hi all

i recently had the front shocks replaced on my 1.8t 4x4 saloon  by the local back street guy, i supplied the shocks and chose kyb i also had the roll bar links and bottom arm bushes, strut tops and bearings replaced and changed the roll bar bushes for poly bushes.i also had four new hankook tyres fitted and had all four wheels alighned.

since then the handling is awful, understeer,oversteer its so twitchy its not a pleasure to drive at all.

i know lots of you will say that is what the 4x4 is like but it wasnt like it before and i want to keep it standard so lowering is out of the question.

apart from the kyb shocks and powerflex bushes everything else was lemforder.

i normally do all the work on my car myself but a heavy workload at work made me let somebody else have a go, i have been underneath since and checked his work and all looks good.

my question is this....where the stuts come through the turrets into the engine bay are the struts supposed to be dead centre in the turrets? because mine arnt the strut is about 5 mm from the edge of the turret on both sides...so very off centre

i hope the very crude diagram works  and that you can all understand what im on about

OK, series of questions/check points:-

1. Are the springs correctly re-seated on the new dampers?
2. How many miles have the new tyres done? I'd allow at least 100 miles to get the "manufacturing stiffness" out of the tyres.
3. Have you checked the tyre pressures? If they've been left at "fitting pressures" of, say, 46PSI all round, that could make the car very bouncy.
4. Have you allowed time for them to settle?
5. Was the geometry checked after settling?

I i have checked all the above and yes the car did settle before i had the geometry done.im starting to wonder if it could be the rear end thats causing the problem. i had the wheels off today and the rear shocks look well past their best also the roll bar links altho not knocking look past their best as do the bushes maybe a quick overhaul will improve things.

That's plausible with the adjustable rear end on the 4x4.