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Took my S3 to have it's alignment done this morning at Chemix Autocentres(Halesowen Branch), very friendly and helpful. If you click on their link below, they sometimes have special offers on the right, like free wheel alignment check, which is unfortunately expired now.
Tyres and tracking halesowen, vehicle exhaust systems stourbridge, mot wednesfield
Anyways, since fitting a new set of springs for the MOT, disturbing the front adjustable lower balljoints trying to get my struts out, and changing the rear ARB, it was time for a 4 wheel alignment on my car. First impressions of road testing my car was the front end felt dead, and the back end felt planted at low to medium speeds, but it felt a bit skippy at high speed(motorway driving). I took the scenic route(through birmingham) on the way there to save my tyres, 12 miles vs 25 miles, but same time to travel.
The chap that was sorting my car out was called Adam, very friendly chap, let me watch whilst he was doing it, and talked me through the whole process. So he started with putting on all alignment sensor things on.
Afterwards, he gets the machine to calibrate itself to my car, then he noticed a small amount of play in the steering, I need new steering track rods he says, prefers me to come back once they are fitted, but I insisted he did what he could, as I needed the car to be ready for ADI this time next week, so he agreed to do it, but offered no guarantee for it's effectiveness afterwards. Plus I said I would come back again for a second alignment, once I had my adjustable tie bars fitted, so I can adjust the rear camber.
So starting at the rear, he set about correcting the rear toe. Started on the passengerside, and it was stiff, so he undid the driverside to see how much movement he could get on it, got it down to 3.1degrees maxed out. Told me there would be more adjustment once the tie bars are in, then went about correcting the passenger side to match the driverside, he got it down to 2.4, so tapped it backwards to match the driverside, then tightened everything back up.(figures are different on sheet, as he was adjusting the front tracking, the rears figures moved a bit?)
Upto the front, the camber was 1 degree on the left, and 1.17 on the right, he said the difference on 0.17 is nothing to worry about, probably cant see the difference by eye, so he left it for the second time I would come in, but the tracking side of things was shocking, I was 27mm out!(not sure what this is in minutes), so he corrected it to 1mm toe in on both sides.
As he couldn't adjust the rear toe to green, he only charged me for the alignment check and tracking! Bonus for me, but I assured him I'd be back once I have everything fitted after ADI.
So with the drive back, I decided to motorway it home on the M5>M42 to test my new alignment settings. What an amazing difference it's made to the balance of the car! The front end now turns in with a bit of steering feel now! Gone is the dead steering and it's balanced the car all round, the rear no longer as skittish, I could take long sweeping corners with more confidence, and use the throttle mod corner.
Really surprised on how much difference it's made, can't wait to fit all the remaining parts and get it all fully lined up! But for now, I will be heading to the track with the current settings next week.
Tyres and tracking halesowen, vehicle exhaust systems stourbridge, mot wednesfield
Anyways, since fitting a new set of springs for the MOT, disturbing the front adjustable lower balljoints trying to get my struts out, and changing the rear ARB, it was time for a 4 wheel alignment on my car. First impressions of road testing my car was the front end felt dead, and the back end felt planted at low to medium speeds, but it felt a bit skippy at high speed(motorway driving). I took the scenic route(through birmingham) on the way there to save my tyres, 12 miles vs 25 miles, but same time to travel.
The chap that was sorting my car out was called Adam, very friendly chap, let me watch whilst he was doing it, and talked me through the whole process. So he started with putting on all alignment sensor things on.
Afterwards, he gets the machine to calibrate itself to my car, then he noticed a small amount of play in the steering, I need new steering track rods he says, prefers me to come back once they are fitted, but I insisted he did what he could, as I needed the car to be ready for ADI this time next week, so he agreed to do it, but offered no guarantee for it's effectiveness afterwards. Plus I said I would come back again for a second alignment, once I had my adjustable tie bars fitted, so I can adjust the rear camber.
So starting at the rear, he set about correcting the rear toe. Started on the passengerside, and it was stiff, so he undid the driverside to see how much movement he could get on it, got it down to 3.1degrees maxed out. Told me there would be more adjustment once the tie bars are in, then went about correcting the passenger side to match the driverside, he got it down to 2.4, so tapped it backwards to match the driverside, then tightened everything back up.(figures are different on sheet, as he was adjusting the front tracking, the rears figures moved a bit?)
Upto the front, the camber was 1 degree on the left, and 1.17 on the right, he said the difference on 0.17 is nothing to worry about, probably cant see the difference by eye, so he left it for the second time I would come in, but the tracking side of things was shocking, I was 27mm out!(not sure what this is in minutes), so he corrected it to 1mm toe in on both sides.
As he couldn't adjust the rear toe to green, he only charged me for the alignment check and tracking! Bonus for me, but I assured him I'd be back once I have everything fitted after ADI.
So with the drive back, I decided to motorway it home on the M5>M42 to test my new alignment settings. What an amazing difference it's made to the balance of the car! The front end now turns in with a bit of steering feel now! Gone is the dead steering and it's balanced the car all round, the rear no longer as skittish, I could take long sweeping corners with more confidence, and use the throttle mod corner.
Really surprised on how much difference it's made, can't wait to fit all the remaining parts and get it all fully lined up! But for now, I will be heading to the track with the current settings next week.
