I thought of that. I told them it had all fresh parts with less than 4000 miles on them. They check everthing before they align it and said the parts were worn. Then they invited me down in the pit to watch while the mechanic moved my wheel all over while it was in the air. He grabbed the tire and wiggled it back and forth. Then pryed it up and down. The play was at the lower ball joint and movement was about 1/8" in each direction off center, plus up and down. They both moved a lot!

I didn't look for the play in the idler arm. He said it was moving up and down when the sterring wheel is moved back and forth. He explained the new bearing design moves up and down significantly after a short while, but is otherwise not sloppy laterally. He says they are weak that way, and it's a problem due to the angle of the tie rods.

The cool thing that happened on my visit there, was that they had to fire up a late 60's Hemi 4-speed Satilite to bring my car in. These guys have worked on my stuff before, and they were good. All they do is front ends, and are happy to show the slop in worn parts. So, I think they do legitimate work...