wheel goemetry problems on octavia vrs ltd hatch back

[black belt]

Hi

Can any body tell me if they are having problems with their wheel geometry, especially their rear wheels, as the inside edge of my tyres has worn quite badly and are making an annoying noise, and what they did to sort out the problem.

Regards black belt.

Cheers Guys thanks for the information, my car is in at Skoda as we speak.

Regards black belt.

Edited 10 August, 2011 by black belt

[gadgetman]

The rear tyre wear is a common mk2 issue, worse with some tyres such as dunlops than others. A search or looking at the pinned topics will yield the correct geometry values.

Ours never suffered from this despite the lowered suspension and 17" factory upgrade (std mk2 Elegance). Skoda resolved most alignment issues from MY07 onward.

[Micky 32]

I had the problem in my 08 vRS. The back drivers side was eating the inside of the tyre. Laser alignment seems to have cured it.

[TMO]

Hi, seems to be a common problem with the VAG group hatches my Seat Leon has suffered bad from it, the picture below shows the rear left after 24k miles. As you can see from the rest of the tread its got plenty of life left in it. I haven't got mine laser aligned though as I've got mr vrs on order, I'll let the next muck deal with it.

I might refuse to sign off my vrs when it arrives until it has a wheel alignment done.

[PeteHuws]

Exactly the same on my drivers side rear, I've got a 07 vrs estate, strange this should pop up I've got my car booked in for a laser alignment this Saturday, fingers crossed.

[Mark1967]

Just had mine done worth every penny for peace of mind.

[DLW]

It's not happened to mine, I have run my tyres for 32k miles and I don't know how many the previous owner did on them but rears are still like new, the fronts are a different story but they have worn on the outer edge but I feel this is due to heavy foot on acceleration and wheel spin and are close to needing replacing.

D

[Micky 32]

This is what it done to my tyre lol

[PeteHuws]

When I take my car in should I just let the 'aligner' do his stuff or should I be mentioning values to him etc?

I've booked an alignment on a Hunter Hawkeye jig. I noticed the following from VRSStu's website you see:

Rear Camber ValuesDue to a number of complaints regarding rear tyre noise and wear on Octavia A5 vehicles, the rear camber values can be changed to the following settings -

Old values are: -1°45' ± 30'

New values are: -1°20' ± 30'

This information applies to Standard and Sport suspension

Cheers!!!

[Wardy]

This is what it done to my tyre lol

That photo should be on the 'sawtooth' thread Micky, as an example!

When I take my car in should I just let the 'aligner' do his stuff or should I be mentioning values to him etc?

I've booked an alignment on a Hunter Hawkeye jig. I noticed the following from VRSStu's website you see:

Rear Camber ValuesDue to a number of complaints regarding rear tyre noise and wear on Octavia A5 vehicles, the rear camber values can be changed to the following settings -

Old values are: -1°45' ± 30'

New values are: -1°20' ± 30'

This information applies to Standard and Sport suspension

Definitely mention it to them. Also, with it being a Hunter system, it would be interesting to see what suggested values it has loaded in the system. The operator can enter custom values to set up against though.

[eccleshill]

Can somebody recommend a good place for 4 wheel aligment in the Leeds area. No uneven wear on the Bridgestone tyres but the road noise drone at 20-40mph from the back wheels is gradually getting louder.

Had problems with my 10 mth old granddaughter the other week that may be related! She normally sleeps like a log in the car but last time in my car she squawked constantly excpet when the car stopped - stopped at traffic lights - silence - moved off again - squawking!

Another issue I have is that the steering wheel is offset slightly to the right - been like it from new and asked for it to be straightened at the last service. I got a seriously worrying phonecall! The conversation went something like this:

Dealer - "About your steering wheel. Our technician says that if he moves the steering wheel round a notch on the splines it will be offset even more the other way"

Me - "That's no way to do it. You need to reset the tracking"

Dealer - "Your front tyre wear is perfect - there is no problem with the tracking"

Me - "I know that otherwise it would have been in earlier. You need to realign both wheels with the steering wheel straight."

Dealer - "But your tracking is perfect, the tyre wear is absolutely even. If we alter the tracking your tyres will wear badly on the inside edge"

At this point I decided it best not to let them touch the tracking!!

Me - "Ok - don't bother, I'll just have to live with it"

Dealer - "Yes, that's probably best"

[Wardy]

What a deeply worrying response....

Check http://www.alignmycar.co.uk where you can check for nearby places with Hunter setups.

[Sarge]

Can somebody recommend a good place for 4 wheel aligment in the Leeds area. No uneven wear on the Bridgestone tyres but the road noise drone at 20-40mph from the back wheels is gradually getting louder.

Had problems with my 10 mth old granddaughter the other week that may be related! She normally sleeps like a log in the car but last time in my car she squawked constantly excpet when the car stopped - stopped at traffic lights - silence - moved off again - squawking!

Another issue I have is that the steering wheel is offset slightly to the right - been like it from new and asked for it to be straightened at the last service. I got a seriously worrying phonecall! The conversation went something like this:

Dealer - "About your steering wheel. Our technician says that if he moves the steering wheel round a notch on the splines it will be offset even more the other way"

Me - "That's no way to do it. You need to reset the tracking"

Dealer - "Your front tyre wear is perfect - there is no problem with the tracking"

Me - "I know that otherwise it would have been in earlier. You need to realign both wheels with the steering wheel straight."

Dealer - "But your tracking is perfect, the tyre wear is absolutely even. If we alter the tracking your tyres will wear badly on the inside edge"

At this point I decided it best not to let them touch the tracking!!

Me - "Ok - don't bother, I'll just have to live with it"

Dealer - "Yes, that's probably best"

My steering wheel was mis-aligned to the left from new. The geometry check I had done identified that the fronts were needing adjusted. That adjustment straightened the steering wheel, which is now flat. You can't move the steering wheel round on the splines - I asked Ben at Shark about that when I had the steering wheel replaced. I would be tempted to suggest finding another dealer or good indie to do a geometry check for you.

Sarge.

[black belt]

Can somebody recommend a good place for 4 wheel aligment in the Leeds area. No uneven wear on the Bridgestone tyres but the road noise drone at 20-40mph from the back wheels is gradually getting louder.

Had problems with my 10 mth old granddaughter the other week that may be related! She normally sleeps like a log in the car but last time in my car she squawked constantly excpet when the car stopped - stopped at traffic lights - silence - moved off again - squawking!

Another issue I have is that the steering wheel is offset slightly to the right - been like it from new and asked for it to be straightened at the last service. I got a seriously worrying phonecall! The conversation went something like this:

Dealer - "About your steering wheel. Our technician says that if he moves the steering wheel round a notch on the splines it will be offset even more the other way"

Me - "That's no way to do it. You need to reset the tracking"

Dealer - "Your front tyre wear is perfect - there is no problem with the tracking"

Me - "I know that otherwise it would have been in earlier. You need to realign both wheels with the steering wheel straight."

Dealer - "But your tracking is perfect, the tyre wear is absolutely even. If we alter the tracking your tyres will wear badly on the inside edge"

At this point I decided it best not to let them touch the tracking!!

Me - "Ok - don't bother, I'll just have to live with it"

Dealer - "Yes, that's probably best"

[black belt]

Thanks for the information

regards black belt

[lozparry]

What a deeply worrying response....

Check http://www.alignmycar.co.uk where you can check for nearby places with Hunter setups.

cheers for the link, was gonna go to Buckley Tyres with my daughters car, this gives me a 5% off voucher!

btw, I have had no problems luckily with my rear tyres so far with my vrs. swapped back to front (conti 2) at around 13500 miles when I renewed the fronts for sessantas, 6k more and those are going strong on the front with 4mm left.

[blueR36]

Hi, seems to be a common problem with the VAG group hatches my Seat Leon has suffered bad from it, the picture below shows the rear left after 24k miles. As you can see from the rest of the tread its got plenty of life left in it. I haven't got mine laser aligned though as I've got mr vrs on order, I'll let the next muck deal with it.

I might refuse to sign off my vrs when it arrives until it has a wheel alignment done.

PLENTY? :no: , your version of plenty to mine are different, change mine when worn to 1st marker, silly losing your life for a pair of tyres

[alberg]

My break 1.6 tdi from new had the steering wheel always to the right and pulled to the right bad.

At dealer they never got it, changed wheels from one side and another and got worse.

Went to another dealer and they finally fixed the steering wheel being to the right but the car still pulled to the right.

They put the wheels from a golf and the pulling to the right stopped.

So it´s the tires (bridgestone turanza E300),

After some testing they rotated each tire 45 degrees on the rim and 95% of the pulling went away.

The tires have now over 26000km and still look good, they where changed from front/back and back/front at 10 and 20000km resp.

Yes tire noise from back, everywhere, is an issue.

Leave you the results from the alingment.( sorry badly scanned because the letters aren´t very dark on the paper)

Frente = front

Frente Esquerda = front left side

Frente direita = front right side

traseira = rear

traseira esquerda = rear left

traseira direita = right left

apôs = after change

anterior = before change

valores fabrica = skoda values

Edited 7 August, 2011 by alberg

[andyvee]

Anyone wanting a full Hunter geometry done I would highly recommend Drury Lane Garage in Oldham.

They charge about £48 if the rears don't need adjusting, and about £90 for adjustment of all 4 corners.

All done properly on a Hunter rig with the car 'floating' on an air cushion under each wheel so it can be adjusted properly. A lot of places don't have this facility as it is about £30k for the ramp!

They will show you the 'before' and then do the adjustments, and then show you the 'after'. You get the full print out from them as evidence of the before and after values.

Website is http://www.drurylane...etry-alignment/

Had mine done there and it drives soooo much better - reduced understeer and significantly less twitchy in the wet at speed.

[Wardy]

Good to know Andy, cheers. Will add that one to my list

[andyvee]

Nice family run business and they make you a cuppa whilst you wait!

[PeteHuws]

cheers for the link, was gonna go to Buckley Tyres with my daughters car, this gives me a 5% off voucher!

btw, I have had no problems luckily with my rear tyres so far with my vrs. swapped back to front (conti 2) at around 13500 miles when I renewed the fronts for sessantas, 6k more and those are going strong on the front with 4mm left.

Funny enough, Buckley is where I went with my Octavia on Saturday (I was visiting my brother in Chester). I wrote down the new Skoda recoomendation for rear camber on a piece of paper Old values are: -1°45' ± 30'

New values are: -1°20' ± 30'

They confirmed their Hunter machine was updated regularly but shown the old values still -1°45' ± 30'. The chap there added the new numbers into the machine for me. My rear camber prior to adjustment was terrible, got a nice print-out fterwards and £49.90, the back end of the car feels a lot more planted with slightly less vibration at high speeds, he also said the tracking was marginally out at the front & adjusted that, although I'm sure that the car is now pulling to the left slightly wherein before it travelled a straight track I still need to replace that sawtoothed tyre, if fact both rear tyres are getting replaced tomorrrow so maybe that will help.

[Wardy]

Sounds good Pete. Yes, even after you've had everything sorted, if you've had uneven tyre wear those will need to be replaced unfortunately.

Then you'll have a fresh pair on there, that will be wearing correctly and evenly

[andyvee]

Funny enough, Buckley is where I went with my Octavia on Saturday (I was visiting my brother in Chester). I wrote down the new Skoda recoomendation for rear camber on a piece of paper Old values are: -1°45' ± 30'

New values are: -1°20' ± 30'

They confirmed their Hunter machine was updated regularly but shown the old values still -1°45' ± 30'. The chap there added the new numbers into the machine for me. My rear camber prior to adjustment was terrible, got a nice print-out fterwards and £49.90, the back end of the car feels a lot more planted with slightly less vibration at high speeds, he also said the tracking was marginally out at the front & adjusted that, although I'm sure that the car is now pulling to the left slightly wherein before it travelled a straight track I still need to replace that sawtoothed tyre, if fact both rear tyres are getting replaced tomorrrow so maybe that will help.

Does your print out show both the front and rear thrust angles as being 0.00 after the adjustments?

[PeteHuws]

I think they do, I think I left the print-out at my brothers :( so can't check, if I find it I'llpost back!