expensive machines do this to help the shops sell more expensive alignments to pay for the machine.

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