Hello

:eek:

Just had a REALLY curious thing happen.

I rang a Skoda dealer (not my regular one) for a wheel alignment check, because ATS told me they couldn't do one due it being a new car, or some excuse. As soon as I mentioned I had 17" alloys fitted they told me they could not do it because they only had the gear to align up 15" wheels or smaller (as that's what their spec says)

This rather abrupt turning away has left me quite shocked, and thinking, where the hell do I go now to get my 17" alloy equipped Fabia a wheel alignment check & adjustment? Any suggestions? I could really do with getting the front wheels aligned as the car pulls slightly to the left when I let go of the steering wheel, and the l/h tyre is wearing on the inside.

Yours worriedly :(

:cheers:

maybe they dont like u?

do you want traking or geometry?

tracking is fixable by anyone geometry is not..?

It's just tracking I believe - i.e straightening the direction of the front wheels, as they're obviously not tracking correctly. (hence the wear) This is one reason I was surprised ATS wouldn't touch it!

any tyre mot place should be able to track it.

Right - time to get ATS back on the phone!

PS: Doesn't lessen the shock the Plymouth skoda dealer gave me by abruptly turning away a paying customer, just due to my wheel size - couldn't they use an RS aligner as they have 17" wheels...

:confused:

A tracker's a tracker, I'd be very surprised if there was any device that would be limited to work only on 15" wheels!

Rob.

Tell you what - Can a few people ring up their friendly dealers and ask for a wheel tracking check on a set of 17" wheels, and see what reaction they give?

(edit: on a Fabia, of course)

May bring up some subtle skoda dealer differences.

My local friendly family-run tyre dealership cannot believe that the firm you are referrring to, Jason, would retain their Skoda dealership if they weren't able to check the tracking of 17" or even 18" wheels. If their equipment can only check up to 15" wheels then it must very old indeed. Basically it sounds like they are telling porkies and, realistically, what is the likelihood of them not being able to check the 16" and 17" wheels on the Octavia and Superb? Nil? Sounds like they can't be bothered for whatever reason. ATS' excuse is also rubbish.

I think it's some Devon thing - I scared them off when I mentioned the wheel size, not really on IMO - I'm going to find them in the poll of dealers and write a 5hitty message!

Jason, if I were going to get wheel alignment checked I wouldn't even bother to mention wheel size since it shouldn't be an issue. Were you by any chance wearing a baseball hat back to front when you rang up and asked? Image is everything, you know! (See below)

Jason - I've said it before - find a good independent garage, and kick the dealer into touch !!! That excuse is just bull:dung:

Hi Jason,

I can only assume that they got scared off by you having non-std wheels.

It a shame you're not near Hampshire as Micheldever

Tyres have a very nice dedicated laser alignment workshop bay.

As Nick said, find a decent tyre supplier and they should have no problem doing this for you.

John.

Any suggestions? I could really do with getting the front wheels aligned as the car pulls slightly to the left when I let go of the steering wheel, and the l/h tyre is wearing on the inside.

yeh come and see me jason i can track upto 19" wheels

Big_k - If I still lived in Leicestershire, I may very well have took you up on that. However, Okehampton has a laser tracking garage. All I need to do is ensure he can also do Skoda tracking. There's nothing unique about how you adjust the tracking on a fabia compared to any other car is there? :confused:

BTW - This company is called "tyred & exhausted" - Guess what they specialise in?

Originally posted by devonutopia in this post

BTW - This company is called "tyred & exhausted" - Guess what they specialise in?

Bangers and MOT failures?

Tracking adjustment is the same on virtually every car made in the last 50 years. It's adjusted by screwing the trackrod ends up and down the trackrods. They are then secured in place with a locknut.

Caster and camber angles tend to have different methods of adjustment, and some are not adjustable.

Edit: that should really read "screwing the trackrods in and out of the trackrod ends". The ends can't turn, for obvious reasons.

As they're in Oke - quite likely. You have to know the "town" to know what I mean.

However, seriously, they always did a good job of keeping the tracking straight on my old ZX, so I have no probs with them at all.

I had my RS exactly one day before I noticed it drifted to the left. (Which turned out to be ok as alot of VAG cars do that. I saw the Skoda tech. doc from my dealer on this). Anyway, as the dealer was closed the next day (Sat.) I brought the car to Advance Tyres, the most well know wheel expert in the area. They said my tracking was out. But I noticed on the printout, that they were using a Skoda Octavia 1.6 as a comparison. I then went to another tyre 'specialist', who claimed my tracking was fine but my camber was out. They were using a Skoda Octavia 1.6 as a comparison. Turns out they were both wrong, and the dealer said camber was non adjustable anyway. I am very very uninspired by these 2 tyre specialists. Now if I ever want my tracking done, I will have to travel the 30 miles to my dealer.

So if I understand correctly to do the tracking you need to have the particular setting for your car in their tracking computer ??

Jason, if its still not sorted, talk to Protyre in Plymouth. Highly recommended! Des has used them (for some nice cheap tyres) and I've used their Bristol branch.

Top blokes!

Edit Jason, they have a place just down the road from where you work; Protyre Exeter, 5 Trusham Road, Marsh Barton Ind Estate. 01392-412610. They do good prices on tyres and their alignment kit is excellent (OK, I'm only going by the Gloucester, Bristol and Plymouth places) http://www.protyre.co.uk/exeter.html

Jon

Lots of people seem to like Protyre. They can supposedly even align 928s without f*cking it up which is very rare :p

- I was just going to say they had a branch in Mrash Barton, Exeter.

They helped me a lot with regards to the best tyre size choice for my 17s, so I'll pop down there as I kind of owe them a favour for that help.