4 wheel alignment results - Superb Estate

[Shaunieboy]

Just got back. Over 2 degrees negative camber on the rears so miles out of spec! As soon as I pulled it onto the ramp the lad said he could see it was a mile out just looking at it.

 

They specialise in setting up track cars and performance road cars so gave me some good insights to the way geometry works and how it affects tyre wear and handling.

 

In a nutshell, on our cars, YES of course the camber can be adjusted and for every mm the rear suspension sags through age, the negative camber gets more and more pronounced, leading to worse and worse tyre wear on the inner edges. 

 

Check your rear suspension for sag folks!

 

Their printer was waiting to be repaired so I didn't get a printout but I watched the process on the screen. Really impressed at the result!

[TasMan]

Thats great @Shaunieboy  good you got things sorted.  When you get a place with the right equipment and they know what they are doing it makes a huge difference.

Pity about the printouts but at least you witnessed the process and results.  Do you notice a difference at all ?  I would still recommend reviewing slightly higher tyre pressures, its working well for me.

Did they have any trouble with seized bolts at all ?

Cheers Dave

[Shaunieboy]

I've not had the car out on a long run yet, the place was just around the corner from me. Off to work now though so I'll let you know! 

 

What pressures are you running @TasMan? Mines a Greenline so factory spec is 38psi anyway on 205/55/16 

[Shaunieboy]

Update: yes, now that I've been out on a variety of roads and pushed on a bit, there is a difference. The car wants to hold its line more and generally feels more planted. Less noticeable on little country roads obviously but there is a notable difference.

 

It's always satisfying getting things optimised.

 

My sawtooth wasnt extreme enough to need new tyres and my current set all have between 3-4mm so still have a good few thousand miles in them. I've just got to put up with a bit of an annoying hum on super smooth roads.

[TasMan]

Sounds like a good result, I would need to remind myself of the tyre pressures but will get back to you.

Standard is something like 2.2/2.3 bar, I am up about 2.5/2.6 bar.

Will update when I have checked, and that is a good reminder for me to check them anyway as its been a couple of weeks !

Cheers

[mark4]

I would say that in your case there has not been any Camber adjustment done. At least on Octavia mk II and newer there are for sure rear camber adjustment possible. The front camber can also be to a very small extent adjusted by losening the subframe bolts and moving the subframe laterally. Probably the front lower wishbone balljoints have some adjustment too. Good thing that the thrust angle is straight. I would also opt for a neutral toe-in close to 0. In case the car is hard to keep in lane check/replace the rear control rods and wishbone bushes.

[Donweather]

On 17/01/2020 at 17:49, TasMan said:

I would still recommend reviewing slightly higher tyre pressures, its working well for me.

Sorry for the thread revival but I'm also having the dreaded inner shoulder tyre wear.  What higher tyre pressure helps with this?  I usually inflate to 36 PSI cold.  I note the fuel flap tyre pressure recommendations for my tyre vary (depending on how loaded the car is) from 36 PSI to 40 PSI or even higher (46PSI) in the rears when the car is fully loaded.

[TasMan]

1 hour ago, Donweather said:

Sorry for the thread revival but I'm also having the dreaded inner shoulder tyre wear.  What higher tyre pressure helps with this?  I usually inflate to 36 PSI cold.  I note the fuel flap tyre pressure recommendations for my tyre vary (depending on how loaded the car is) from 36 PSI to 40 PSI or even higher (46PSI) in the rears when the car is fully loaded.

 

I tend to run 2.4/2.5 on the front and around 2.8 bar on the rears.  This is a compromise between the pressure when lightly loaded or fully loaded.  Its definitely helped my tyre wear over the years when combined with a 4 wheel alignment.  I got 30K miles out of my last set of CrossClimates and that was with 2 - 3mm left.

Is yours an Estate ?  I had one pair or rears wear down badly on the inner shoulder, new tyres and a 4 wheel alignment sorted that out, been fine since then.

Cheers

 

 

[Donweather]

Ok thanks.