To cut a long story short i had to use smc skoda main dealer in exeter to have a front offside wheel bearing replaced, as my brilliant independent garage could'nt do it in time and i needed the car for a long journey....what a big mistake!

When i picked the car up the steering wheel was off center and driving like a pig! did'nt have time to go back then as i had to get to gatwick.

Took it into my independent garage this morning and found some alarming things! Tracking was out by 6mm! worse then that though is they have damaged my wheel hub! there is a abs ring that sits in the inside of the hub and it's bent to feck! It should be straight with the same gap all the way round so the sensor works as it should.

New hub is about £76 + vat, + labour no way im paying for that!

Rang dealers up and told them think i upset them abit ive agreed to take the car back so they can look at the wheel hub and take it from there, i what a new hub fitted for free plus they can pay for my wheel alignment i had done im not a happy bunny! :( Word of warning dont think just because there main dealers that all will be ok! i thought just for one job that it would be how wrong was i never again will i go near smc.

Sounds like the work experience kid did it, or an apprentice left alone to long?

Either way, that's a very poor result that I'm sure almost any garage could have done better.

Hope you get it sorted!

not so good.. does the abs light come on when you are driving or does it feel like the abs is kicking in when you brake.. sounds like they may have bent the steering knuckle if the tracking was out by 6mm (thats a huge amount are you sure) so i would defo get it double checked

Yeah the tracking was out by 6mm!, when i spoke to smc about it they said they do not have any alignment equipment! :no: which i find strange! They should of not needed to touch the tracking at all! So they just did'nt bother with alignment which is shocking!

Its all sorted now with -1mm toe out and steering wheel dead center, no damage to steering knuckle afaik will get this double checked but the car seems to be driving fine now.

No abs light on, but brakes do feel abit odd, been told not to leave for too long like this hopefully they will cough up for new hub.

ahh but there is now way at all that they could have altered the tracking/alignment by 6mm by just dismanteling and refitting, i would think that they may have bent the steering knuckle/bearing housing slightly when pressing the bearing in or out, as everything else fits on a taper there would be no chance of it being fitted differently really to effect the tracking..

i have seen people resting the steering arm on the press when removing the bearings before too

Yeah i hear what your saying thanks im going to look into this asap and get it checked out. :no:

How can i tell if they have done damage to the steering kunckle? what should i be looking for a slight bend i take it? Cheers.

Ok just spoken to my mechanic and he checked the steering knuckle yesterday and it's fine, he said they may have bent the hub carrier slighty but these do tend to bend slighty.

the easy way is to measure from the brake disk to the steering arm at the same point on both sides of the car , i would go from the disk to the trackrod end thread that sticks out, should be the same both sides..

edit.. by steering knuckle i mean the hub carrier...

Edited 13 February, 201016 yr by felicia16v

All right hub carrier, yeah this is quiet possible then though it did'nt seem to bad yesterday when we had a look.

Sounds like the work experience kid did it, or an apprentice left alone to long?

Either way, that's a very poor result that I'm sure almost any garage could have done better.

Hope you get it sorted!

Nope, sounds like a Skoda dealer tbh.