Tracking

Citroenmad · Post by **Citroenmad** » 13 Jan 2010, 12:02

Trouble is garage tracking equipment is only as good as the operator.

I had lots of trouble with tracking and camber settings on my old Seat. The garage i went to used laser tracking systems, they told me my n/s/f wheel was leaning in far too far at the top (negative camber?) and was not even showing a reading on their equipment. However the wheel looked almost straight up and down. They set the camber as best they could and the tracking, though my tyres started wearing shockilng badly on the outside shoulders.

When people start using heat guns and large hammers to adjust tracking it does start me worrying.

I had a look at the adjustment myself, adjusted the tracking using a basic tracking tester borrowed from the garage i use for serviceing and set it myself. I set the camber as straight as it would go before doing the tracking. I took it elsewhere for a laser check and it was spot on. Infact the wheel which had been so far out with camber settings was now almost positive with camber. So obviously the tracking equipment was either not calibrated or badly used in the first place i took it to.

Now going from a garage who says my car must have been in an accident and the suspension is bent, to it being well within tolerence after i adjusted it myself is quite a big difference.

When i got the car back from the dealers after it had a replacement engine under warranty the tracking was a mile out, i took it to another garage and got them to adjust it, it was then towing in and scrubbing the tyres on the outside shoulder where it had been the inside. So i had to adjust it myself again. Im still very much unconvinced with garages!

This is why i never trust garages with my cars. So be careful who you use for your tracking adjustments.

A quick test you can do youself without any tracking gear is to get a long bit of string. Get someone to hold it across the back tyre, thouching the sidewall front and back of the tyre. Then hold the other end of the string to the fron tyre sidewalls, if it doesnt touch both sidewalls on the front tyre then its not correct. This is a very basic way of testing.

falling-out-with-my-car · Post by **falling-out-with-my-car** » 13 Jan 2010, 12:12

I use a garage called selecta tyre to do my tracking on my xantia they seem to be the only place that knows what they are doing besides they have some very short spanners required to set up the tracking on the car.

could this be a fractured front spring not yet noticed?

regards Nigel.

Citroenmad · Post by **Citroenmad** » 13 Jan 2010, 12:17

falling-out-with-my-car wrote:
could this be a fractured front spring not yet noticed?

regards Nigel.

On a C5? I doubt it

HDI · Post by **HDI** » 13 Jan 2010, 12:17

The new laser rigs are almost foolproof in operation and ruthlessly accurate in results ! They have onboard databases with original manufacturers specs to compare results with.
I've used them for setting up cars after installing new coilover suspension and the results are perfect.
Impossible to achieve the same accuracy with any other method.

Citroenmad · Post by **Citroenmad** » 13 Jan 2010, 12:21

Im very certain something was wrong with the tracking equipment where i took my car. A friend took his car in at the same time as i did mine and his had the same problem, very negative camber on the n/s/f. Coincidence, i think not.

HDI · Post by **HDI** » 13 Jan 2010, 12:40

Must have been that particular company or some sort of alternative agenda going on. I use 2 locations regularly and can't fault them.

boristhespie · Post by **boristhespie** » 13 Jan 2010, 12:41

Was a four wheel laser jobbo. Mconnechys wh are tyre and exhaustspecialists.

falling-out-with-my-car · Post by **falling-out-with-my-car** » 13 Jan 2010, 15:29

Citroenmad wrote:
falling-out-with-my-car wrote:
could this be a fractured front spring not yet noticed?

regards Nigel.
On a C5? I doubt it

As no-one mentions which model car it is anywhere in this thread it was only a guess..

Citroenmad · Post by **Citroenmad** » 13 Jan 2010, 16:36

Yes i was a little unsure what car it was at first but remembered boristhespie had a C5.

Though i agree, a cracked or broken spring would cause it to pull to one side.

falling-out-with-my-car · Post by **falling-out-with-my-car** » 14 Jan 2010, 12:46

I appreciate its a different motor altogether but I had a berlingo until everyone clocked it as a disabled vechicle and it had a broken spring which went unoticed until you actually shone a torch up inside the wheel arch and found the crack, it to pulled to one side. we never cured it replacing only one spring apparently you are supposed to replace them in pairs.

regards Nigel.

Post by **Peter.N.** » 14 Jan 2010, 17:00

I use a length of threaded rod slid inside a length of conduit tube to track my wheels up, been using it for years, never had any problem with uneven tyre wear.

Peter

cachaciero · Post by **cachaciero** » 19 Jan 2010, 18:30

boristhespie wrote:Had the cars tracking and balance done just before Christmas. It was steering to the left before and continued after. The vibration at 70 was gone. Now though it is steering fairly strongly to the left.

Had this problem before and a small garage in France sorted it where no garage in the UK did (Kept going back for tracking)

Now I am not in France. Any clues as to why this is happening. Is this anything to do with tracking or am I getting it wrong?

It's unlikely to be tracking, it could be a binding brake, it could be a worn ball joint or it could be a soft or torn wishbone bush.
If I had to choose just one of these as the most likely culprit it would be a defective rear wishbone bush on the nearside suspension, the design of which is pure crap, they have voids in the rubber which will allow the bearing to rock laterally as soon as the rubber softens a bit or tears.

A good test is to check is to find a bit of quite road at about twenty miles an hour take your hands of the wheel and apply brakes see if the steering wheel turns to the left, then accelerate and check if the wheel straightens up if the answer to both checks is yes then it almost certainly wishbone bushes.

cachaciero

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Tracking

Re: Tracking