Should I Be Worried, Just Monitor, Or Ignore?

[Tino11]

Hello all,

I had my car at my local Tyre Spot today (they do MOT's, servicing etc too) because I was getting a vibration on the steering wheel at around 60mph to 75mph and thought it was probably the wheels needed balancing. As unluck would have it, I whacked a the rear passenger side alloy off a kerb this morning (chipped it! don't turn around to tell your dog off like I did!) so knew today was the day to get it all checked. Although I've just had a new power steering rack fitted (different place) and the alignment was supposed to have been done, they said they would check the alignment too, I would only be charged if adjustments were needed.

All four wheels were balanced, vibration now gone. The front wheel alignment was off so they asked if I wanted it doing and I said yes.

Now to the issue. The real alignment was off on the drivers side (opposite side to alloy that was kerbed this morning) but it is fixed and can't be adjusted. The bloke at the front desk (I've never seen him in the garage) said it isn't something they would do, ("touch" was his words) and that it might need to go to a bodyshop and put on a jig to sort the camber out. Then he said you could take out the bolts on the side and keep adjusting it. He also said you might just want to keep replacing the tyre (I assume this was because it was a camber issue it would create uneven wear?).

Then the bloke who did the alignment and balancing called me in to the garaged as he'd spotted a small hole in the mid section of the exhaust, he only noticed it when he had it up on the ramp ticking over, as it turns out I had heard a small blowing noise recently when stopping at low speed so this wasn't a surprise. Anyway he was just showing me it, so I asked him about the rear axle and he said there is no damage and they take a hell of an impact before they become damaged. He said it wasn't far out alignment wise and it may have been like that for a long, long time. Basically he didn't seem at all worried.

So I went back to the front desk to pay for the balancing and alignment and the front desk guy said maybe I should take it to an Audi specialist (I assume he meant VAG specialist) who would have the special tool needed to adjust the camber, he said a bodyshop might want to charge me a fortune.

Attached is a photo of the report, it is the driver's side rear where the camber is off. Also a web link of it

http://imgur.com/a/2egH56f

Should I just monitor this, assuming it has been like this for ages? Should I ignore it all together? Or should I try and get it seen to, and if so, what would be my best port of call do you think?

 

[Legojon]

Been there. If it's not causing any issues and the vibration is sorted, don't worry about it. I've got the same on the rear of mine and as they said it can't be easily adjusted. The amount that is out of spec if you draw a straight line on a piece of paper. Then draw a line at that angle. You wouldn't spot the difference with the naked eye. If you kerbed it, they checked the axle. All is good. Just enjoy it.

 

[Legojon]

There we go. Mines opposite side rear. And the fronts if we want to be pedantic. Lol. Never caused me any trouble.

 

[Tino11]

Thank you Legojon, you have put my mind at ease. The bloke who did the actual balancing and alignment didn't seem at all worried, it was the front desk bloke talking about bodyshop and jigs that got me worried, but I think it's been like that for the 5 years I've had it and probably before that and I've never noticed any issues so I'll just keep an eye on the tyre but fingers crossed I won't even notice an issue with that. Thank you again.

 

[Legojon]

No worries. Just looked at your results again on a big screen (was on my phone before). If I'm reading it right it's 1/60th of a degree out of spec. I definitely wouldn't lose any sleep over it.

 

[RUM4MO]

Seeing as both of you have posted "4 wheel geometry results" and both show "huge" out of spec wrt caster, it reminds me that when I submitted my older daughter's late 2009 Ibiza 1.4 SC to KwikFit for correcting toeing after I had replaced both track rods and probably TREs, I ended up being handed a results sheet like those shown above, and that also had "huge" caster error.

In my case, no comments were made about the caster being way out of spec on both sides at the front, so I reckoned that that error was due to KwikFit not actually knowing how to measure the caster, ie not responding/reacting to requests from the alignment bench computer to move the steering wheel to one side by a certain angle and then the same the other side. Not a very clever way of operating if that is what has been happening, I'd rather the caster was either showing as N/A or the task being carried out correctly and a true value shown.

That caster error concerned me as I had replaced the suspension on both sides at the front and that car was showing signs of a slight anomaly under braking in certain conditions - that car was traded for a new Leon Cupra so not our problem now, but that caser error almost forced me to submit my wife's 2015 Polo for the same check just to see what the caster values ended up being.