Specialist wheel alignment?

[hawkeye]

Hi,

I had a new tyre put on at the weekend and the bloke said that he couldn't do the tracking and there was only one (non-MB) place in town (Swindon) that he knew of that could.

Hmm, does this mean all the others that say that can do it are doing it half-cocked or was the fella getting it all wrong (they're very good little garage so I'd be surprised if he was wrong).

cheers,
John.

 

[television]

Ask Black C55 who is good in that area

 

[redmilly7]

Just had mine done by AlignMyCar.co.uk..it was expensive but they told me that nobody can do modern cars except 4 wheel alignment places, and everytime someone meses with it they make things worse..as I found out to my cost..

 

[MarkCL]

I always use one of the Protyre group to do the work as they usually have 4 wheel alignment and also are one of the few places I've taken my car to where they use a torque wrench to do the wheel nuts up rather than just zipping them up as tight as possible using an air wrench

Have a look here http://www.protyre.co.uk They also have very good prices on new tyres and wheels etc - haven't yet found somewhere cheaper for good quality work

Cheers,
Mark

 

[hawkeye]

Ah ha ! This is why

Thanks to Black C55 I know what's going on now !

So, here's the deal. I'm ignorant of these things but apparently wheels are very important to a car ;-)

So, there isn't just "wheel alignment" as I knew it. It breaks down in to lots of things including...
camber, caster, tow, SAI (?), Included Angle (?),Turning Angle Diff. Cross camber, cross caster. Thrust angle !!

Wow ! So, the reason you need the new nuts is when you've got a problem with the front camber (not sure about rear camber). They appear to be somekind of spacer nut or something (you can see how interested I am!) Apparently, any other problem is fine and can be sorted without them, as per usual.

So, BlackC55 put me onto a great place called Denmead tyre services who told me to go to some blokes down the road who only does MB - out comes a bloke who appears to live life under the bonnet of MB's who knows exactly what I'm talking about as soon as I mention "something about nuts and the front wheel", orders me two and away we go.

thanks Black C55 !

 

[The Rock]

Denmead Tyre Services couldn't get mine right. They had two goes before I gave up and went to the main dealer, who have actually got it wrong too. I'll be phoning them at 9 O'clock this morning to ask for a full explanation.

The "Bloke down the road" that Hawkeye mentions is the same guy who I use for all my Mercedes servicing. He's brilliant.

Rock