Precision 4 wheel alignment for Octy RS Sydney

[BottomScratcher]

I've tried the search engine, gone through old threads here, and in the Wheels & Suspension section, and have found what from all reports is a good shop in Canberra, but unfortunately I'm looking for a place in Sydney that is familiar with Skodas and can do a good job of a front and rear wheel alignment on my RS.

Some of the tyre fitting places have good equipment, and good people operating it, but a lot don't. Tyres aren't cheap, and I've never had much luck with lotteries, so if anyone has first hand experience of a shop in Sydney that does quality work then I'd appreciate hearing about it.

[Mysticality]

Jax Quickfit in Mittagong seemed to do a decent job with mine.
They've done a lot of Golf's, apparently.
Sounds legit, I swear there are more Golf's around here than Commodores - and they're sold by the same dealership.

[BottomScratcher]

Jax Quickfit in Mittagong seemed to do a decent job with mine.
They've done a lot of Golf's, apparently.
Sounds legit, I swear there are more Golf's around here than Commodores - and they're sold by the same dealership.

Thanks for that. I'm not far away from Heasman's at Tempe, and I've come across a couple of good things said about Spinning Wheels at Waterloo, but I don't know anyone who has used either of them. I don't mind travelling to get it done, but I want it done right, and so am looking for first hand recommendations. What I don't want to hear is "Ah, an Octavia vRS. Is it Octar-via, or Octay-via? Haven't had one of these in here before".

The back is wearing dead evenly. The front has worn almost smooth on the near side outer shoulder. The off side also a wearing on the outer shoulder, but much less than the near side. I put it down to the toe-in setting being the same on both sides, and the left wearing faster due to road surface camber, and there's bugger all can be done about that, but given that I've been wrong before (1997 I think it was) I want to get the settings checked and adjusted if need be.

I'm not hard on tyres. Never have been, and in the past I've always done regular mileage based rotations. I didn't get around to rotating on the RS until 20K, and it was too late. I've never had a car that couldn't be easily jacked with a trolley jack, and stuffed around for months with ice hockey pucks and other failed attempts at jack plate adapters before eventually using the factory suicide jack and the spare wheel to do the rotation one wheel at a time. When I finally got around to doing it I was kicking myself, because on a flat solid surface the car's own jack is easy to use and does a very good job.

[Antiplastix]

I had mine done at Woonona Tyres. I down loaded the latest updated specs. from Briskoda with less -ve rear camber. They gave me a computer print out before and after. Any decent tyre shop should be able to do it, just make sure you give them the correct values to set it up to, not the ones published. There is 3 differant settings depending on model (standard,vRS and Scout) and several updates to these.

[BottomScratcher]

I down loaded the latest updated specs. from Briskoda with less -ve rear camber.

Thanks for the reply. I've had a look over on Briskoda, and found a few threads like this one dealing with the rear alignment specs, but haven't been able to find anything mentioning the front specs (yet). I haven't got access to Elsawin, so don't know what the specs are, or if they've been updated/modified recently. If you wouldn't mind posting a link I'd appreciate it.

[Antiplastix]

I cant find where I found the info. now, but I wrote it down. The vRS has 2UC suspension, Scout 2UB and Standard 2UA.

Front Values 2UC

Camber -0.8' +/- 30"
Caster 7 14" +/- 30"
Toe in 1 20" +/- 20"

Rear Camber 2UC

-1 15" +/- 30"

The rear camber was the main problem on mine being -2 20" on the left and -1 75" on the right. The rear also had negative toe-in which was corrected.
Origional bulletins had the rear camber at -1 45" +/- 30" ,but due to saw toothing on the rear tyres the values where changed.
You may find many places measure toe-in, in mm, so about 0.8 mm each side on the front and 1.5-2.0 mm rear is about right.

[BottomScratcher]

I cant find where I found the info. now, but I wrote it down. The vRS has 2UC suspension, Scout 2UB and Standard 2UA.

Front Values 2UC

Camber -0.8' +/- 30"
Caster 7 14" +/- 30"
Toe in 1 20" +/- 20"

Rear Camber 2UC

-1 15" +/- 30"

The rear camber was the main problem on mine being -2 20" on the left and -1 75" on the right. The rear also had negative toe-in which was corrected.
Origional bulletins had the rear camber at -1 45" +/- 30" ,but due to saw toothing on the rear tyres the values where changed.
You may find many places measure toe-in, in mm, so about 0.8 mm each side on the front and 1.5-2.0 mm rear is about right.

Antiplastix,
Thanks for the info. In attempting to see where you got your figures from I entered them into Google and found a link to an online manual. I'm the one asking for info, and get bemused when someone asks me a question, I give them an answer, and the first thing they say is "That can't be right". So, with that disclaimer out of the way I'll show you what I found.

Looking at these specs it would seem that the values that you had written down are 2UB (Scout), rather than 2UC (RS). The biggest difference is in the front camber values.

[Tigger]

Great thread idea guys!

I am really really fussy with wheel alignments...I will drive hours to find a GOOD PLACE with technicians that CARE!!!
So I appreciate the idea of this thread.

So if I understand properly, do I take these specs with me to a good place and they should be able to follow them?

[Antiplastix]

I still cant find where I got those specs., and yes according to that chart the values are nearly identical to the 2UB specs. MYvRS set up to those values seems great and it has my solved tyre wear issues. Just make sure that they dont go off their rear camber value of -1 45', thats what is causing the rears to scrub.

[BottomScratcher]

So if I understand properly, do I take these specs with me to a good place and they should be able to follow them?

A good place will already have them anyhow mate. Ask for a print out of the set up before and after any adjustment. I'd take the specs, and compare them to the "after" values. If they didn't match up I'd be asking why not, and where they got their specs from.

Just make sure that they dont go off their rear camber value of -1 45', thats what is causing the rears to scrub.

Yes, I found a lot of comment on this over on Briskoda, and Octavia-VRS.com while I was looking for current specs. It seems that in the UK Skoda took the "remedial action" of revising the rear settings to stop the rear inner shoulders from scrubbing, and the noise resulting from it. They call the tyre tread distortion "sawtoothing". I'll show my age, and call it feathering. The revised rear specs have been around for a few years now. As I said earlier, my rears are wearing dead even, as is the front right. The front left is worn almost smooth on the outer shoulder. Thanks again for your input.

I just had a look at Erwin. I haven't used it before, but for EUR5 for an hour of access it seems a small investment to get the definitive specs when compared to the cost of a set of tyres.

[brad]

Spinning Wheel would be my first choice these days. I haven't used them but on my other forum several (very fussy) members have & were very happy. (M3 Bimmer & latest Polo with Koni dampers)

Heasemans are my 2nd choice but:
a) Doug is getting really bloody old - he was old when I was doing alignments 25 years back!
b) Doug uses a mechanical machine still (there's a computerised machine now as well but I've not been to Heasemans for about 5 years). He's an absolute wizard with the mechanical aligner but for a 4 wheel alignment he still has to reverse the car on to do the rears & I can't see how he works out where the thrust line is.
Doug is still one of the top alignment guys in Sydney though.
3rd choice might be Wholesale Suspension out near Penrith or East Coast Suspension at Caringbah.

There should be no need to take specifications to the aligner unless you want "something special". A good aligner will use the factory specs as a guide only & look at the wear on the tyres to determine what needs adjusting. A good aligner prefers to do the alignment on the old tyres.

There was a thread about Octavia wheel alignment settings in this forum previously where I listed the specs & also some comments about real life setup from my old work partner from when we had the alignment bay at Wheels in Rockdale in the '80s. I moved on when he went back to NZ but he still does wheel alignments 25 years later & is one of the best in Tauranga (all of NZ I'd think).

PS: Don't expect an alignment by a good experienced operator to come cheap. Budget on $90-$180 depending on how many adjustments they have to make.

edit: Search function works! My previous post on wheel alignment for Octavia

[BottomScratcher]

Thanks for the post brad. I changed back to front about 4 weeks ago, so I'm booking in to Spinning Wheels before I wear another shoulder down while confirming specs. You're dead right, the specs are a guide, and the wear patterns truly tell the story of what needs adjusting, and by how much.

From what I've heard around the traps I thought Spinning Wheels might be the place to go, but it's good to have a recommendation from someone with such a good understanding of not just doing the job, but doing it precisely in order to achieve the best result. If I thought near enough was good enough I wouldn't have bothered looking for a recommendation in the first place.

[brad]

Took the Octavia to Spinning Wheel for a 4-wheel alignment yesterday because:
a) I fitted some Eibach springs a couple of weeks back which lowered the front 30mm & the rear 10mm (so I figured the front will be toeing in a bit)
b) The car has never had a wheel alignment in 103500km. Tyre wear patterns have always been acceptable so i figured why fix what isn't broken.

My thoughts:

• They have a really nice wheel alignment machine. I wish I had one.
• The alignment guy does lots of VWs & is fully aware of how the tyres wear on these vehicles & what adjustment options there are.
• I've been out of the trade too long (not sure if this is a good or bad thing)

The tech worked out what was wrong with the alignment before he'd even started the machine up ("You've probably got too much -ve camber on the rear & too much toe-out on the front"). I was surprised as my tyres have always worn evenly but he was right as my fronts do have a bit of inside wear if you have a really close look.
He was pretty right - I didn't write down the figures but the rear had -2 degrees camber each side - can't remember the toe reading & the thrust line was off to the left which explains the slight drift to the left that I had (I put it down to road camber). So he made the wheels a bit more vertical & sorted out the toe & thrust line.
Cambers were 0.9L & 0.75R which I was happy with. Toe out was around 2.5mm. IIRC he set it on zero.
Price was quoted as "From $119 for a 4-wheel alignment but it will cost more if there are lots of adjustments" & the final bill was $119, so I assume extra cost is for moving the front chassis, etc. It took him about 30mins to do the job.

Car feels much the same as before. Steers straight with a slight drift down the camber of the road - before & after I could take my hands off the steering wheel when trundling along the M5.

I still can't fathom why I get such good (even) tyre wear - the original CSC2 got over 40,000km & hit the wear bars evenly; the 2nd hand Khumos wore evenly from 4mm down to 2mm in 10,000km without edge wear & the Michelin Primacy I fitted at 55,000km are down to 4mm at 103,500km & would pass muster to 95% of people that looked at them.

Anyway, I'm a happy chappy at this point & would recomend them.

[BottomScratcher]

brad,
Thanks for the detailed feedback. I'm booked in to Spinning Wheels next week, so your comments are both timely, and much appreciated.

[BottomScratcher]

Went to Spinning Wheels yesterday, and came away a satisfied customer. I was first up for the day, so had time for a friendly chat with the tech before he got it up on the hoist. The current wear pattern, reasons for it, driving conditions, tyre pressures, and a range of other things were discussed before the car even went into the shop, so I was pretty happy with that.

As suspected the front left wearing faster than the front right is due to our LH side driving and road camber. I had a little too much front toe in, and a little too much rear negative camber. Nothing drastic, but enough to warrant correction. It was also suggested to run the back tyre pressures to spec (220 kpi/32 psi), but to run the fronts a bit higher. Front unladen spec is 210 kpi/30 psi , and it was recommended to run them at 250 kpi/36 psi. This should help prevent wear on the shoulders of the front tyres due to weight transfer during tight cornering. Particularly on the front left in situations such as on roundabouts. I'll give it a go. For me it's not all about maximizing tyre wear, comfort and noise are considerations as well.

I consider that my car is relatively new in that it has had one service ex-factory, and is still under more than half of its warranty. For those of us that stick with stock suspension I suppose there isn't a great deal of thought goes into steering geometry until either the tyres start to feather, or simply need replacing due to fair wear and tear. Given the cost of a set of tyres I'd suggest that anyone who has just forked out a largeish amount of cash on a new car do themselves a favour after about 2-3K kms, and spend a few bucks more on a precision wheel alignment to make sure you get the most out of your expensive to replace rubber. My CSC2's have 24K on them, and excepting the outer shoulder wear on one of them I expect to get a fair amount more out of them after the alignment.

For those close enough to Sydney I would recommend Spinning Wheels as a professional outfit that do good work at a sensible price.