Excessive Tyre Wear...

[S2central.net]

Smells like excessive toe then...

[Rusty]

Smells like excessive toe then...

You want to be a little careful admitting to sniffing toe, especially of the Camel variety

[Error404]

[S2central.net]

Easy tiger...

[johne]

Been in the same position - it's toe.

The clue was in the fact you had to recentre the steering wheel after you'd done the work

Not had to try it on the S2 but on other cars I've been pretty sucessful getting toe close enough to get to the alignment centre using a couple of 2m long lengths of straight "3x3" each one resting against the centreline of each front wheel sticking out parallel in front of the car and measuring the difference in distance close to and far away from the car.

John

[S2central.net]

Yes - guilty (and lazy) as charged... It felt close enough while driving - but at least I've destroyed two of those kak Avon tyres... I just dont want to destroy my nice winter tyres.

I'll get a front wheel alignment done then - I'll try to get maximum permissible toe out and the wheel centred properly. It does turn in nicely at the moment - something I attributed entirely to new front bushes and top mounts.

The front wheels need rebalanced as well - shakes like a bad un' between 70-80mph... Thats my excuse for higher motorway speeds at least... Sorry officer - I had to drive through the vibrations for greater safety and comfort.

Damn car... Still not all bad - it left a couple of skanky looking Mercs for dead in traffic today when they tried to exert some form of road presence on me by thinking my shiddy looking old Audi would be squeezed out. Hahah - losers... Smell the torque !

[S2central.net]

So - I'm confused again...

Looked up the front alignment specs which declare Overall Toe of +10' +/- 10'
Thats toe IN.

I scoured some internet sites on the subject of how toe settings can affect tyre wear and handling. A few (like the one below) state that Toe OUT is better on FWD cars and Toe IN is better for RWD... Due to how the angles change whilst moving - especially the driven axle.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tirete...e.jsp?techid=4

So for 4WD like ours which is essentially FWD biased I'd have expected Toe OUT... Has Audi been deliberately safe on this with a Toe-IN setting at the front which gives a stronger understeer bias ?

When I get the wheels aligned I'll check the toe settings first, but the compromise I am thinking of is 0 degrees toe at the front... That gets me in spec as far as Herr Audi is concerned for safety & tyre wear but I should get some Toe OUT by way of driven front axle when I'm moving. Right ?

Paul

[Keeper of The Kitten]

As far as I was aware the setting is 0?

+/- 10' is only one sixth of a degree either way.

It is meant to be straight ahead?

[Keeper of The Kitten]

Oh and in theory the toe setting isn't really going to be affected by the driven wheels pulling forwards, that's a bit of a red herring in my opinion. If the wheels are pulling forwards due to slack in the joints I'd expect toe in to occur but really, the track rods and ball joints should be a lot tighter than that!

[S2central.net]

Right then - I'll aim for zero toe then... But any view on how much toe out would be excessive for tyre wear ?

[Keeper of The Kitten]

Something you need to carry out testing on really ....it will vary depending on the size of tyre, the hardness of the compound, the tyre pressure, all sorts of things.

[Keeper of The Kitten]

(And if you want to run toe out for better turn-in, you can still swap the front tyres onto the back periodically! I'd suggest you might even consider dialing in a little toe-in at the rear if you have a tail-happy setup)

[stiglet]

10' is nothing. It's supposed to be zero or nigh enough. Mine is set to zero and feels good, perhaps a little more toe out. I would advise against going past 30'.

I would also say, considering the rubber bushes on the inner end of the tie rods, there is considerable deflection under braking and accel, so bear this in mind.

[Keeper of The Kitten]

Hmmm something else to swap for stiffer fittings!

And yes 10' is one sixth of a degree.

[stiglet]

When I took mine off they were b*lloxed, which is why I now have the 034 tie rods with inner heim joints. Will be interested to see what difference it makes but i'm guessing it will be more sensitive to toe settings.

Paul, let us know what toe setting you go with and how it feels. Saves me experimenting