Ha haa! The old girl bites back......

[dieselfitter251]

No not the missus, the car.
Stinky... the A4 tdi quattro avant (aptly named because when we got it, it was blowing diesel exhaust gas into the cabin) has broken Carlisle Audi's geometery equipment. I do feel bad about this as they first had a problem with the rear alignment and now the machine has gone down. Luckily, they've loaned me an '08 2.0tdi S-line avant in Charcoal grey, leather, dvd sat nav stuff and now I've got it over night as it might be tomorrow before my car gets finished.

The only bummer is, I've just got my VAGCOM cable and software through and was going to have a look at my doomed ABS and now I've got no car!. On the up side tho, the local spar has got loads of beer with the Woops! sticker on because it's gone out of date.....
I hope Audi get their equipment fixed without to many problems, just not to quickly

 

[AndyMac]

The machine hasn't broken, they just want more time so they can show all their mechanics an Audi that age, as most have never seen one older than an 05 plate!
Seriously, I assume there was a reason to take it to a main dealer?

 

[dieselfitter251]

... I tried to source a 'shop on the area, (Dumfries / Carlisle) and couldn't find anywhere that a) could do a quattro and b)was much different in price. £100 + vat.... and a courtesy car of course. That 2.0tdi is sooo smooth. Only got 5300 on it (now ;O) ) so the engines got a lot more to give , it's nice. But all in all Audi Carlisle was as good as anywhere else.

And yes, the old girl is now up to 227000 miles... I espect they thought they'd never be involved a restoration job

 

[aragorn]

you do realise the only thing thats adjustable is the front tracking?

Which any tyre merchant can set for you...

 

[dieselfitter251]

The rear track arms have an eliptical washer fixed to the bolt(inner end of arm) which controls the camber and at the back of the hub mounting is an adjustment which controls the castor. I've had Mr Tyre merchant offer to do the front before but the set-up shouldn't really be adjusted without observing the effect on all four corners. Hence a full geometery check camber & castor (toe in/out). My A4 is a quattro, I notice yours is FWD, not sure if what you're saying is true for FWD's but the quattros def. need 4 wheel adjustment....
....Anybody else clarify this?

 

[dieselfitter251]

Meant to add. I've recently had the rear lower bushes, one track arm and new shocks put on, that with shocking rear tyre wear (about 6-8k for the rear set) I needed to get the geometery checked.

 

[NineNails]

I've just replaced both rear wheel bearings, so need a 4 wheel alignment too. I know about the eliptical bolt/washer on the bottom for the camber but where is the castor adjustment made exactly? I never noticed it.
I need to make sure everything is adjustable when I take it for the alignment.
Si.

 

[dieselfitter251]

I'm not sure where the castor /toe adjustment is but I suspect it's on the hub, can't be exact, sorry.

 

[aragorn]

fair enough on the rear camber bolt, i wasnt aware of its existance!

But certainly the only adjustment on the front, FWD or quattro, is the toe setting barring moving the subframe right or left to correct uneven camber, (ie if youve got 0.3deg on one side and 0.7 on the other moving the subframe would allow you to get it to 0.5deg on both sides) But if the subframes never been off that shouldnt be an issue.

Also you said "castor (toe in/out)" in your post up there.... Castor and toe are two very different things, castor only exists on the steering wheels, so you wont have a castor setting on the rear at all. Castor is the angle between the upper and lower pivot points that the wheel rotates thru as its turned. And its fixed on the front of a B5 and set by the 4 control arms. (clearly if they're worn they could knock it out)

Toe settings are the alignment between the two wheels on an axle while looking streight down from above. This is adjustable on the front and is what gets set when you "get the tracking done" it also may be adjustable on the rear on a quattro (FWD's run a beam axle so its fixed), although ive never looked at it close enough to see if it is!