Yesterday I took my car (2007 Honda Fit) to the American Tire Depot (ATD) shop for wheel alignment inspection. The shop is equipped with the latest model Hunter alignment system. One year (about 8,000 miles) ago I replaced the sagged front upper strut mounts with genuine Honda parts and had alignment done with the ATD shop
To my surprise, yesterday's check had indicated the left front wheel toe reading was grossly out of the specks despite centered steering wheel position and no directional pull while driving on the level road The front tires, with about 3000 miles on them, exhibit minimal Heel – Toe wear (which I see on almost every FWD car with McPherson strut front suspension). Surprised by this finding I went to another shop (Big O Tires) and had the inspection done over there on the same day. This time not only the front toe reading were different, but the rear toe was different as well
After spending some time looking art reports I may figure out how it works. Good number of guys are well ware of this , but want to share just in case
When technician drives on the alignment rack, they deliberately leave steering wheel of center , and than manager comes to you with pandemic face, telling you the this setting is off and you need adjustment. However if total toe is in tolerances, go elsewhere.
The older alignment system procedure tells to drive the front wheels on the turn plates and turn the steering wheel slightly until both left and right readings are the same on the screen (total toe check); if it is fine, check the steering wheel position and adjust it if off center.
otherwise re-adjust total toe and steering position.
I will be making the old alignment inspection ruler using t-slot frame cutoffs so I could check the total toe myself

 

Our local Honda dealer (Martin Honda) pulled the same scam on my mother (retired boomer) who didn't know any better and agreed to the service. It was the car's first service out of warranty. Total toe was well within spec. They couldn't even get the printout to numerically show that there was a problem, they just had one of the front wheel's toe (which was numerically at the limit) highlighted in red as being out of spec. I went back with my mom to meet with the service manager, who argued a few logical fallacies and then wouldn't budge. They legally got my mom to agree to the work (in spite of it being unnecessary), did some work (even if it was just turning the steering wheel a couple degrees), the bill was paid. End of story.
A year or so later, they tried to get my step father (who took his car in despite knowing full well about the above debacle) to agree to replacing the rear shocks on his G2 Insight because one "was leaking". There's no sign of a problem with the rear shocks.
I hope Honda corporate shuts them down - they're an embarrassment to the brand, embodying so much of the "bad mechanic" trope.

 

I downloaded older version of the wheel alignment text book, quite interesting to read

 

Aside from the wear bars, I trust reading tread wear patterns as much as reading tea leaves. The only reliable ones are inside/outside wear, indicating toe problems. That level of toe adjustment can be caught and corrected with a fishing line alignment.