Picked them up for £200 with correct tyres already fitted....x3 with 5-7mm tread, one of them was 4-5-4. I know the car doesn't look nearly as flashy as some of yours here and the wheels do need touching up....but it looks meaner now. Good move for the money or just brash splurging?

(I have yet to stick the centre cap PastyBadges I got a while ago...but I think those VW ones need sanding to flatten and improve adhesion?)

Unfortunately I paid for wheel alignment before reading the whole 'wheel alignment the big con' thread....should've gone for the bells-and-whistles geometry one. Although after reading that I took it to another local chain to just check the alignment.....unsurprisingly they came up with different results. I took those back to the first place and needlesstosay he was offended I took it for a second opinion. Both places are just saying the other's machine is different/wrong/uncalibrated. At least the first place has offered to recheck and readjust in a couple of weeks time.

I thought it would be a quick and easy thing to get done locally....I just hate confronting someone over something I know very little about.

Looking good mate and looks well worth the money paid.

I had a couple of VW centre caps and just heated them before sticking the vRS caps from a PastyBoy group buy on and they've stuck well.

Thanks so much Glad someone approves. Thanks for the tip....did you use a heat gun? Can I get away with putting it in the oven or bringing an iron very close to it?

Good for you that you happy with look. Not my style but its you drive it and when you happy with it - that all what matter.

As far as alignment I can only suggest to you to check readings like-a-like with numbers and check how much is it off between. I found when you deal with "old style machines" they tend to have slight misscalculations compering to new rigs.

If in your case both use Snap-On or Hunter equipment then I would really like to see both print-outs to compare diffrences. Newer equipment will work with much bigger accurancy but it does need calibration once a while.

Other thing I would like to point out - if you are checking printouts - make sure you read numbers - not "red-green" graphs as it might be missleading as there could be slight diffrences in spec between brands of machine. If you can post your readouts - please do so, so we could give you "third " opinion.

Really appreciate your third opinion

First place before:

Front camber left = -0^o57' right = -0^o35'

toe left = 0^o16' right = -0^o15'

total toe = 0^o01'

steer ahead = 0^o15'

Rear camber left = -1^o36' right = -1^o29'

toe left = 0^o13' right = 0^o16'

total toe = 0^o28'

thrust angle = -0^o02'

First place after:

Front camber left = -0^o56' right = -0^o36'

toe left = 0^o06' right = 0^o04'

total toe = 0^o11'

steer ahead = 0^o01'

Rear camber left = -1^o36' right = -1^o29'

toe left = 0^o12' right = 0^o15'

total toe = 0^o28'

thrust angle = -0^o01'

Second place (after first place's alignment):

Front camber left = -0^o16' right = -0^o39'

toe left = -0^o04' right = 0^o23'

total toe = 0^o18'

Rear camber left = -1^o16' right = -1^o09'

toe left = 0^o11' right = 0^o02'

total toe = 0^o13'

The second place said they use Supertracker A860 (no google hits)....didn't get round to asking exactly what the first place used as he was quite abrasive when I returned. The first guy said his system was older than the second place's as he claimed to have called the second place to find out about their system and how long they've had it (fairly recently, allegedly). The first guy pointed out the lack of steer ahead and thrust angle readings from the second place (which I now realise are big omissions). He noted the 'normal ranges' from the second place were different to his.

I have my doubts about the first place....but there were two customers nearby who went out of their way to tell me how much they trust him. One was an elderly Cosworth enthusiast, another was younger and when he saw the readings suggested they differed so much that the second place may have just shown me pre-entered figures.

Quick google image search.....first place's printout looks like this http://www.wheelpowe...nt-printout.jpg, so I presume it's a Hunter machine...

Edited 14 April, 201214 yr by fsa

On another note....advisable to keep hold of the steelies? 5-6mm tread on all of them. Was thinking of popping them on the freebies section so at least they could be useful to someone instead of being piled up in the back garden. Must get a tarp for them soon.

On another note....advisable to keep hold of the steelies? 5-6mm tread on all of them. Was thinking of popping them on the freebies section so at least they could be useful to someone instead of being piled up in the back garden. Must get a tarp for them soon.

I need new tyres for my MOT soon

I need new tyres for my MOT soon

You have dibs if I decide to get rid

Very nice wheels, I'm after a set of those myself for my vRS. I've managed to find a set for sale through a friend, they have fairly new budget tyres fitted and are currently painted white but needing a refurb. Wanna try and knock them down from there asking price if I can as I kinda wanna buy an intercooler atm so after them as cheap as possible

Going back to readings:

They are very, very close to eachother. To me looks like they both got very low understanding of angles on geometry and that is why second pointing wrong work that first garage did, second one is so ****ed it dont want to talk about it anymore.

First place adjusted toe but if there was no wear on tyres and wheel was straight then adjustment wasnt needed.

Second place have different camber readings which might be down to type of machine of fact how heads have been mounted on wheels. They adjusted toe to 0.18' which I think with your camber will cause slight wear on outside edges within next 2000-5000 miles. With more speed on turns you might feel "like rubbing" from tyres. Depend on tyres it might result in sawtoothing on front tyres. I would say that if there was nothing wrong with steering wheel and driveablility was fine then they should charge you for check - not adjustment. I dont think was needed.

Im not sure if you aware of it or not but your rear beam is not adjustable so they only done front tracking (not even alignment) as there was no caster reading taken which should be included on this car. Job like that is usually done by Kwik-Fit and I wouldnt pay more then £30 for job like that on old equipment.

Just to add on end of it... Hard to judge them as I dont know them and I dont know what equipment they use, but I think better job was done by first place.

Thanks so much Glad someone approves. Thanks for the tip....did you use a heat gun? Can I get away with putting it in the oven or bringing an iron very close to it?

Just used a hair dryer, that's all.

Keep the steels and put winter tyres on.

Just used a hair dryer, that's all.

I stuck mine in a bowl of boiling water for a few minutes to soften the glue.

Then prised the Skoda badges off, cleaned, dried and stuck mine in their place

looking forward to seeing them fitted

I stuck mine in a bowl of boiling water for a few minutes to soften the glue.

Then prised the Skoda badges off, cleaned, dried and stuck mine in their place

looking forward to seeing them fitted

I put mine over the top of the VW badges and seem okay so far but, if they fail, i'll be getting in touch to get some more!!

First place adjusted toe but if there was no wear on tyres and wheel was straight then adjustment wasnt needed.

Thanks for crunching through the numbers. Just wanted to clarify that I didn't pay the second place to do any adjustments....I just used their 'free alignment check' service to get a set of readings and went back to the first one to show them the discrepancy. First place charged £47 for the adjustment, which considering they didn't do castor, I now realise was on the high side. The middle set of readings reflects the current set up according to the first place's Hunter machine.

Would you say the adjustment wasn't needed even though I've fitted a different and larger set of wheels on? I was under the impression that it was advisable to get an adjustment done after any major changes to the wheel setup. I should've checked the tyres on the steelies for wear first and now they're in a pile, so can't really work out which was where. The current tyres are used, so I'll have to document the wear on them now then compare after 5k miles to assess whether any irregular patterns are due to the current set up.

In terms of driveability, it would feel like it pulls to the left, but I assumed that was down to the road camber and some safety feature to keep away from oncoming traffic if driver is incapacitated? This is all part of the whole learning process for me, so at least I'll know what to look out for next time! Will some chain tyre fitters check for castor too, or only the specialists?

Just used a hair dryer, that's all.

Keep the steels and put winter tyres on.

Thanks for the tip!

I stuck mine in a bowl of boiling water for a few minutes to soften the glue.

Then prised the Skoda badges off, cleaned, dried and stuck mine in their place

looking forward to seeing them fitted

Thanks for the tip, Pasty! Will get round to it in due course, lol!

Fsa

Caster check should be done with every vehicle (even one that doesnt have it adjustable) to make sure that nothing is bent. Who does it? Everyone who cares enough or acctualy know what to do with it. Rest is to dicretion of garage. I cant imageine to align suspension with out. Its as important as camber and toe. On top of all, first place used Hunter which is farmore accurate and I would trust it more then second place which only confirm what I said before.

Thanks, Allias. I'll ask them to do the caster as well when I go back for a recheck next week.

Can casters on the Fabia be adjusted? Or is it just to get an idea of any components which may have bent?

Also, would regular car shampoo be enough to clean them, followed by some spray wax/collie? Don't really have the time to do any major TLC, but would like to avoid any corrosion from getting worse.

I know they would look fantastic refurbed....but I kinda like the rustic look for now...makes it seem a bit of a sleeper despite massive wheels.

Its not adjustable on Fabia's neither on Octavia's so its only to check for bents.

...but by shifting subframe you can make slight adjustment.