Garage to do 4 wheel alignment

[Stanleywindrush]

I want to align my front wheels as have uneven tyre wear on the insides of the front tyres. I have been told this is excessive toe in (if not them camber etc.)
I was also told that instead of just the laser front tyre alignment in my local quickfit - I should have all 4 tyres done to ensure the set up is correct and not just adjusting a wrong steering set up.

The only place i could get the 4 wheel alignment is my local Volvo dealer, but after booking me in they have retracted the offer as my Amazon will not apparently fit on their machinery (how does that work?)

Can any one help to solve this riddle;
Am i having my balls pulled about by the Volvo Garage - and do I need this anyway??

Yours

Baz

[Alec Dawe]

4 wheel alignment is a very good idea, not only does it check the toe-in/out, but also camber and caster angles too.
I can't see how Volvo can say they can't fit an Amazon on. Try and decent garage that fit tyres thenselves, i.e. don't farm tryes out to kwikknacker etc.
They should be able to do it.
My local Toyota dealer quoted about £25 for a 240

[Mike_Brace]

I agree 4 wheel alignment is well worth doing. The problem on the Amazon is that it involves using shims. My guess is it is too time consuming for your local dealer to do. The 4 wheel alignment process involves clamping the laser units to all 4 wheels and in the case of our older Volvos the front is set off the back wheels. The lad at our local dealership didn't know how to adjust the 240 and had to get one of the older technicians to show him. We could have shown him had he asked!

Mike

[Andrew (UK)]

http://www.merityre.co.uk/

Unfortunately they don't have places out as far as Bristol. However they do have the alignment setup talked about above. Unfortunately they would not even attempt the camber adjustment on my 240, even though their equipment measured it, so I doubt they will do anything other than toe adjustment.
For the record this is still two wheel aligment even though they put sensors on all four wheels. As far as I know four wheel aligment involves adjusting the rear wheels as well, something which is not possible on these cars. But whatever you call it, steer well clear of the ones that don't mount sensors on all four wheels, they are notoriously inaccurate.

Andrew

[grantbennett2]

As above. I had an Amazon when I worked in Hamburg about 10 years ago.I found a good garage there, they hung sensors on all 4 wheels for the test, but only adjusted at the front. Transformed the dive!

Guess Hamburg is a bit far to go

G

[Stanleywindrush]

Thanks one and all for the info.

The garage was a volvo Dealer and wanted nearly £100!

I am going to a chap outside Banwell in Somerset this after noon, and he says he will do the camber, caster and then the toe in last!

Sounds like he knows what he's doing..

and yes Hamburg is a little far Grant!!
Baz

[stuart bankier]

Baz

Can you update the thread once you have the camber etc done as I would be interested to hear what difference it makes as I would like to get mine done too

Cheers

Stuart

[Derek UK]

Baz, if things have gone to plan your Amazon (I assume?) is now back on the straight and narrow. Let us know how you got on.
If not you might like to consider that wear to the inside of the front tyres is usually caused by toe-out. Worn outside equals too much toe-in. Amazons like parallel to just a smidgin of toe-in. Anything more than about 1º toe-in will tend to give a rather understeery feel to the turn in and you might start to notice a bit of feathering on the outside of the tyres if you like to corner hard.
As mentioned the castor and camber are set up using shims, but unless you've rebuilt the front end and have put the shims back in wrongly or have been bashing kerbs, yumping in a rally etc, these settings are likely to be within limits. Bad alignment usually comes about due to wear in one or more of the ball joints or the steering idler. A little wear in all of these can make adjustment of toe-in difficult to impossible. We all like a "sympathetic" MOT man when our oldies go for testing but in this case you really need to know what the real conditon of the joints and bushes is. The "cotton reel" top A-arm bushes don't seem to last as long as they did and some like to replace these with poly ones. The lower, outer ball joint can wear badly but will sometimes slip past the MOT lever test. If you check all of the joints etc with the car jacked up and again with the lower A arms up on stands all of the bad points should show up. Check the wheel bearings while it's up in the air. Move the wheels from lock to lock and check for tight spots. If there's one at the straight ahead position the steering box may need to be loosened by a flat or two. Check the flexi-joint. Elsewhere it may show up a ball-joint that's drying out or partly seized.
Not much you can do to align the rear of the Amazon. If the bushes are good and the trailing arms aren't bent, all should be well. You might get a bit of rear wheel steering if one of the brakes is binding but that is easily checked.
Hopefully your car is now sorted, but if not.................

Derek

[Stanleywindrush]

My steering had been done at a quick fit and is 6 degrees too much toe out - believe that!.

I have had it put to one minute toe in - moved the tyres from front to back - with immediate effect! I will have the toe in set at 0.4mm next week

I'm still having the camber, caster and king pin inclination checked over though, as the front end I did rebuild, and want to check I put the shims back as I took off (I had written this down and did a good job, but you never know!)

All steering joints seem good, and this chap near weston super mare will check it all for me as well.

I'll let you know - but think I have learnt my lesson. Quick fit pay peanuts - so it stands to reason they only have a certain type of mechanic working for them..

Baz

[Stanleywindrush]

OK,

Car has now one minute toe in (less than 1mm). Camber is good, but caster is just outside tolerance on the drivers side. This is only outside tolerance on the early chassis - but apparently not the later ones.

What I need now is a 2mm shim for the top wishbone (inside the engine bay) and a sort out of the other various sized shims to get an even set up.

Has any one got any spare shims??

Only issue is, once the caster is altered, the camber could go out - and the toe in/ out could change.

Is it really worth doing its only slightly outside an old chassis tolerance??

Work so far has been a reasonable £50 but don't want to land myslef hundreds of pound bills just because I'm being anal retentive!

The car only gets used week ends, and considering it now handles well, unlike the tea trolley it was before, should I just accept my driver caster is outside an old chassis tolerance and be done with it???

Your opinions would be kind..

PS garage says I might be a little on the nutty side and should buy a modern car...

Baz