Four wheel alignment
 

Had my car in at www.mrctuning.com today for a health check and a new lambda, the only thing wrong with it is an off side track rod end which I am having replaced on Wednesday with a new one from Audi. I need to get the four wheel alignment (tracking) done after this. MRC wanted £95 which I thought was a little to much, so I asked the local tyre place and they said £45 and Kwick fitt want only £27.50. Audi want £250 :ROFL:

Will Kwick Fitt be okay to do this? They also quoted me £5.50 each for wheel balancing which I will get checked when there too..

Anyone used Kwick fitt for four wheel alignment before?

£27.50? for 4 wheel alignment? sounds far too cheap to me, are you sure thats not just for 2 wheel? I've never heard of 4 wheel for that price! I paid 80 squids for a laser 4 wheel alignment (which i still thought was expensive but now looks reasonable) but it took them a good 45 minutes. I suspect the cheaper price is for the old fashioned mirrors on a stick front end only, which having had it done (unbeknownst to me) on a car that need a 4 set up had it crabbing in a most disturbing fashion, scaring me half to death :D....they use the backs to set the fronts...if the backs are bandy the fronts are made miles out!

Yeah, I mentioned it was quattro a few times and he said yeah that £27.50 is still corrrect and he had all the details for the car. Just need to know weather I should trust Kwick Fitt or go elsewhere...?

yup, sounds like its not laser alignment. although mitcheldever tyres in winchester did my old A4 in 30mins, and i think it was about £40-60. but i had already payed out for a local place to set it (£25), and it then went on to eat a set of tyres, i was not impressed. to be fair, it took them over an hour to do as they couldnt get some of hte adjusters to move, which is probably how the second place did it so quickly!

if they wont give you a print out, and dont use laser kit, dont bother.

Amar,

You'd probably do a better job yourself with a pole and a couple of mirrors than giving it to Twit Fit, and you'll save £27.50.

Take it to a professional who has a good rep on the forums. Ask around on TSN.

Steve

Its a case of you get what you pay for I think.....

I would avoid Kwik fit with any car I liked, never mind loved. They're used to doing Ford Escorts and Vauxhall Astras - Not sure they've even seen anything with 20" wheels before....

I paid about £250 for a full 4 wheel suspension levelling and laser alignment on the RS6. It was worth every penny. 4 hours of adjustment later It came out like a totally different car. It was doing by a proper racing specialist, not a tyre place who are used to making a fiver for fitting valves and balancing when they occasionally see an alloy....

The £95 you were quoted could well be reasonable......

The '4-wheel' alignment that the likes of Kwik-Fit do doesn't take into account the whole car, it just alignes the front wheels to the back ones and each other, your car could still appear to crab, etc.

A proper place will align the wheels with the chassis, etc and let you know if they're out.

you could always try www.AlignMyCar.co.uk gives you the low down on what is what in wheel alignment and give location of peoples that have 4 wheel equipment in you're area..........it's only for 1 manufacturer of wheel alignment equipment but its a start!

I knew it was worth asking here, I just thought that seeing as Kwick Fitt were such a big company they might have the right stuff but I will have a look around now and I will NOT be using them. They did tell me at MRC it would be Lazer and they would give me a print out of what it was like before and after. Ian, that £250 one is interesting. I have some KW Coilovers, but I won't be fitting them till later on in the year (don't ask why!) so will leave an expensive option like that till after then if I think I need it. Will have a look around otherwise I'm happy to let MRC do it.

Thanks for the link, nearest one is 1.68 miles away. Will give them a buzz. One of the local tyre places that is huge in Warwick took one look at it and said 'nah, we don't want to do that. Had to do one before and its too hard'.

Are the rear wheels ajustable? I used to track cars in ATS although that was 15 years ago, there 4 wheel alinement then was 2 gauges that hook over the rear wheels and the front parts have the light in them. It was not allways possible to get the reading between the 2 front wheels and then line the rears to suit, because the adjustment is on the track end. The tolerances are sometimes + or - 3mm (dependant on make). So it was then possible to line the front wheel to the rears and be within tolerance for the toe in / out on front wheels.

All the laser has done is replace the light bulb that would project a line onto the gauges.

I would use someone reliable but would be reluctant to pay anymore than £50 unless they are able to ajust the rears, fronts and camber (if it's ajustable).

Just because it's an A8 dosen't mean it's anymore of a job to track than anything else like a Land Rover or Impretza and therefore shouldn't cost anymore.

according to the website........instead of using a light on a guage attached to the rear wheel (tracking) the laser is alignment that uses the centre line of the car and measures 12 angles (3 per wheel?) and make allowances for rim runout then sets the wheels alignment independantly on each axle so no wheels are set up using other wheels as the base line inviting problems. I honestly didn't realise the was a difference between tracking and alignment but it appears thats where the price difference comes from! All i know is when i had a previous car tracked that should have been aligned it handled like bambi on beer, when i had laser alignment done it was like a new one. I know what i'd pay for.........

Now that is clever, just goes to show how far behind I am.
3 angles per wheel could be right too Camber, Toe and caster maybe.

That’ll be what you pay for then.
I’ll shut up now.

in fairness the RS6 was in a mess, hence the cost.

It had had KW adjustables fitted in place of the DRC, which is good, but they had literally never been 'adjusted'

The problem with adjustables is that you can alter the height, damping etc and unless you get it consistent across all 4 corners, it will handle like a bag o' nails, which the RS6 did. The nose was notably higher in the air than it should be also.

So, they alligned the wheels, suspension, ride height etc, all laser driven with computer print outs, but the proof was in the ride home - OMG - It was a different car.

Interestingly, the RS6 (and many Audis no doubt) dont have much adjustment on the front suspension, so they undid the front subframe and shuffled it about relitive to the chassis to get things in line, seems quite sensible when you think about it, but specialist stuff, you wont get it for cheap money....

Undoing the sub frame is definitely a way of centring it all up for sure and like you say not for the numptys to do. I know that Audi Track rod ends seize up for a pass time mostly to do with the position of them I think being right behind the wheel where all the wet and **** goes off the tyre.

So is the rear adjustable on a standard 8’s suspension Ian?

Just so your all aware before you take you 8s in for alignment.
On the front you can only adjust toe and centre camber. No caster adjustments can be made independently. Although the method of centring camber is by loosening the subframe bolts and levering the subframe left or right. When doing this it can also be moved slightly forward or backward and twisted which will throw out castor and camber. So get someone who knows what they are doing.
On the rear you can adjust toe and camber.

^^^^^^^

Thats totally what I was just going to say, but Mike beat me to it :D

Thanks for clearing that up men.

Mine will stay as is, although it would look good with negative camber on the rear.

I’m surprised none of you guys track daying your cars have tried it.

Are the S8 control arms longer than the standard 8’s to allow for the lower suspension or is it not enough to make a difference to the camber.

Here's a Golf with plenty too much

Do you need to get the four wheel alignment done after changing your tyres?

No, tyres should make no difference to the track of the car. Driving into kerbs will and some of these pot holes, i thought i lost a wheel the other night.

Thanks, another question is that I am running non factory wheels. 275 35 20 9J when my car originally came with 245 45 18 8J alloys. I have also added some 20mm spacers on each rear axel. Does this mean I need to adjust the camber?

my golf aint too far behind that one lol

http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/g...eman/015-7.jpg

http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/g...eeman/209c.jpg

That looks pretty slick, James do I need to change my rear camber due to my rear spacers and 9J and how do you work out how much etc...? Just I saw your ED38 post and noticed you did.

no the wheels and tyres are irrelevant to the cars adjustment mate,

i did mine to tuck the tyre into the arch

Ah, I see. Mine are just under the arch so that's cool. I've decided I'm going to fit my coil overs as well now as there is no point getting the alignment done twice. Going to fit them myself as they look straightforward enough and have managed to get hold of some spring compressors. If I get stuck the car will probably just end up in Bens hands lol. Any tips for me doing it on axel stands? Couldn't find a guide on how to fit coiles.

in my opinion id get them fitted by a garage, they aren't straightforward to fit if its your 1st time doing that job

Ah, I might get the fronts done by a pro. Sounded like fun, are the rears easy to fit? Wanted to save myself some money. Have to buy new tyres too! :(

other way round if anything lol

by all means give it a go but i know u will wish u hadn't lol

I've changed shocks on the rear of an E36 325 Bimmer just thought it would be the same sort of thing. I'll see if someone lets me borrow a ramp. The only thing I'm worried about is a siezed bolt or something, grrr. Hate it when that happens. Thanks for the warning!

If I get a garage to do it my RNS E install is going to have to wait a while :( I got to be sensible with how much I spend on the S lol

I'd go for the RNS install and let the garage do the coilovers especially if you haven't had the control arms done yet.

I don't need my control arms changing, I had my car fully inspected by MRC and the only thing they found wrong with it was one track rod end which they are changing for me Wed with a genuine Audi part. :)
I will see, I change my mind more times then a.. well then someone that changes minds a lot.

Just booked the car in for a four wheel alignment at 2pm, takes them one and a half hours to do it and you get a before and after print out. Right now I have to hold the steering at five too for it to go straight and its ****ing me off. £55, will report back.

How odd.... I remember when I very first drove it I though the steering felt funny, but never thought anything of it after that. I wonder if I just got used to it ? Its also odd not having servotronic...

Let me know what they say, I'm quite interested to know if it was out, I'm sure it must be seeing as the front end had been off and back on for the engine change..... +++

Will report back +++

Went in for the second time today and the machine wasn't working so will see if I can find another place that does it properly locally.