I've got into the habit of having my tracking done every 2 months to prolong the life of my hankook evo tyres and for the third time this year, the tracking is out.

Not once have I curbed them or even come close to.

So I'm going to blame our British pot holed s h i t t y roads and them bloody speed humps.

Rant over. Quick pic.

You know what.. I'm kinda relieved to have read someone else has found the Fabia's front end a bit prone to wander! Makes me hopeful my car's "normal".

Mine seems to slips every 6 months or so, but you won't like this next bit..... I blame smacking it into a kerb in 2008.. There's no remaining "accident" damage as such, trust me, I'd a got shot if I didn't trust it to be 100%. But the whack left me in need of a new wish bone, track rod, bushes and CV joints (the shaft went of for analysis, as did the steering rack, they both came back good luckily).. But the front sub frame had to come off to be sorted (I took the head of one of the retaining bolts for it...).. When my then Mechanic put it back together I know he had some trouble refining the tracking & alignment....

He did get it driving straight in the end, all fine.... but I'm absolutely adamant that whack has made it susceptible to pot holes throwing it easier than it should! maybe the workshop torque setting isn't quite tight enough anymore for a 1 nano meter thinner bit of metal, if ya follow me?

Combination of speed bumps and pot holes and squishy console bush design.

Rob, I see what your saying, I hope it haven't had a whack before I had it!!!

I do go over a lot of speed bumps, everyday in fact and also have to go over a very rigid cattle grid now and then and also crazy mountain roads quite often. The joys of living right next to the brecon beacons eh??

Console bushes have been upgraded to the cupra ones.

Next mission: go as slow as possible going over speed humps and mean nearly to a stop.

Speed bumps do a huge amount of damage. cost me a fortune on my old Altea and I expect it'll cost me with my Roomster as well judging by these comments. Councils just get away with damaging our cars like this. Its those square ones that give the tracking such a hard time.

Good idea to check the settings every few months, as long as you can find somewhere that you trust to check and adjust properly, so at least it saves on the tyres being destroyed as well.

As much as I agree that speed bumps aren't good for cars I do also have to say they are very much needed with some of the idiots on our roads!

Please tell me that you joking? You spend money 3-4 times a year for tracking on equipment like the one on picture and you feel as its out for 3rd time this year?

Well... let me tell you few things about setup like this.

1. This equipment is installed on tyres. Tyre is flexible and change shape after a while. If your tread change within one tyre it might effect how this is hang. This will result in toe diffrences.

2. Alignment should be measured on fixed parts of suspension and thats why newest systems install heads/gauges on rims to eliminate possible mistakes.

3. Those setup wont read camber and caster. So your alignment wont be set perfecly right.

4. For entuhsiast like you who really care for suspension and tyre condition you cant expect great accurancy from equipment that is designed for "kwik-fit" places - not profesional alignment garages for car enthusiast like you.

Save yourself a money and do proper 4 wheel alignment/geometry once or twice a year on equipment where they might charge you more and then you wont be complaining.

UK have plenty pot-holes but still those roads are not as bad. Ive seen vehicles that drove over 6k miles on roads like those and alignemnt setting where the same as in a day when they were set.

allias, thanks for the info.

Luckily I don't pay for the tracking as I know the owner quite well, but now your saying it, he is just a small tyre fitter business.

To be fair though the car does drive very smooth, no wobble or shake at pretty high speeds.

This has hit home a little now and I now want to find a proper alignment centre near to me to have it done properly!!!

Any company names I should be aware of??

You should use a Hunter setup for best results.

http://www.alignmycar.co.uk/CentreLocator

Even then, ask them lots of questions because the possession of a Hunter alignment rig does not mean they know how to use it.

See this thread for MUCH more on this;

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/112607-wheel-alignment-the-big-con/

Hunter equipment is the right on to choose. Another one is the one from US - John Beam Visualiner V3D. I know those both are state of art when it comes to alignment reading. Find someone who has one and is willing to educate you about it. Only those people will know how to use as they will be confident in this equipment. Hunter and John Beam (Snap-On) provide traning with those so you got better chances there then "kwik-fit" equipment.