R32 Alignment Settings

[Vdubya]

Hey guys i've just had my car returned from doing a 4-wheel alignment and although it drives nicely, noticed that the steering wheel isnt aligned to the center, and the car slightly leans to the right driving on a straight surface. I suspect its a result of the wheel alignment itself, and I have a print out of data, and was hoping someone could shed some light into which results appear to be causing this?

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v2...cture002-1.jpg

[bazzle]

Did they reset the electic pump steering tracking?

Bazzle

[Vdubya]

I don't think they would have, since it wasn't included as part of the service. I pretty much delivered my car to them, "tyre specialists", and got given a $75 4 wheel alignment, and inflating/deflating tyres to appropriate spec.

I may need to ask them about the "pump steering tracking".

What strikes me as odd is the "rear axle -left camber" at -2 deg 01', in comparison to the rear axle -right camber" at -1 deg 28', shouldnt they be close to identical?

In truth i have to admit to being abit unsure what to make of all these specs.

[Jarred]

I believe your rear axle alignment was better to start off with, at -1.5 and -1.3.

I would go back to them, I personally wouldn't be happy with over half a degree of camber difference.

[aristocrat]

What strikes me as odd is the "rear axle -left camber" at -2 deg 01', in comparison to the rear axle -right camber" at -1 deg 28', shouldnt they be close to identical?

I think more negative camber is good if you drive hard since it will then scrub evenly. If you don't spend too much time driving hard, then too much of a negative camber will scrub the inner wall of the tyre, leading to uneven wear.

To that the right camber being less than the left side is normal practice, since they probably done the 4 wheel alignment without the weight of the driver (say 80Kg) on the right side, which then should increase the negative camber on the right side to about the same as the left side. This is all assuming that you normally have no passenger next to you.

If I were you, I'd go and ask them some questions as to how they actually did the wheel alignment. I would also check what the factory recommends as the correct camber/castor settings and the method they use.

The professionals have sand bags on the drivers side to emulate a driver being there BEFORE they adjust the camber/castor/toe in values. They also should "lock" the steering wheel in the dead centre position and adjust the tie rod ends to suit - in that way, the steering will always be 'centered'.

[Vdubya]

Hey thanks for the advice guys, im going to just bring the car back in as they guarantee the wheel alignment for 30days anyway, and based on my driving style i usually have one passenger in the vehicle of equal weight as myself, so having bias to the "right camber" won't be ideal for me.

Knowing these mob though, they will probably go out of their way to extort me for a tyre rotation, but we shall see. The car leans quite alot to the "right" and i need to pull the car to the left in order to straighten the steering wheel becoming quite an annoyance.

[brad]

I'll preface this by saying I've never aligned an R32 or seen the factory specs. I haven't done a wheel alignment for money in 20+ years but the theory doesn't change much.

That looks wrong. (why haven't they got the target data collum populated?).

I did find some MKIV R32 specs.

Rear camber should be -1.5+-0.2. I would have left those cambers where they are (near enough IMO).
The rear toe is worrying. I'd almost guarantee you will get tyre wear problems from those settings.
The left tyre was pointing outwards 0.8mm, the right pointing inwards 1.4mm. for a combined of 0.6mm. IIRC this is about where it should be (total toe) so they should have pointed the left tyre inwards & the right outwards - you want about 0.5mm-1mm toe-in on R32s I believe (opposite to what I would set most cars at). So their 4mm toe-in = WTF?

On the front, I thought the R32 had adjustable camber? Anyway, if possible I'd give it more -ve camber (-1.0 would be nice), with a fraction extra on the LHS.
I would have backed the RH toe off a fraction (positive toe = toe-in IIRC) to make it closer to zero (maybe 0.5mm toe-in) as it's front drive & when you get the power on, the wheels creep inward.

Take it back, ask them to explain how they decided to set it where it is.

The -2.0 degrees on the LHR is making it drive to the right. The excessive rear toe-in will cause a truckload of rear tyre wear (IMO).

All that toe-in on the front with the small amount of -ve camber it is carrying will wear the outside edges of the tyre prematurely.

i wouldn't be overly concerned about sandbags, 1 person/2 persons - it's only a road car.

[Vdubya]

Thanks for the further comments guys, i gave this mob the benefit of the doubt and to fix the errors of their ways, and used the info and this thread to argue my point. It was discovered the excessive camber was causing the vehicle in tracking "right". I was mentioned realignment close to the settings brad supplied, as a search shows near identical results from our users with R32's.

The problem appears to be "marginally" fixed, and i demanded another wheel alignment sheet of the further results. They have now made changes to the

rear axle -left camber, -1deg25'
rear axle -right camber -1deg25'

------------
rear axle -left toe, +1,1mm
rear axle -right toe, +1,1mm

=======================

total: 2,2mm

========================

front axle -left camber, -0 deg54'
front axle -right camber -0 deg59'

------------
rear axle -left toe, 1,0mm
rear axle -right toe, 1,0mm

=========================

total: 2,0mm

=========================

Castor

Castor left 7deg,04'
Castor right 7deg,15'

=========================

K.P.I. (Kingpin Inclination)

left 14deg33'
right 14deg38'

=========================

Setback: 0deg07'

[Vdubya]

Do you guys think these results are acceptable? The car doesn't feel like driving the same way as before i booked it in. Which could be a combination of tyre pressure/the alignment, or generally just giving the vehicle time to settle in with the changes.

Or otherwise am i better off in bringing the car for a second opinion to somewhere like a VW dealership and getting a realignment to factory specs done?

[brad]

The cambers are much better.

I won't comment about the rear toe-in becuase I'm not sure..... I used to set my AWD Liberty with 1mm toe-out to make it turn into corners better but the R32 is a different setup.

I think the front still has too much toe-in, but again that's based on general experience & Subarus. It's better to see what the tyre wear was like before changing settings.

Generally, I'd recomend you try Heasemans at Tempe but lately I'm not so sure.

As the others have mentioned, I thought there was some type of VagCom/VCDS reset that was needed?

What part of Sydney are you in?