Four Wheel Alignment
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Four Wheel Alignment
I took my classic to have its tracking checked last week as it felt like it was pulling to the left a little too much. So the local garage got the lasers on the front wheels and re-aligned them.
An hour later a few Scooby owner he said that they need to have 4 wheel alignment done. Is this correct? I have never heard of this before, but then I've never had a AWD before, is this common with AWD cars?
An hour later a few Scooby owner he said that they need to have 4 wheel alignment done. Is this correct? I have never heard of this before, but then I've never had a AWD before, is this common with AWD cars?
Scooby Regular
Joined: Jan 2008
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From: Northants. 22B sold, as-new Lotus Omega instead.
Some people say you need it doing every year, but that seem's a bit OTT to me. I guess it depends on the mileage and kind of driving you do in a year. On recommendation I had mine done at TSL soon after buying it. I don't really know if it made much difference to the "feel" of the car, but they certainly made some adjustments and I was really just hoping to cure some uneven tyre wear issues. I think it has helped this, but it is a bit too early to be sure. Everyone on here seems to think it's an essential and effective part of maintenance, so I bow to their greater experience. It doesn't cost the earth after all.
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Imho £80 and upwards is what you need to be paying for a proper geometry set up on a scooby, carried out with the proper computerized equipment by a competent person.
The company's who offer what seems to be a bargain price for this are almost certainly only adjusting front/rear tracking & sometimes only doing the front or rear not both, they also never include camber adjustments which are crucial to a proper set up!
If you just want to try and stop tyre wear then this is normally sufficient.
It is important on a scooby (if you want to optimize the cars handling) to have a FULL geometry set up carried out front & rear & this needs to be set with great accuracy to the correct figures as a these cars are very susceptible to small changes/inaccuracies in the settings.
This obviously takes time if carried out correctly & The equipment used is very expensive. Just because you are told that it is a laser system does not mean that it is accurate, a lot of the laser systems shine a laser onto a card that is marked by lines and numbers, this is not as accurate as a computerized system as it relies on eyesight and the judgment of the person using it as to when he thinks the laser is in the correct place. A proper computerized system reads the figures for itself and displays them on screen, these can be accurate to within a hundredth of a mm (0.01).
If the figures are out by as much as 0.05mm this has an effect which most drivers can feel when approaching the limit and can make a noticeable difference to how well balanced the car is and how much oversteer/understeer is suffered.
So to summarize.... You Get What You Pay For when it comes to geometry set ups.
Phil
The company's who offer what seems to be a bargain price for this are almost certainly only adjusting front/rear tracking & sometimes only doing the front or rear not both, they also never include camber adjustments which are crucial to a proper set up!
If you just want to try and stop tyre wear then this is normally sufficient.
It is important on a scooby (if you want to optimize the cars handling) to have a FULL geometry set up carried out front & rear & this needs to be set with great accuracy to the correct figures as a these cars are very susceptible to small changes/inaccuracies in the settings.
This obviously takes time if carried out correctly & The equipment used is very expensive. Just because you are told that it is a laser system does not mean that it is accurate, a lot of the laser systems shine a laser onto a card that is marked by lines and numbers, this is not as accurate as a computerized system as it relies on eyesight and the judgment of the person using it as to when he thinks the laser is in the correct place. A proper computerized system reads the figures for itself and displays them on screen, these can be accurate to within a hundredth of a mm (0.01).
If the figures are out by as much as 0.05mm this has an effect which most drivers can feel when approaching the limit and can make a noticeable difference to how well balanced the car is and how much oversteer/understeer is suffered.
So to summarize.... You Get What You Pay For when it comes to geometry set ups.
Phil
Imho £80 and upwards is what you need to be paying for a proper geometry set up on a scooby, carried out with the proper computerized equipment by a competent person.
The company's who offer what seems to be a bargain price for this are almost certainly only adjusting front/rear tracking & sometimes only doing the front or rear not both, they also never include camber adjustments which are crucial to a proper set up!
If you just want to try and stop tyre wear then this is normally sufficient.
It is important on a scooby (if you want to optimize the cars handling) to have a FULL geometry set up carried out front & rear & this needs to be set with great accuracy to the correct figures as a these cars are very susceptible to small changes/inaccuracies in the settings.
This obviously takes time if carried out correctly & The equipment used is very expensive. Just because you are told that it is a laser system does not mean that it is accurate, a lot of the laser systems shine a laser onto a card that is marked by lines and numbers, this is not as accurate as a computerized system as it relies on eyesight and the judgment of the person using it as to when he thinks the laser is in the correct place. A proper computerized system reads the figures for itself and displays them on screen, these can be accurate to within a hundredth of a mm (0.01).
If the figures are out by as much as 0.05mm this has an effect which most drivers can feel when approaching the limit and can make a noticeable difference to how well balanced the car is and how much oversteer/understeer is suffered.
So to summarize.... You Get What You Pay For when it comes to geometry set ups.
Phil
The company's who offer what seems to be a bargain price for this are almost certainly only adjusting front/rear tracking & sometimes only doing the front or rear not both, they also never include camber adjustments which are crucial to a proper set up!
If you just want to try and stop tyre wear then this is normally sufficient.
It is important on a scooby (if you want to optimize the cars handling) to have a FULL geometry set up carried out front & rear & this needs to be set with great accuracy to the correct figures as a these cars are very susceptible to small changes/inaccuracies in the settings.
This obviously takes time if carried out correctly & The equipment used is very expensive. Just because you are told that it is a laser system does not mean that it is accurate, a lot of the laser systems shine a laser onto a card that is marked by lines and numbers, this is not as accurate as a computerized system as it relies on eyesight and the judgment of the person using it as to when he thinks the laser is in the correct place. A proper computerized system reads the figures for itself and displays them on screen, these can be accurate to within a hundredth of a mm (0.01).
If the figures are out by as much as 0.05mm this has an effect which most drivers can feel when approaching the limit and can make a noticeable difference to how well balanced the car is and how much oversteer/understeer is suffered.
So to summarize.... You Get What You Pay For when it comes to geometry set ups.
Phil
I agree though what the point of £50k of gear when usually its an untrained guy using it
I paid £90 + Vat for mine and got a full computer read out of what everything was set at.
I agree,you get what you pay for with this.Get yourself to a specialist,get it done properly to YOUR requirements and believe me,you will feel a difference !
I agree,you get what you pay for with this.Get yourself to a specialist,get it done properly to YOUR requirements and believe me,you will feel a difference !
Licho / Powerstation have the sophisticated kit don't they? Remember when Evo mag tested the Spec C - it had been tweaked geometry wise & was very well thought of (tested it against a GT3 & CSL I think).
TX.
TX.
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