rear wheel alignment, advice/thoughts please

[red line fun]

car was in today getting checked for rumbling noise that i thought was coming from front, turns out it's the back, garage has advised all wheel bearings okay but 'uneven bumpy tread on inner edge causing excessive road noise' with the following depth measurements:

N/S rear: 4.5 outer, 5.5 middle, 3.5 inner
O/S rear: 4.5 outer, 5.5 middle, 3.0 inner

further advised i require new rears and alignment checked as this (misalignment) has caused the tyres to wear unevenly causing excessive road noise.

here's my question. as the rears aren't illegal and still have tread life in them, do you reckon it would suffice, at least for now, for me just to get alignment done? they've quoted £90 all in for this. i'm not too bothered if the excessive road noise remains after alignment (will it?) as long as i know the tyres ain't getting any worse.

a plan, or do i really need to get the tyres now as well? i'm SKINT so could do with leaving that part for a few months.

advice/thoughts please.

N/S tyre ...



O/S tyre ...

 

[AndrewJB]

Ive got same problem i think its a common thing on Leon and Octavia

Fronts are doing the same

 

[red line fun]

Ive got same problem i think its a common thing on Leon and Octavia

Fronts are doing the same

i reckon the speed bumps prob don't help but maybe nothing to do with that. the guy in the garage told me some cars have fixed set-up at the rear (camber?) whereas the leon is adjustable so the possibility is there for it to go out of spec. don't know how much truth there is or isn't in that?

do you reckon a wheel alignment would do me and leave current tyres on for now?

 

[tonto]

mis shaped tyres, wont be from alignment, that would cause irregular wear, but not the same thing.
Toe in / Out - will give you a feathered feeling, rough one way and smooth the other
Camber - will give you an even smooth finish, on the edge.

i see it on a weekly basis on Volkswagen, when ive spoken to them they agree its just down to their suspension setup.

the only other way around it, imo, is new tyres. try not to get tread patterns with raised edges / stepper tread.

 

[IainW]

Got the same problem here. Really annoying on some road surfaces. I was wondering the same, if it was worth getting it done before I got new tyres. Going to get new ones all round in a few months with better rim protection and grip because the Pirellis I have are not confidence inspiring.

 

[red line fun]

mis shaped tyres, wont be from alignment, that would cause irregular wear, but not the same thing.
Toe in / Out - will give you a feathered feeling, rough one way and smooth the other
Camber - will give you an even smooth finish, on the edge.

i see it on a weekly basis on Volkswagen, when ive spoken to them they agree its just down to their suspension setup.

the only other way around it, imo, is new tyres. try not to get tread patterns with raised edges / stepper tread.

hi tonto, not quite sure what you're saying, are you saying getting the alignment done will not improve matters and it's basically a designed suspension setup that i've just got to live with and all i can do is change the tyres when they get to a certain degree of uneven wear?

i've gone with michelin pilot sport 3's on front and was intending to get same on back, but not for a year or so!

 

[HotHatchSteve]

On the Leon the rear suspension is fully adjustable, the problem has been identified before and is down to the cars been set with too much negative camber.
Other who have gone to have a proper 4 wheel alignment done have found to have the problem sorted after having this and new tyres.

 

[red line fun]

On the Leon the rear suspension is fully adjustable, the problem has been identified before and is down to the cars been set with too much negative camber.
Other who have gone to have a proper 4 wheel alignment done have found to have the problem sorted after having this and new tyres.

it must have been knocked out again then as i've had it aligned twice since new at star performance who have a good rep.

my question stands, will i solve the prob with getting the wheels aligned but keeping the tyres or will their uneven wear cause the alignment to go out of spec again? i'm not too bothered about the road noise 'if' i know the tyres aren't getting any worse and the rear alignment is staying in spec ... until the next bad bump in road!

 

[HotHatchSteve]

I would of thought it would solve the problem.
When you had the alignment done before did they set the camber to the revised angle?
There are several threads on here with before and after results, I will try and find one.

 

[red line fun]

I would of thought it would solve the problem.
When you had the alignment done before did they set the camber to the revised angle?
There are several threads on here with before and after results, I will try and find one.

and i'll see if i can find the before and after reports from last time i had it done, wish me luck, more chance of finding the proverbial needle ...

 

[HotHatchSteve]

Here a link to a previous thread.

http://www.seatcupra.net/forums/showthread.php?t=209628

 

[adam1811]

Here a link to a previous thread.

http://www.seatcupra.net/forums/showthread.php?t=209628

I had the exact same issue as you are having, really annoyed me for ages as at first i didnt know what it was. if you read through this thread it will explain exactly what is up with the tyres.

http://www.seatcupra.net/forums/showthread.php?t=310231

I took the car down to a garage with the settings in the link posted above. I had both the front and the rear of the car setup as it is in the link. Cost me £120 for the setup. I also went as far as purchasing new tyres just cos i wanted rid of the noise plus they were crap budget tyres put on by previous owner.
Now the tyres are wearing evenly and i have covered around 8000 miles since the setup was changed. No noise coming from the tyres .

I strongly recommend getting the settings done as it will keep piece of mind, Not sure about tyres if they are still leagle then use them till they are not.

Ta

 

[red line fun]

guys, i've had a look through this thread:

http://www.seatcupra.net/forums/showthread.php?t=209628

including the before and after stats. the only thing is, unless i'm reading the 'after' stats wrong my car, when last realigned, wasn't set up a million miles away spec wise rear camber wise. here are the results for my car after it was realigned, (18 months and 22k miles ago mind you):


left front
camber: -0o36'
caster: 7o17'
toe: 0o05'

right front
camber: -0o47'
caster: 6o58' (this remained 'red' on the print-out, garage advised was best they could do)
toe: 0o05'

FRONT
total toe: 0o10'
steer ahead: 0o00'

left rear
camber: -1o42'
toe: 0o04'

right rear
camber: -1o45'
toe: 0o04'

REAR
total toe: 0o08'
thrust angle: 0o00'


from what folk are saying it's the rear camber that causes the issue, so when it was done last time was my car realigned as it should be to avoid the issues i've been having or not? according to the print-out these rear camber figures are almost bang in the middle of the spec range. should i be advising the garage to set them differently???

 

[Viking]

Mate, pop over onto WIM and ask there. Tony will know exactly what you need to set your car up as to avoid the problem. Although his wife died recently and he may be a little absent sometimes, he'll probably have some figures you can give to Jim at Star Performance to sort it out once and for all.

 

[red line fun]

Mate, pop over onto WIM and ask there. Tony will know exactly what you need to set your car up as to avoid the problem. Although his wife died recently and he may be a little absent sometimes, he'll probably have some figures you can give to Jim at Star Performance to sort it out once and for all.

cheers

 

[Viking]

I saw your post over there. How did you get on this weekend?

 

[dazvessey]

ive got this problem on my car im going to lower it in the next couple of weeks so so is it best to get it done after i lower it or if i get it done now will it still be ok after lowering?

 

[Redemption]

ive got this problem on my car im going to lower it in the next couple of weeks so so is it best to get it done after i lower it or if i get it done now will it still be ok after lowering?

Do it after it's been lowered.

 

[dazvessey]

cheers redemption i had a feeling that would prob be best but thought i would check