Hi all, as I'm getting one of my LE dented wheels replaced later in the week (bought from a lovely forum member  ), I thought I'd get my tracking sorted as well, since I'm fairly sure the crater of a pothole I originally hit ruined it a bit. Plus, lets face it, it was probably wrong anyway!

 

So..... to the point. The place in Sheffield I'm looking at has quoted around £70 for a 4 wheel hunter alignment. Does this sound about right or is it normally? There's not many places in Sheffield that do it you see.

 

Cheers!!

£70 sounds about right    :yes:

Sounds good. I got ripped of near Huddersfield where they charged £90.

 

Must be said that the job was a cracker though and the car felt much better afterwards and tracked true.

Sounds a good, fair price.  I have paid a lot more than that, but going where you will get the job done competently, thoroughly and accurately is more important than cost.

I know of a couple of otherwise generally honest, reliable places who had all the right (expensive) kit but who were not experienced specialists in wheel alignment, who charged good money but didn't do a very good job and in one case cocked it up.

Fair enough, should be a goer then! In case anyone wondered, it at Autodynamics in Sheffield. They seem to get good reviews. Anyone else got experience of them?

I was £50, they did a couple of adjustments but I'm not sure what.

Make sure they give you before-and-after printouts.

If they really know what they are doing, they should be very happy to do this as a demonstration of how good a job they have done for you.

Make sure they give you before-and-after printouts.

If they really know what they are doing, they should be very happy to do this as a demonstration of how good a job they have done for you.

Good plan!

 

I'll post it on here after too.

Unit 18 quoted me £40 + VAT for a Hunter 4 wheel alignment. Not sure if the size of the car would make much difference though.

All in £50 to £70 is right IMO.

 

It's a large investment in machinery even if it doesn't take a huge time to do.

I paid £90 but it was worked on for about 2.5 hours.

I paid £120 at ABC in Pudsey, but the alignment was so bad he was bashing away at it for about 5 hours. I was there, watching, as I didn't think it would take that long

I paid £120 at ABC in Pudsey, but the alignment was so bad he was bashing away at it for about 5 hours. I was there, watching, as I didn't think it would take that long

.

Was this because some of the bolts were seized up or rusted, or was he just struggling to get the adjustment right?

I've watched a top-notch bloke do it, and he made it look easy - because he was an expert.

However using this equipment (Hunter or any other) does not just involve turning screws this way or that until the little arrows light up green up on the computer screen.  Each ajustment made can affect other adjustments, and the operator has to go about things methodically and know exactly in what order to make adjustements, otherwise he will end up going round in circles and even end up making things worse.  Even if you go about things in the right sequence, it seems that some adjustments will affect other adjustments already made, and part of the skill is anticpating this and allowing for it.  What you are paying for is the skill, experience, enthusiasm, patience, persistence, dedication and determination of the operator - not just the cost of the equipment.

I could buy or hire an operating theatre and a load of very expensive equipment, but I would still be a crap brain surgeon!  The operator really has to know what he is doing.  The machine doesn't do it for you - it just tells you if you've got it right, almost right, or wrong.  You don't want it almost right, if you're paying good money - you want it right. 

I had about 95k miles on my suspension at the time, so there was a lot of work to do. He couldn't get it dead on in the end, as he said the springs had gone soft, but he did leave the car balanced. It felt a lot better driving home.

£60 two days ago, well worth every penny. Made three adjustments, took about 90mins including also fit & balance two new front tyres (Michelin PS3 @ £125 each).

 

Before and after results attached.