Evening All,

I am beginning to out of my mind with the odd tyre wear on my 07 vrs. Its been geo checked, tracked, new tyres etc and still seems to wear and feather the inside of the front tyres creating a horrible droning sound.

I may have to go into more detail later but just a quick question, does anyone have the tracking settings for the VRS on this year. The garage settings only went to 2004 or something, they were -4 for the rear and 0 on the front if that makes any sense to anyone. I have just had the front and rears swapped but want to make sure everything is fine so my rears (that are now on the front) don't get worn and noisy too. I had a few adjustments during the geometry check and hopefully its sorted but the tyres are still noisy as i take it they are really feathered on the inside as a result.

Thanks in advance.

Octavia-vRS.com - Octavia A5 Common or Known Problems and Issues

I had a four wheel alignment done on my car last week (having had a Whiteline anti-lift kit fitted) and the settings on my car were mostly correct to the garage's default. These settings are;-

Front Axle

Total toe +1.1mm; tolerance -1.1mm & +1.1mm

Half toe +0.5mm left or right; tolerance -0.5mm & +0.5mm

Camber -0.68deg left or right (must be the same both sides); tolerance -0.50deg & +0.50deg

Rear Axle

Total toe +1.1mm; tolerance -1.1mm & +1.1mm

Half toe +0.5mm left or right; tolerance -0.5mm & +0.5mm

Camber -1.20deg (must be the same both sides); tolerance -0.30deg & +0.30deg

Interestingly, my rear camber setting was around -1.75deg prior to adjustment and this was the default setting on the machine but I knew that it ought to be -1.20deg from here;Common Problems | Octavia-VRS.com I had been getting some, but not a lot, of inner edge rear tyre wear and am surprised it was not more.

Hope that helps.

I wonder. If you look closely at the feathered area of the tread, does it have a "reversed sawtooth" appearance (high edge at the front)? If so, and if you're running a non-directional tyre (check properly, don't assume based on the tread pattern), try swapping the tyres side to side.

Thanks for the ideas guys.

I would say the tyres are definately directional as they have the arrows indicating rotation on the side walls, at the moment it would seem the noise i was getting has slightly shifted to the back with the tyres being swapped. I am now running dunlop sport sp9000 with uneven wear on the rear and dunlop sport maxx on the front. I know these are known for their road noise but this is just too noisy!

Thanks Bahnstormer, was just looking at my geo check sheet and it would seem that there is a big difference between the initial and final readings so they have made some changes. The rear total toe was showing as 0deg45min with the min and max limits at 0.04 and 0.16 this was a fair bit out. Now showing as 0deg9min as final.

My rear camber is showing some funny values but perhaps i am just reading it wrong, initial reading was left rear 3.9deg right rear -0.2deg with the same settings as the final reading also. I am probably wrong but should this not be different and need some adjustment?

I had emailed the sheet over to summers motors near maidstone as skoda say they are an approved garage for alignment on vag cars, he said it all seems fine but i may just get it re checked to be safe.

I am hoping the damage to the tyres was done before the last adjustments were made and that now i am just suffereing the after effects of uneven wear. I pray that the tyres now on the front don't wear like this or there is definatly an issue.

Sorry for the massive post but its just one of those issues i suppose!

Cheers again

3.9deg is way outside specs; I don't even need a data sheet to know that much!

This is what you should be looking at if the car has standard suspension:

Octavia II (2004-) Sports Suspension RS (2UC)

Front

Camber 0°41’ ± 0°30’

Caster 7°47’ ± 0°30’

Toe 0°05’ ± 0°05’

Total Toe 0°10’ ± 0°10’

Steer Ahead 0°00’ ± 0°03’

Rear

Camber 1°20’ ± 0°30’ - These are the revised figures for rear camber.

Toe 0°05’ ± 0°05’

Total Toe 0°10’ ± 0°10’

Thrust angle 0°00’ ± 0°20’

All figures shown in degrees and minutes.

I hope this helps.

Thanks all,

This may help, I have uploaded the actual check results so you can have a look. I am just after a recommendation whether or not to go and get this re-done. I was lucky to have this done for free when the car was in having a new rear bumper after someone drove into the back of it. However i just can't make out the figures on the rear camber, looks like it just hasn't been touched??

Do you think the dodgy rear camber value could be making the noise that sounds like a wheel bearing going. Thats what noise seems to be coming from that area.

Thanks again for your help.

Edited 7 May, 200917 yr by bestyuk

You are right they haven't even touched the rear camber which is way out of alignment, they probably thought it wasn't adjustable like the Mk1 Octavia. Your current rear camber settings have probably worn the rear tyres unevenly and that is what is making the noise.

The rear camber should be between -0.8° and -1.8°, (-0°50 and -1°50 in degrees and minutes) and yours is showing 3.9° for the right and -0.2° for the left which is a long way out of tolerance.

I would take the car back and get them to do it properly.

Edited 7 May, 200917 yr by peter0976

Thanks for taking a look. I have booked it in tomorrow with the vag approved centre. I will take the new rear camber settings and get it all adjusted. I will let you know how i get on.

Hopefully my next set of tyres will last more than 5 mins!

A rear camber angle of nearly 4 degrees implies impact damage or some derangement of the rear axle mounting - or possibly a collapsing wheel bearing.

Well hopefully it will all get sorted but i was told by the first place that did the alignment that it seems like a wheel bearing issue. The skoda dealer checked it and pointed me towards the vag approved garage to do the alignment again. So at least if it is i would hope i can go back to skoda and get the bearing sorted as well as my cash back for the alignment as "of course its not under warranty"!

I just can't understand how the last company that did it let the rear camber go untouched?