Hi Kwikfit have checked the tracking on my Octavia 2010 and rear wheels need adjustment which does not surprise me looking at the uneven ware on them. They then tried to make the adjustment but could not loosen the bolt of the suspension (lower swing arm, I think) to make the adjustment and advised that we should need to replace the whole lower swing arm in order to make the improvement. I believe that the bold the bolt sits in a rubber/nylon bush so it is not possible to apply heat. Are there are other way round this ?? 

 

Any advice or guidance would be much appreciated.

 

    Jonathan  

28 minutes ago, Biffdiff42 said:

They then tried to make the adjustment but could not loosen the bolt of the suspension

PlusGas?

I had this on my car a few years back. I threw PlusGas at them daily for a week before I took it in for alignment but they were still stuck solid. They priced up with new lower suspension components and parts totalling a few hundred pounds to fix.  I got some of the rubber bonded bushes from Eurocarparts and new eccentric bolts from Skoda and my VW garage fitted them for me four around 1.5 hours labour.  They had to cut the old ones out. Took it back for alignment after as my garage didn't have the 4 wheel stuff.

 

 

''Saw tooth'' rear tyre wear due to rear negative camber is a ''feature'' of these cars I think. Causes a noise that resembles that of a shot wheel bearing. Best bet is to rotate the tyres regularly and live with it, ThickFit are about the last place I'd take a vehicle to for alignment.

There are revised camber and toe.settings from VW/Skoda to alleviate the saw toothing issue, I believe.

 

Knackered lower arm (toe) inner bushes and camber control arm bushes will contribute towards accelerated wear.

 

It seems the inner lower arm bushes degrade the most. The eccentric bolts through these bushes tend to seize within the bush and often need cutting to drop the arm. 

 

Don't worry about applying heat - the rubber bush is sh*gged anyway. They're pressed into the arm, so a new arm is the easiest way to replace the bush. Unless you go down the polybush route; the old bushes can be removed from the original arm and polybushes easily inserted. 

 

New eccentric bolts are required.

 

Once done, the back end will feel a whole lot better 👍