Wheel alignment - am I asking too much

[Steve vRS]

Almost as soon as I drove my new vRS, I noticed the steering wheel was slightly off centre. I was basically steering a little to the right to go straight on.

 

After a week, I reported it to the supplying dealer and requested a full 4 wheel alignment be carried out. They agreed and booked it into their sister VW dealer who had the necessary equipment. It took 2 weeks for the appointment as the equipment was in demand....

 

So, I dropped it off yesterday and at teatime was told that they couldn't find anything wrong so would I mind if they took the car to a local independent specialist for checking. I said yes, go ahead.

 

I have just driven the car home and guess what...the steering wheel now sits off centre to the left to go straight ahead!! What is most annoying is that someone must have driven the car from the third party back to the dealer and thought, 'this wheel is not straight!'.

 

I assume everyone else's steering wheel is nice and central when driving straight ahead?

 

Is this a known issue with the multi-link vRS set up?

 

Steve

Edited 27 May, 2015 by Steve vRS

[Ootohere]

You are not expecting too much.

If the Dealership Master Technician or Workshop Manager thinks the car as it is is acceptable,

ask the Dealer Principal to take it for a Drive.

 Ask if he/ she accepts a car with a steering wheel squint when going straight ahead.

 

If the car is not totally correct by the end of the week, left in their hands while they give you a good courtesy car,

then name and shame the Dealership.

 

PS

The Multi Link is at the Rear of the car.

They need to sort out the Steering at the front.

Edited 27 May, 2015 by goneoffSKi

[blueR36]

take it to a place that has a hunters rig, get a printout showing its wrong, get it fixed, give them the bill!

[Helston Hauler]

When I bought my Yeti,from a listers dealer,the steering wheel was off to the left a tad,drove alright.I had some new tyres fitted to some new rims I bought  and asked the fitter to do a 4 wheel alignment check,they had a Hunter set up.Afterwards the wheel was dead straight and I could feel the difference as well.

[Ootohere]

www.skoda.co.uk

08457 745 745

 

Skoda UK

David Allen

Head of Customer Quality and Network Development

Yeomans Drive

Blakelands

Milton Keynes

MK14 5AN

                         tel 01908 458100             He needs to get a grip of Franchised Dealers as does Alasdair Stewart Skoda UK Brand Director.

[Steve vRS]

 

The Multi Link is at the Rear of the car.

They need to sort out the Steering at the front.

 

LOL I know but on a 4 wheel set up, the wheels are aligned together. If the rear of the car is out, you have to constantly put some steering input in to correct this.

 

STeve

[Ootohere]

It is not putting steering input in if you set the car on the flat and push it back and fore and the steering wheel is out of alignment.

 

It is a basic adjustment that some basically trained Fitters are commonly failing to get to grips with.

[andyvee]

LOL I know but on a 4 wheel set up, the wheels are aligned together. If the rear of the car is out, you have to constantly put some steering input in to correct this.

 

STeve

Correct, they are on a crappy Kwik Fit 4 wheel laser alignment where they line the fronts up to the rears. These are a complete waste of time.

BUT

On a 4 wheel geometry check (as per a Hunter alignment rig) each wheel is aligned to the centre line of the car completely independently of each other. You should get a print out showing you have 0 degrees steer ahead (front wheels) and 0 degrees thrust angle (rear wheels) and all of the toe and camber settings are exactly in the centre of the manufacturer's tolerances and equal across the same axle. Don't accept anything less than that from a geometry check.

[Ootohere]

All the Alignment checks, print outs and any adjustments are worth nothing if the car still pulls to the right on UK roads and the steering wheel 

is still askew.

 

Which basically is the issue,  so what you accept is nothing else than it being set up correctly, 

as all the other cars in the dealership should be if you take one of those for a drive.

Not even noticeably pulling left where you need to keep correcting it.

[Steve vRS]

Service manager and business fleet manager emailed.

Edited 27 May, 2015 by Steve vRS

[Gabbo]

Is it possible that the wheel alignment is correct but someone has remove the steering wheel & not replaced it correctly?

The steering wheels usually have splines so its possible it is just 1 or 2 splines out & the wheel alignement itself is correct.

 

If you find a flat road without a camber, like a large car park, does it pull to one side if you don't touch the steering wheel or does it drive straight?

[Steve vRS]

It's a brand new car. The wheel is not a huge amount out so given there are what, 12 splines on the steering wheel shaft, one spline out would be 30deg out.

 

The dealer has agreed I can take it to a specialist of my choice and they will pick up the tab.

 

Steve

[Sheldon.Cooper]

There's a lot more than 12 splines. More like 20-24

[meta55b]

Correct, they are on a crappy Kwik Fit 4 wheel laser alignment where they line the fronts up to the rears. These are a complete waste of time.

BUT

On a 4 wheel geometry check (as per a Hunter alignment rig) each wheel is aligned to the centre line of the car completely independently of each other. You should get a print out showing you have 0 degrees steer ahead (front wheels) and 0 degrees thrust angle (rear wheels) and all of the toe and camber settings are exactly in the centre of the manufacturer's tolerances and equal across the same axle. Don't accept anything less than that from a geometry check.

All the kwik fits up here have hunter tracking systems.

[Ootohere]

Too often all the gear and no idea,

and why would you have a Klick Flit Fitter working on your car when Fully Trained VW Factory Technicians have not a scooby.?

The gamble of some Fitter messing about with your new car is just not worth it.

 

Get Skoda UK Customer Services to arrange the correct alignment of your car under warranty,

if their Franchised Dealers Workshops can not do the job, they can get a Real Factory Trained Technician out.

It is not Rocket Science, just Motor Vehicle Engineering.

[StevesTruck]

The thing is, a tracking rig is only as good as the person using it. Not everyone sees the difference between getting four green lights and a car actually being aligned. I've had this argument with so many tyre monkeys over the years.

[Laars]

That is pretty common, your alignment is probably all good, but it's not actually that easy to get the steering wheel dead straight when aligning. They should lock the steering wheel, but most of them don't.

I had the same thing happen, first off to the right then left. Couldn't be bothered anymore so centered the steering wheel myself by adjusting the toe. It's a quick and easy job especially if you have access to a lifter. Just measure very carefully and adjust both wheels the same amount, it will not affect the alignment when done correctly.

Or just have the shop fix it

Needs to be dead straight IMO.

[andyvee]

All the kwik fits up here have hunter tracking systems.

Wow, as the ones round here still do the 4 wheel laser alignment method

[Miz]

Wow, as the ones round here still do the 4 wheel laser alignment method

From the Kwik Fit website

 

Hunter wheel alignment at Kwik Fit

At Kwik Fit, we are installing Hunter wheel alignment technology in a growing number of our centres – over 400 to date. Hunter equipment is renowned for its accuracy and uses a series of high-definition imaging sensors which measure the position and orientation of the wheels with pin point precision. This ensures your wheels are accurately aligned exactly as your manufacturer intended.

[andyvee]

Lets hope the staff get trained correctly!

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

[meta55b]

Lets hope the staff get trained correctly!

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk[/quoted

If I knew how to post pictures on here, I would scan the printout I got. I never looked at the print out when I had it done, wasn't till about two weeks later when I first drove the car since it was done Thai I thought the car was handling strange, then looked at the print out. To say it was bad is an understatement.

[banksie]

That is pretty common, your alignment is probably all good, but it's not actually that easy to get the steering wheel dead straight when aligning. They should lock the steering wheel, but most of them don't.

I had the same thing happen, first off to the right then left. Couldn't be bothered anymore so centered the steering wheel myself by adjusting the toe. It's a quick and easy job especially if you have access to a lifter. Just measure very carefully and adjust both wheels the same amount, it will not affect the alignment when done correctly.

Or just have the shop fix it

Needs to be dead straight IMO.

Been thinking about doing this on mine, could you give us a brief description of how to do it please.

[Laars]

There is a pretty good guide here:

 

You will need to adjust both tie rods the same amount, so you don't mess up the alignment. 

 

So let's say your steering wheel is off the the left, that would mean that when your steering wheel is straight your wheels are pointing right. 

You will need to adjust the tie rods so that your wheels move to the left. How much, thats the tricky part. You can't really know, but if your steering wheel is only slightly crooked, I would start by adjusting the tie rods a 1/4 turn at a time. A full turn on the tie rod will adjust quite a bit. 

 

Ok, so back to adjusting. To move your wheels left, you need to lengthen the right side tie rod and shorten the left side. 

Lenghten = turn counter clockwise, shorten = clockwise. 

 

Lift the car up, loosen the tie rod nut, adjust, measure how much by drawing a line on the rod, adjust other side the same amount, tighten the nut on both sides, go for a test drive, if not enough, adjust more, if too much, adjust back.

 

Hard to explain in writing.  

[andyvee]

.... be careful before adjusting anything - what you need to know is the position the steering wheel is in when the rack is central, and then take it from there.

 

If the rack is central and the car drives straight but the steering wheel is off centre you need to remove the steering wheel and refit in line with the rack.

 

If the rack is central, the steering wheel is straight but the car drifts/pulls to one side then the tracking needs adjusting.

[Laars]

Adjusting both tie rods the same amount to the correct direction will only adjust the angle of the steering wheel, nothing else. 

By adjusting them into the opposite directions, you would end up with something like this: \ / or / \.

You want to end up like this / / or this \ \. 

 

Reason for the steering wheel being off-centre is that the person aligning your wheels had the steering wheel off centre when starting the process (didn't lock it to centre position properly), aligned wheels straight ahead and steering wheel remaining off centre. 

 

Before adjusting, obviously make sure that the alignment was done properly, so that the issue truly is only a technician who didn't bother to center the steering wheel. 

 

You can off course also remove the steering wheel and re-fit it a few splines to the other direction. 

Edited 30 May, 2015 by Laars