Evening!

This is my first time!

Had my Fabia vRS 4 wheel aligned and its within Skoda specs even though the inner edges of the front tyres wear excessively. It appears to be due to the camber angle which isn't really adjustable. So if its the same shape as Skoda intended it to be would you agree that its their problem/fault?

Its 3 months out of warranty. One local dealer says it mechanically sound. The other local dealer replaced the bushes twice within 5K miles and one pair of tyres and didn't recommend I get any alignment checked until I asked the second time when they admitted they couldn't do it themselves! so they obviously hadn't done it the first time either!

Where do you think I stand? I've already emailed Skoda Customer Services when I questioned the second set of bushes in December and whether I'm going to have to keep replacing them outside of the warranty. They weren't much use then but now I've had it measured and everything's supposed to be ok I'm tempted to write to Autoexpress to see what they reckon?

Cheers, Foureyes!

Hmmm..... seems an odd one that. I think there must be something up because my car's it's second set of fronts since new (54 reg) and there's no signs of inner edge wear.

Which bushes has the dealer replaced?

Do you know if the car has any lowering springs on it? (i'm not sure about the fabia and lowering, but my old car wore the innner edges more once it had been lowered)

my offside front was wearing on the inside..... but I think it was to do with the knackered control arm bushes... had them replaced, then replaced the tyres, and all seems well now.....

no front tyre problems on mine at nearly 43k , very even wear on the 2 Dunlops currently fitted and didn't have any uneven wear on the original Michelins that were fitted

excessive toe out or camber would cause the tyre wear , the camber is adjustable , but this can onlybe done by moving the alloy consoles which the wishbone mounts to , i don't think they will move much though

Hi.

Thanks for the replies!

Sorry, my first attempt at the story took me about 30 mins to write and then it didn't post! So that was the edited version 'cause it was late and I couldn't be bothered to type it all again!

Slightly more detailed version:

My car is standard. I bought it in Sept '06 with 3 months warranty left on it. I got the front tyres changed cos they were worn and the tyre guy checked the tracking. Reckoned it was to do with the camber and to go see the dealer. I got some cash knocked off when buying the car cos of the tyres and didn't think anything of it 'cause it was hpi clear and had the remaining warranty.

I took it to the first dealer and they replaced the steering bushes. Then December at MOT time and the day before the warranty ran out they changed them again after I noticed the tyres had worn again. (They reckoned they were revised bushes but the other dealer that I've visited recently didn't know about any revised versions!) Anyway thats when I emailed Skoda 'cause it didn't seem right to me that they needed replacing again so soon and they couldn't/wouldn't check tracking or camber even if it could be knackering the bushes (and my tyres!).

Both fronts wear at the same rate although the second dealer reckoned a knock/kerb one side would affect both sides... but then the 4WA shows no sign of anything outside of the 'spec'. I feel that its a problem that should have been rectified during the warranty and I didn't get the right service.

The second dealer did suggest a small amount of camber adjustment by loosening the three bolts that hold something to the wishbone but then the bodyshop place didn't feel the need to adjust anything because of it allegedly being ok!

I love the car to bits and I don't want to give up on it! I've also got too much conscience to get rid of it without having it sorted out! ...otherwise I might be trading it in for an Audi A4 130 Tdi!!!

Sigh...

Did you buy it from Skoda or somewhere else

having dabbled with suspension geometry over many years, i would go with the camber being wrong.....can you be absolutely 100% sure that no one has played with the front suspension..might be something really small like the bushes being poorly fitted out of line.personally, i don't think a kerbing would put both sides out unless the steering rack has been damaged but that would have taken a heck of a whump............(whump.V. 'a hard blow or knock ')

Common problem

The standard bushes are plain stupid. Hard acceleration /hard braking has the arms banging about all over

You need Seat Cupra rear bushes which are solid not voids

Common problem? sigh...

I'm going to have another moan at Skoda anyway for what good it'll do!

I don't cane it everywhere. I drive about 70 miles a day most of which is on a long (boring, dull) dual carriageway to (boring, dull) work.

To answer Welshy, I bought it privately from a guy in his 40's who'd traded in his Merc for it... and to answer David, it was Hpi clear so got no reason to think it'd been bumped at all although I can't be certain it hadn't had any smaller unrecorded repairs I guess. But then the optoflex 4WA thing didn't show anything up. I've read somewhere on here that optoflex isn't the most modern system but the bodyshop that did it reckoned it was calibrated every two months so I'm inclined to believe them that its accurate.

I wish I'd have spoken to someone when dropping the car off as I would have asked if they could've taken the camber in as much as possible past spec just to see if it sorted it out.

The trackings taken a while to get right and the car drives fine though. The only work I know of is the bushes being replaced by dealer 1, and although they were as unhelpful as Customer Services at the time, I assume they fitted them properly!

Cupra bushes? Fair enough. Thanks for the advice. I have toyed with the ideas of keeping it and trying to dial out the problem with some adjustable toys... bit of an excuse to play... but also was just happy to keep it standard. I think Lummox posted a link to some adjustble top mounts - although I'm not sure if he was taking the mickey or not! ;O)

I wouldn't have thought Lummox was taking the pi55, he knows loads about VAG cars (as he's a VW techie i think).

I'd be inclined to go for the cupra bushes first mate, likely to be less hassle.......

Thanks, TommyC, I beginning to think the same!

Just trying to work my way thru various posts on here and seatcupra.net about the best value way to go about it... get wishbones n fit bushes first then swap etc...

I'll try to keep you all updated!!

Must say,( though I am just 1.9 tdi 100 not in the vrs league), that I completed 40k on the original Dunlops 03 plate, and the wear was perfectly even, infact I got conned into changing them early, as they still had 4mm tread )I was hoping for another year out of them :-)

I would not say I thrashed it,I just speed really I have six points, I do not rally drive

Foureyes

The rear bushes need to be fitted into the consoles onthe car rather than to the wishbones

You don't need wishbones, you do need to work out how to go about fitting the bushes to the consoles if you can't get it done under warranty

The standard bushes are plain stupid

Cupra rears are the way to go, they are not expensive, its fitting them thats the pain. Match them with some poly front bushes and your car will be sorted - the way they should have been when they left the factory to be honest

Mexico Rich... Thanks - you're talking the front and rear bushes on the same front wishbone, right? so you reckon a cupra bush and a poly bush on each wishbone? sounds like as plan!

Yes

Solid Cupra bush at the back of the wishbone instead of the silly standard one that is mostly hollow

And while its all being done you might as well filt poly bushes to the front of the wishbone and it should all last forever

When I bought my solid Cupra bushes the Seat dealer told me that they have NEVER yet had to replace a single set - how does that compare with the stupid standard void bushes!

Sorry for the late reply! Thought i'd check if anyone else had posted a comment and leave my latest..

I spoke to a SEAT dealer and he said he wouldn't sell me any bits knowing it was for a Skoda...

Got car booked in for service at VW/Audi/Skoda place next week and they said they'd have a look for me and advise on cost to do bushes. I assume they'd be able to get hold of VAG ones but seemed willing to fit some poly ones if I supply them too.

Fingers crossed!

Sorry for the late reply! Thought i'd check if anyone else had posted a comment and leave my latest..

I spoke to a SEAT dealer and he said he wouldn't sell me any bits knowing it was for a Skoda...

Got car booked in for service at VW/Audi/Skoda place next week and they said they'd have a look for me and advise on cost to do bushes. I assume they'd be able to get hold of VAG ones but seemed willing to fit some poly ones if I supply them too.

Fingers crossed!

the seat dealer I spoke to were great, and offered to fit them to my skoda at a cheaper price than skoda would!!