Wierd thing

**pastures16** · 20 February 2006, 18:40

remove some off your boot panels you will soon see if its had new rear body panels

**mcandmar** · 20 February 2006, 19:40

Azman i had a similar problems before. In my case it was the sub frames that were out of line, and every few 1000miles i had severe tyre wear on the left hand side.

After scratching my head and getting the tape measure out i found the front left wheel was 4cm further back than the drivers side. And the rear left had a larger gap to the body than the driver side, again sub frame pointing to the left.

Tracking specs were fine but the car was not in a straight line, it was crabbing down the road pointing slightly to the right, and me holding the steering slightly to the left to keep the car on a straight line.

I had to start again with two long bits of wood running each side of the sub frames as a guide. Then adjusted both sub frames so they were perfectly in line to each other. Previously the front and rear sub frame was screwed to the left.

I also found the actual centre of the steering rack as it was half a turn out, then manually tracked both front wheels to straight ahead, and then did the same for the rear. Checked camber, and then tracking again. One last four wheel alignment (in a garage, not the DIY method) and it was perfect, drives straight all on its own

That took me a year so good luck

**Azman** · 20 February 2006, 20:49

LOVLEY!!!!!!!! Well I will be under there like a shot this week as it is MOT time!!!!!!

**AUDI COUPE 20V** · 20 February 2006, 23:07

mine is like this but it is the passenger side rear ,drivers side one sits ok in arch but passenger one sits forward?

**Azman** · 21 February 2006, 06:27

@mcandmar. I take it it was a fairly easy job to adjust the sub frames? I am going to get under there and measure the distance between the back edge (two sides) of the front to the fron of the rear to see if they are out.

How did you adjust the frames I thought they were a bolt on item with no adjustment. Any help would be good just to point me in the direction of what to do. I will then get the car up an some axle stands and have a bit of a play with a mate of mine (thats playing with the car not my mate!)

Is it worth doing all the bushes and will I have to strip the wishbones etc off to do the adjustment?

Cheers

Aaron

**mcandmar** · 21 February 2006, 09:20

The subframes have some room for adjustment when the bolts are loose, when i did it i had the a-arms off, ARB disconnected and the gearbox mounts disconnected with the gearbox supported with a trolly jack to take all the load off it. Moved around quite easly, same for the rear but i dont think you need to disconnect the diff as its only mounted to the subframe, on the front the engine is mounted to the car so you have to undo the gearbox mounts to be able to re position the subframe.

From memory only one bolt on the front subframe is fixed, the rest are adjustable. I think its the rear most bolt on the passenger side that dosent move, so the subframe pivots around that bolt. Rear subframe has a lot less adjustment but still enough to matter. If the subframe is 1mm out at the mounts that could translate to four or five times as much at the wheels.

When your done with the front subframe check the engine/gearbox as i found mine was out of line and pointing to the left, expained why my snub mount was always stuck to the left hand side of the mount..

If you have never changed the subframe and a-arm bushings i would start there, new ones will tighten the car up no end.

**Azman** · 21 February 2006, 13:03

Right just got back from the people who tracked the car. I am still pulling to the right after more adjustments. In fact the levels were still the same as last time but the y toed the right hand wheel in a touch as it looked out visually just to see if it helped. It didn't. So they did other checks. on the machine. My setback is 1mm at the front and 4mm at the rear. This is nothing apparently just how far the wheels are off the center line of where the axle should be. As it is the same both sides no probs.

They also measures from the center of the wheel to the wheel arch on the horizontal to the floor. The divers side wheel is 1/4 of an inch close to the bodywork that the passengers side. I was told this was not a problem as the bodywork may be off and is not always symetrical on all cars!!!!! Not what I thought but hey ho!!! I havent slept for 24hrs now so I am off to bed and will do some more searching and measurements tomorow if its not trying to snow.

I do have some wheel bounce at speed and I am thinking the tyres are making the car pull too. They are only cheap (read dirt cheap) tyres that came with the wheels and there is more ballancing weights on there than I have on all 4 of the PT wheels put together x 10 (so there is alot). I may just change the tyre to another cheap make taht I trust for now and save up and get some PRADA 2 from YOKOH in the future.
I was thinking NANKANG as I have them on the PT and they have been perfectly fine and stood up to some right abuse (even deer bouncing) so I may just have a look at them. EBAY here we come.

Cheers

Any thoughts on this I will pick them up later. Especially the wheel to bodywork space bit.

Cheers

Aaron

**Keeper of The Kitten** · 21 February 2006, 13:11

Yeah it's true, cars are not very symmetrical. Sometimes it can cause more grief than it's worth! The panels can be a little bit out here and there but the newer the car is, the less likely that the fit of stuff will be asymmetric (more accurate tooling and procedures). I would think the quality on S2s would be reasonably good though, it's from the last 15 years or so - but don't get too upset by variations.

__MDC__

**Jamo** · 21 February 2006, 13:17

Try rotating your front and rear wheels, front right to back left and front left to back right and vice versa.

**Azman** · 21 February 2006, 13:27

Jamo. I canna do that as I have directional tyres on. That might just have the wrong hedge killing sort of effect, but I am going to try the rears on the front one side at a time though.

Cheers for the thoughts. Anyone got a surefire accurate way of checking if your subfranme is out of line? Where should i measure from and too?

Right I'm off to bed now for sure.

Cheers

Aaron

**S2 Ant** · 21 February 2006, 13:42

they will swap over still with directional tyres as the wheel gets flipped over, so still point the right way.

**Keeper of The Kitten** · 21 February 2006, 17:20

Wrong.

Directional tyres, if flipped over, will be pointing (and rotating) the opposite direction.

Swap front to rear only.

If they had been asymmetric tyres (or "inside/outside" orientation) then reverse rotation is fine, but not for directional patterns/constuctions (especially after they have taken a "set" from being used).

__MDC__

**Chris5044** · 21 February 2006, 19:59

could also be wishbones .... measure them.. cause all it takes is a slight side impact... they are designed to bend on impact ... i had one out by 6mm once ... and yes the tell tell sign was the wheel back futher in the arce(toward rear of car ) than other side..

can check roughly with fingers or ruler between wheel and arch .. then compare other side

**Azman** · 21 February 2006, 20:36

@ Chris that is what I have done and there is 1/4 inch difference between the two sides. So check the wishbones then

Wierd thing

Wierd thing

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