4-wheel alignment

[BarLyn]

Hi everyone,

I took my Avant Quattro 2.0 TDi Sline Special Edition to a well known four wheel alignment centre, here in the southeast of England, having finally got rid of the FOUR different brands of tyres that were on it when I got it. I didn't take too much notice at the time, but the before and after printouts say that it's for the 1BA (standard suspension) and 1BB (rough road suspension China). I've check my handbook, and my code is 1BV - which is for sports suspension.

My question is this: is there any difference in the geometry setup between the sports setup that my car has, and what they've given me - in which case should I ask them politely to do it for the right car?

 

[SootySport]

First of all, there is no adjustment at the rear of your car, the front is adjustable but only the tracking. If the car is not aligned properly it will because of damage or wear on the suspension components. If the car didn't feel right on the road it was because of the 4 odd tyres you had.
The sport suspension option you have only lowers the car a little. The main is that it steers straight and stops straight now.

 

[BarLyn]

Thanks for you insight, Soot1. As I understand it, the alignment machines come with a database of settings for specific cars and suspension specifications, to put it back to factory spec, so to speak. As the settings used were for a different spring height (20mm difference from SE to Sline I believe), then surely this is wrong?

The car may steer and stop straighter now, but maybe with the correct settings it could be better still?

 

[SootySport]

20mm. height difference is not going affect any other settings or the ways it feels to you. I can only assume the alignment rig does not have a specific reference file for Sline suspension.

 

[Giosabcsl]

First of all, there is no adjustment at the rear of your car, the front is adjustable but only the tracking. If the car is not aligned properly it will because of damage or wear on the suspension components. If the car didn't feel right on the road it was because of the 4 odd tyres you had.
The sport suspension option you have only lowers the car a little. The main is that it steers straight and stops straight now.

As far as I am aware there is adjustment on the rear. I had mine done a few weeks ago.

There is 2 adjustment bolts per side on the rear.

 

[BarLyn]

They definitely adjusted the rear (toe and camber) - and having spoken to them this morning they've agreed that it's wrong and for me to return the car, without argument.

The car has had a bit of a chequered past. When I bought it, it had non-Sline shocks on the front, and non-Sline springs on the rear, both of which have been returned to stock. Also someone had had the geometry changed at some point, maybe because of the incorrect parts fitted.

At the end of the day, all I want is for the car to be set up as per factory spec and what I paid for at the alignment centre! It's a bit like buying a sweater that is too big - it will do the job, but doesn't mean it's right!

 

[Cyrix]

The rear is adjustable, via two concentric bolts. This should be set first them the fronts calculated from that..

Regarding the settings used it won't make any difference.

 

[BarLyn]

I've found this post on Audi-Sport.net, which looks to have been done on the same type of machine, and shows that there are specific settings for the 1BV (and 1BE) setup:

http://www.audi-sport.net/xf/threads/hunter-wheel-alignment.211015/

Unfortunately the poster didn't include the final figures to show what the outcome was...

 

[ajax1976]

I got mine done today on a Hunter and quite happy with the results, lowered on air but had it set at my usual driving height so couldn't really expect it to be much better.

 

[BarLyn]

Thanks for that Ajax1976. I've compared it to mine, and most of my figures are lower, which makes me think that there is a difference between the standard and sport/Sline setup. The car seems generally to drive better, although with slightly more under steer than previously.

Does anyone know the recommended settings for 1BE and 1BV, just for comparisons sake?

 

[ajax1976]

Mine was done as 1BE+1BV so assuming the smaller figures up in the corners are the min and max recommended figures.

Front,



Rear,



I can't really think of a reason why the recommended figures would change depending on suspension. I would have thought you'd still want the same angle of castor, camber and toe at the actual wheel regardless of height or spec of the suspension.
If the figures were measured in mm's from a reference I could understand it but as it's in degrees I don't think the actual height or spec of suspension would really matter as you still want the wheel to sit at the same recommended angles. I could be totally wrong tho, as it's not really something I know that much about or have read up on.

 

[desertstorm]

This is from ELSA WIN and is the set up angles for a B7 A4. They use a different way of measuring than Hunter but you can see that the main difference between the different cars is in the front camber measurement.
This is because the wheel doesn't travel vertically up and down it travels in an arc all be it a gradual one. As the car has no adjustment for camber other than the ability to undo all the front subframe bolts and balance up the readings left to right , cars with different suspension heights have different camber specs.
What this means is as the car is lowered the camber increases. This is why cars that are really lowered can suffer tyre wear issues on the inside shoulder of the tyre.
As camber isn't adjustable individually then they can't do anything with it really. when I had my car done on a hunter it was set up with the sport settings as it had Eibach lowering springs on an SE car.
The rear camber/caster/toe etc won't be any different.

 

[BarLyn]

Thanks for that document, Desertstorm.I'm curious that you had the sport setup done on your car if you're saying it doesn't make any difference, or is there something else that they adjust other than camber, caster or toe?