Hi,

Not long ago I had the front tyres on my car changed and asked the garage to check the rear wheel bearings as there was a loud droning noise. The guy come back to me and said that it was the rear tyres which were "sawtoothing" so I had the rears replaced too.

Now, I am aware that it is to do with the rear setup of the car but the guy told me that the rear can't be adjusted. In fact, most of the other guys that I've owned couldn't have the rear alignment adjusted either.

Has anyone actually had theirs done and in the Hampshire/Berkshire/Surrey area??

Skoda said they will get VW to check it for free but would cost £185 to correct - no thanks... I've recently E-mailed a place in Reading which have a 'Hunters' machine and they've asked to see my car before they can advise on the rear adjustment, which to me sounds like they've never adjusted the rear on a Skoda/Volkswagen/Audi/Seat.

Depend on what year is your Skoda. If it has beam axle in a back then there is no "easy way" of adjusting. Only confident alignment shop will look at it and advise you howe much and they will do it. Its not something that "typical" alignment/tracking place will decide to do. There is way to adjust trust angle in simple way but thats it. It various from car to car.

If yours is with independant suspension - then who ever said that didnt bother to look under your car to see how that can be sorted. Either way £185 to correct it it will be not enough (if its a massive job) or way, way to much if its just alignment/tracking job.

Would you be able to get print-out for your suspension?

I had a four wheel alignment done on my previous (2007) Octavia it had been chamfering tread of the inboard sections of both rear tyres. All angles were in spec apart from the drivers side rear camber angle which was one minute of arc out of tolerance tolerance = 0 degrees 0 minutes to 0 degrees 10 minutes. meacured camber = 0 degrees 11 minutes. This was reset to 0 dgress 0.5 minutes - some of the other angles changed but were still within tolerance. This cured the problem. I had to pay for the work as the dealer told me that Skoda would not do the work under waranty - the car was about 2 1/2 years old at the time.

It's a 2006. The guy who told me it couldn't be adjusted had the MK1 Octavia vRS (I've had one of these too and have been told that this one couldn't be adjusted too). I didn't have the tracking done so don't have a print out unfortunately.

Just had mine done last week @ Merityre in Andover. They have a 4 wheel alignment rig.

My FL vRS has 54k miles on it now and the last set of tyres were showing a slightly uneven wear on the rears (inner edge). It wasn't far out, but it was still worth doing.

http://www.merityre.co.uk/tyres-andover.htm

If that's no good for you location-wise, then try here: http://www.alignmycar.co.uk/

HTH.

MK II octavia can be adjusted.

Take it to a protyre (I'd suggest eastleigh) and get them to do a full geo check on it.

Should cost between £45 and £75 if it needs adjusting.

Just ask your dealer/search on here for the revised rear values and ask the person adjusting to set the rear to this.

Micheldever tyres have always done a very good job for me.

rotodiesel.

Micheldever tyres have always done a very good job for me.

rotodiesel.

I used to go to them quite often but they've said in the past that they don't do the rears.

If you are in the area, Denmead Tyres near Waterlooville/Portsmouth are excellent and have a Hunter rig for 4-wheel laser alignment - reasonably priced too!

Micheldever tyres have always done a very good job for me.

rotodiesel.

I used to go to them quite often but they've said in the past that they don't do the rears.

Protyre are owned by micheldever and they said you could and as above I watched them do it.

I agree if micheldever is closer, then have a chat to them as they can do alignment, although I've had very bad experience with balancing from there a few times.

Edited 19 December, 201114 yr by cheezemonkhai

I use Protyre in Fareham or Micheldever when I am up near Amazingstoke both part of the Protyre chain. Both have done a good job in the past and adjusted the rear angles to within the Skoda revised settings. Never had an issue with uneven rear wear on my 2006 vRS.

I have used Micheldever for the daily drives & they have always been OK

If you want the dogs doo dahs job I would recomend Powerstation in Cheltenham http://www.powerstation.org.uk/alignment.asp Bit of a trek but I use them on the quicker cars & they always do a cracking job. The benefit of using them is they can set cars up from first principles, not just to factory settings & can dial out some of the understeer if you want which is inherent on most FWD factory settings

Edited 20 December, 201114 yr by Stuart_J

I have used Micheldever for the daily drives & they have always been OK

If you want the dogs doo dahs job I would recomend Powerstation in Cheltenham http://www.powerstation.org.uk/alignment.asp Bit of a trek but I use them on the quicker cars & they always do a cracking job. The benefit of using them is they can set cars up from first principles, not just to factory settings & can dial out some of the understeer if you want which is inherent on most FWD factory settings

Hmm that's closer to where I am these days..

Interesting

I had a four wheel alignment done on my previous (2007) Octavia it had been chamfering tread of the inboard sections of both rear tyres. All angles were in spec apart from the drivers side rear camber angle which was one minute of arc out of tolerance tolerance = 0 degrees 0 minutes to 0 degrees 10 minutes. meacured camber = 0 degrees 11 minutes. This was reset to 0 dgress 0.5 minutes - some of the other angles changed but were still within tolerance. This cured the problem. I had to pay for the work as the dealer told me that Skoda would not do the work under waranty - the car was about 2 1/2 years old at the time.

Interesting. I just had my car serviced before Christmas and they advised the rears needed aligning and said they would do it under warranty - it's booked in tomorrow with a Skoda main dealer.