Wheel Alignment & Balance

[hutchjnr- MTM GTi]

Hi everyone,

Just wanting peoples thoughts on wheel alignments and balancing.

How often should they be done and are there any places it should be taken, or is "Ultratune" or a similar type business, be good enough?

Cheers,

Ben

[Manaz]

I'd go to the appropriate specialist - a good tyre shop for balancing, a good suspension place for alignment.

[hutchjnr- MTM GTi]

Cheers Manaz.

What would be a reasonable price for each?

[Manaz]

$10-$25 a wheel for balancing (lower if you're buying tyres, sometimes thrown in for free). Alignments vary, I paid $120 for a four wheel alignment to my specifications recently.

[hutchjnr- MTM GTi]

How often do u get your wheels balanced and/or alligned?

Supposing you don't change your wheels/tyres...

[JustCruisn]

Every 5000km, or when things get shaky or pull to one side. Cost me about $70 a go.

[DIDZ]

Hi everyone,

Just wanting peoples thoughts on wheel alignments and balancing.

How often should they be done and are there any places it should be taken, or is "Ultratune" or a similar type business, be good enough?

Cheers,

Ben

Alignment every 7500kms.

Not a Pedders or a Jax if you've got coilovers or modified suspension. If you've got a Falcodore or small car that would be fine. Modifed - you take it to a specialist who knows where each hair on his arse is.

I used to have a really good bloke around my area, all of my cars came out with the steering wheel straight and the car going straight (tracking along roads within tolerance).

Now, it seems most alignment places come out with the wheel on an angle, and the steering floating to a direction. Abysmal.

As you can tell I'm picky with steering and run on the "feel" of the car with it.

Edit - I would have said 5000km at the same time you're changing over oil, but went for 7500 as it's a happy medium considering people don't pay as much time to steering.

[hutchjnr- MTM GTi]

I do have coilovers/ modified suspension, so looks like I'll try and find a good place in Melbourne (Northern Suburbs).

If anyone knows of a good place in Melb, give me a shout out

[rikard1]

i got some new tyres from my local bridgestone shop and rather than let them do an alignment for $49 i thought id pay a bit more and go somewhere reputable where they know what theyre doing.

so i asked my brother to take it to Heasmans to get an alignment because he's on holiday and for $44 they did an alignment and had a good look at the whole suspension like i asked (i only bought it three weeks ago). only thing is the steering wheel was a little off centre before it went in and it came out exactly the same way so i have a question;

can the steering wheel be somehow centred without affecting alignment or do u have to undo nuts and bolts and stuff that would affect the alignment?

[gavs]

Not sure about northern suburbs for good VW people, there are a few in the inner eastern burbs of melbourne though...

Be wary when you get an "alignment" though, depending on your car, there is the smallest amount of camber adjustment, max of around 0.3 degrees (unless you have camber adjustment plates) and the only thing they can really adjust is front end toe, unless you have a 4motion car.....

[DIDZ]

only thing is the steering wheel was a little off centre before it went in and it came out exactly the same way....

Ohh my pet hate with alignment centres...

can the steering wheel be somehow centred without affecting alignment or do u have to undo nuts and bolts and stuff that would affect the alignment

Yes, they should be able to do this. Once I had one of my cars come out with a between 15-30 degree offset. I told them to fix that crap up. Once they were done, they were blacklisted from places I take it to align.

[dubbed]

Ever since I got new tyres fitted my Golf it started pulling to the left. I took it back to the tyre place who told me that I was only noticing it then because there's much more grip/better tread. I didn't buy that excuse so I took it to a local Pedders who I'd used for two previous cars and done a superb job. This time they didn't satisfy - it still pulled to the left after a "wheel alignment". I took it back to Pedders to tell them it was still pulling to the left but was told there's no real adjustability in Golfs. So, the reason why it pulls to the left? "Because it's European and they build them so they pull to the left to make up for the gradient in the road (opposite side to us here)." What a load of bull! I couldn't be bothered arguing considering they couldn't fix it in the first place. What's weird is that the alignment specs were reasonable.

I've learnt to lived with it now although I am led to believe MkIVs can be adjusted but there's a bit more to it than your average Falcon/Commodore/etc.

Good luck and don't buy b/s excuses! Take it to a specialist and pay a bit more to get the job done right.

[rikard1]

Ohh my pet hate with alignment centres...



Yes, they should be able to do this. Once I had one of my cars come out with a between 15-30 degree offset. I told them to fix that crap up. Once they were done, they were blacklisted from places I take it to align.

yeah pi$$es me off but it was only a slight angle so im not really surprised they overlooked it ...still, it was Heasmans so if i cant trust them to do a good job then who can i trust?

...anyhoo i was wondering if its something i can adjust myself, like if i unbolt the steering wheel on the steering column i wouldnt expect that to throw out the wheel alignment. is that how the suspension shops centre the steering wheel?

[rikard1]

Ever since I got new tyres fitted my Golf it started pulling to the left. I took it back to the tyre place who told me that I was only noticing it then because there's much more grip/better tread. I didn't buy that excuse so I took it to a local Pedders who I'd used for two previous cars and done a superb job. This time they didn't satisfy - it still pulled to the left after a "wheel alignment". I took it back to Pedders to tell them it was still pulling to the left but was told there's no real adjustability in Golfs. So, the reason why it pulls to the left? "Because it's European and they build them so they pull to the left to make up for the gradient in the road (opposite side to us here)." What a load of bull! I couldn't be bothered arguing considering they couldn't fix it in the first place. What's weird is that the alignment specs were reasonable.

I've learnt to lived with it now although I am led to believe MkIVs can be adjusted but there's a bit more to it than your average Falcon/Commodore/etc.

Good luck and don't buy b/s excuses! Take it to a specialist and pay a bit more to get the job done right.

how long after u got ur new tyres did u get ur alignment?

[No457 Snowy]

yeah pi$$es me off but it was only a slight angle so im not really surprised they overlooked it ...still, it was Heasmans so if i cant trust them to do a good job then who can i trust?

...anyhoo i was wondering if its something i can adjust myself, like if i unbolt the steering wheel on the steering column i wouldnt expect that to throw out the wheel alignment. is that how the suspension shops centre the steering wheel?

The problem with the average "alignment/tyre experts" is that they adjust the tie-rods to set the Toe and figure their job is done.

I had the problem you describe after fitting a new front anti-sway bar and it stemmed from when the Subframe bolts were loosened and the Subframe was lowered and bolted back up, the Subframe had moved ever so slightly, just enough to change the Caster from one side to the other.

When I took my car to the "experts", they actually told me my car must have been in an accident and there was no adjustment to correct what I was feeling as I drove it.

Trying to explain to them about moving the Subframe was like speaking in tongues, I even had a VW tech speak to the alignment guy on my mobile phone while I was standing there next to my car at the alignment place, and he couldn't get the guy to understand and ended up telling me to "forget these guys they haven't got a $%#@ clue!"

I knew this was complete BS as I owned the car since new and there were no accidents - and the car was fine before the sway bar went in. Once I found a decent alignment place familiar with European cars, they loosened the subframe and moved it around slightly and corrected the problem. Once they tweaked the settings, (they even move the Ball-Joints around slightly) the car was tracking straight and felt better than it ever had when driving.

There's not much movement available, but there is enough movement to make the difference between pulling to one side or running straight. It's a matter of finding a place that has the knowledge and will take the time to get everything "just right" instead of adjusting the tie-rod to a number in a book and handing the car back as though it's your problem.


Cheers,

Snowy