I had to have the dealer horizontally level the truck today. It was 1 1/4" lower on the driver's side than the passenger's side, and it is now leveled to about 3/16". They are telling me the used the t-bars to level it.

Should they be doing an alignment as well? They tell me two things: (1) because it was merely leveling and not raising the front, no alignment is needed (hmmm, doesn't sound right to me; SOMETHING had to be raised to make it level); and (2) that since it was such a minor change, no alignment is necessary.

Look, I don't want to be spending another $800 on BFG's in a year because they wouldn't align this thing. GM will pay for an alignment if it is out of spec, but who knows what th at means. Should I push real hard for an alignment or just take it as is?

The question I would have is did the dealer just bring the lower side up the 1 1/4, or the other side down that much. Or did ther go up a little on the one, down a little on the other?????

If the only did one side or the other an inch or more, then yes, even though there would be only a subtle change in the allignment, to protect your investment, I would make them do it. However if they did raise the low side and lower the high side, then your only talking 1/2 an inch, you change the level of your truck that much just getting into it.

So I guess my answer to your question is....depends on what the dealer did to correct the problem, did they adjust only one side (up or down?) or did the make smaller adjustments to both sides??

Does this make sence to you??

John

make them align it, or get them to agree to pay for new tires in a year when yours are shot to Chit. -Jeff

My 04.5 was not off like yours was, but have had a continual problem with rapid drift to the right when driving. I have had the dealer re-align the front twice before I put the BFG's on and once afterward. When they did it the last time, dealer said they had found the problem with the new wheels. In reality all they had done was switch the two from wheels from side to side and let air out of the drivers side tire so that it didn't pull so bad.

Have any of you had similar problems? :lol:

No, my alignment has been really good. We'll see what happens this afternoon. 10:1 odds says it'll rub now when I turn if they lowered one side to match the other. Could be interesting.

I had the same problem with my '02 got it leveled and requested an alignment at the same time. Going with the same logic of changing the one side height by over an inch would cause an alignment problem. Alignment tech agreed with me, suprise!!! Went to pick it up and found out in Canada at least, if the mileage is under 11,000 km the alignment is free under warranty.

Same thing with me this afternoon, RVC. I'm taking it back in the morning for an alignment under warranty. They raised the left front t-bar in order to lower the right rear to match the heights horizontally.

It's funny that I actually had to ask for it though. You'd think if it were a warranted concern that the dealer would be more inclined to do the alignment and thus be paid for it by GM.

But if the fuel tank is full (which is on the driver's side) won't the driver's side be a little lower. Was a measurement made on an empty tank? Just a thought.

I had to have the dealer horizontally level the truck today. It was 1 1/4" lower on the driver's side than the passenger's side, and it is now leveled to about 3/16". They are telling me the used the t-bars to level it.

Should they be doing an alignment as well? They tell me two things: (1) because it was merely leveling and not raising the front, no alignment is needed (hmmm, doesn't sound right to me; SOMETHING had to be raised to make it level); and (2) that since it was such a minor change, no alignment is necessary.

Look, I don't want to be spending another $800 on BFG's in a year because they wouldn't align this thing. GM will pay for an alignment if it is out of spec, but who knows what th at means. Should I push real hard for an alignment or just take it as is?

Truck had 1/4 tank this morning at the dealer when it measured. Not a stupid question, though. However, I'd sure as heck hope that 125 pounds of fuel wouldn't make two inches worth of difference...

jth7186, I think the dealers will only deal with complaints or strong recommendations, unless the shop is slow and they need to increase the work load for the tech's that are standing around. Having a customer pay later vs. the manpower to deal with the paper work on warranties?

Yours is the first '05 that I have heard about that had this problem. There was a huge number that were not level back in '01 and '02. Service manager commented that I was the first that had pushed the alignment issue, but I do have a good relationship with him and the shop foreman. May be a bad sign when 3/4 of the tech's know you by name.

benburke, With the fuel tank full or empty the height difference did not change on my '02. The '04 came from the factory level.

I hear ya' RVC; between my 03 and this one they know exactly where to drop me off at my office in the morning! I'm good friends with the service manager (and was with the shop foreman before he was let go) but only one of the 5 service writers knows the connection. I hate going above people's heads, but sometimes people need to be reminded that the customer is supposed to be right.

I had my 04.5 in this past January for the same problem. The truck was REAL low in the front and listing to port.. :lol:
They said they could level it out, and even checked to make sure I had the time for them to do a front end allignment. I thought there would be a charge, but there wasn't. The service writer said it was covered under warranty. :eek:
If they had to make major adjustments to level out the truck, they need to do a complete allignment.

You've got alot of $ tied up in tires... Why take the chance? Get it aligned. If you can't get the dealer to work with you, go to an independent who will get your ride height where you want it and then set the alignment... It'll be $ well spent!


:grd:

I had a 1999 6.0L, 2000 6.0L, 2001 8.1L and now my Duramax. ALL of these trucks sat 3/4" lower on the driver's side. I'm not messing with mine because my Michelin's are wearing ABSOLUTELY perfect.

Get it aligned, any adjustment to your torsion bars will change your alignment. Trust me we do 700-800 alignments a year at our shop.

Trim height measurements should usually be taken with a full tank of fuel and a driver in the seat. It doesn't seem like much on a heavy duty truck, but on cars it makes a big difference.
Alignment specs are usually quite a broad range, and if your truck was in the middle of the range before the adjustment, it will likely still be within the range.
How would you know, or how would the shop know if it's right? By taking the time to set it up on the alignment rack and checking it, of course. As a technician, I would recomend that you have it checked...
Ed