negative camber

[Darektarantula]

Hi, I've done 4 wheel alignment yesterday after fitting 4 new winter tyres and I've asked bloke to adjust settings to- Camber -0.45' and Toe as close to 0 (mentioned in other thread) which he politely refused and told me that there is nothing wrong with manufacturer settings but also he told me that he can't adjust camber on front, driver side wheel which is way off recommended setting so he adjusted the other side to keep car in straight line.Now,apparently small adjustment can be done by resetting subframe but that's a vw dealer job and according to him not worth the money they'll charge me, thing is, now I'm not only worrying about saw tooth at the back but also front . Did I just lost 80 quid for nothing or is just me going nuts from all that technical talk he gave me?Print out before and after attached, any comment appreciated.IMG_0636.jpgIMG_0637.jpg

[Frelon]

Reading too much technical stuff on forums can damage your health (and wallet)!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[RichardSEL]

Have an estate so it's not worth comparing your before and after with mine. But appears this firm also used Hunter equipment?
All my readouts finished in a Green state though. Used two firms, one in Rainham (Elite) the other on the south circ. Did this firm give you anything in writing to confirm their diagnosis?

This firm charged you eighty quid? My first was £34.60, my second was £40.32. First was for front wheel only to diagnose control arm bushings' wear; second was four-wheel after outer control arm bushings were changed due to "creak" Prices July last year

[-M-]

Looking at the before and after readings - it seems strange you have a camber issue on the same side back and front which would suggest some sort of impact event has occured. There is quite a bit of adjustment available at the rear so the after readings could have been better - there may be a mis - shapen arm or hub assembly. Moving the front subframe may give some camber adjustment but mainly it will affect toe and castor.

To help prevent saw - tooth wear VW recommends a rotate and balance of tyres every 5000 miles which from experience does work.

[Quatrelle]

Can't see how balancing, or rotating, would prevent sawtooth, which is caused by toe out at the rear wheels.

[zollaf]

i wouldn't stress too much over 1 degree of camber. its such a pathetic tiny amount that won't make a scrap of difference. it could even be down to the set up of the machine or even a slight buckle in the wheel. did he check it all 3 times so he could measure at 3 points on each wheel and average the results ?
you could always take it back to him and get him to recheck it or go to someone else and see what another machine makes of it.

[Darektarantula]

Thank you all for reply, first it was Hunter equipment and I've found them through Alignmycar.co.uk, bloke looked very professional and he told me all that magic stuff he was doing with my car.He did mention something about side impact but before I've bought this car I've done check and there was nothing about accident.Since he couldn't set everything spot on he did everything he could to keep the car driving in straight line which may explain other settings.

[-M-]

Can't see how balancing, or rotating, would prevent sawtooth, which is caused by toe out at the rear wheels.

To prevent the extreame saw tooth wear most people suffer, VW recommends rotating wheels to reduce this effect. All tyres should be rotated at 5000 miles to give even tyre wear - this applies to all cars and is common practice all over the world.
Saw tooth is not primary caused by toe out either - that would give a uniform excessive wear pattern to the edges - saw tooth is high and low blocks of tread.

VW info

"Saw tooth tyre wear/tyre noise

Technical background - A major cause of annoying tyre wear/noise is heal amd toe wear. This is the outwardly visible and audible manifestation of various distortional forces at work on the tread. To explain this , it is better to 1st say something about tread design.

Tread grooves and sipes - a source of noise - are absolutely essential in ensuring safety on wet and flooed roads. In the case of low profile tyres in particular, a higher % of tread void is necessary to take up and channel the water, while a hydrodynamic tread pattern design is needed to ensure water displacement.

The upshot of this is "detatched blocks" in the shoulders. Because of how the tyre rolls over the road, the blocks can suffer heel and toe wear under certain operating conditions. When a tyre rolls, the individual blocks in the tread are deformed.

On entry into the contact patch, the blocks are compressed. In exiting the contact patch, the blocks rub against the road surface and spring backto their original shape, resulting in higher abrasion where the lug tapers off. The wear pattern is more likely to occur in non powered wheel positions.

If the tyre is driven in compliance with specific operating conditions, the difference in height between the front and rear edges of the block does not exceed 0.8mm, a level at which no noticeable deterioration in the tyre's characteristics is to be expected. More conspicuous heel and toe wear points to specific operating conditions - improper inflation pressures, excessive toe in, driving style.

To arrive at an improvement in the tyre wear pattern and a relative reduction in road noise it is imperative that tyre pressures are maintained regularly to manufactures specs. Also rotating the wheels has the effect of evenly distributing wear, so that the tyre returns to its original favourable noise level after a certain distance.

Above all please remember that tyre wear is unavoidable as africtional force must be present between the tyre and road surface.

No production changes - no measures taken."

The thing to remember is over the course of a year the wheel alignment changes due to all the knocks and bumps etc which is why manufacturers all over recommend rotating and wheel alignment periodically

[Quatrelle]

I should think that well over 90% of people on here who have complained of sawtooth wear have had the problem sorted by getting their factory-misaligned rear wheels aligned correctly. The sawtooth is invariably on the inside of the tread, caused by the wheels toeing out from the day they left the factory.

My 16-year-old Laguna has covered over 180,000kms, has never had any of its wheels aligned, has never experienced uneven tyre wear. I never rotate my wheels.

No disrespect, and I appreciate your taking the trouble to repeat this lengthy VW quote, but in view of the sh!te quality of the 3C I have absolutely no faith in VW, or their incredibly patronising bullsh (sorry 'info' - "Above all, please remember"....unbelievable!).

[Darektarantula]

Obviously hunter equipment uses manufacturer settings but how do I know if this settings has been corrected and there will be no more uneven wear? also I've never heard about rotating tyres every 5k miles beside before first alignment my tyres started rumbling well before that 5k.