MK5 Golf GTI

All Things Mk5 => Mk5 General Area => Topic started by: markos on December 16, 2015, 05:29:58 pm

Title: 4 wheel alignment problems
Post by: markos on December 16, 2015, 05:29:58 pm
anyone else had any issues with a hunter 4 wheel alignment machine?

had mine done the other day and the mechanic said he could only adjust the toe and not the camber as the computer came up with an error. said something like "adjustment not allowed on this model"
Title: Re: 4 wheel alignment problems
Post by: rich83 on December 16, 2015, 06:03:09 pm
Front is Toe adjust only.

Rear is Toe and camber.
Title: Re: 4 wheel alignment problems
Post by: Redemption on December 16, 2015, 06:47:37 pm
Camber and Caster (to some extent) can be adjusted by shifting the subframe around but not all alignment places are willing to do that.
Title: Re: 4 wheel alignment problems
Post by: rich83 on December 16, 2015, 06:56:21 pm
Camber and Caster (to some extent) can be adjusted by shifting the subframe around but not all alignment places are willing to do that.

Very very very very small amount of movement. Negligible.
Title: Re: 4 wheel alignment problems
Post by: r5gtt on December 16, 2015, 07:03:20 pm
It's not a quattro so doesn't have front camber alignment... Edit   :stupid:
Title: Re: 4 wheel alignment problems
Post by: rich83 on December 16, 2015, 07:09:02 pm
It's not a quattro so doesn't need alignment...

Eh?
Title: Re: 4 wheel alignment problems
Post by: r5gtt on December 16, 2015, 07:17:54 pm
Sorry what I was meant to type- it's not a quattro so the front doesn't have camber adjustment.
Thinking audi tt with adjustable lower ball joints for camber.  :stupid:
Title: Re: 4 wheel alignment problems
Post by: Panthera on December 16, 2015, 08:14:25 pm
As said before, there is no front camber except moving the sub frame. There is toe and camber on the rear which can be adjusted.   I work for the company that sells Hunter garage equipment and I had my GTi professionally aligned at work as the specialist I used, who's Beissbarth (which is also VAG approved) measured the rear of mine wrong.....it was toeing out on the rear!   So far so good with the alignment. 
Title: Re: 4 wheel alignment problems
Post by: markos on December 17, 2015, 09:57:35 am
the mechanic said the camber and caster could be a number of things. rear wishbone bushes, front wishbone bushes, shocks... all could have a part to play in things being unbalanced in that department.

i'm going to get the tracking done and the rear wishbones do look a bit worn so will get them replaced. hopefully that will sort it!

i'll try and get my figures emailed over from the garage to see how they compare but he said the caster was the main problem
Title: Re: 4 wheel alignment problems
Post by: rich83 on December 17, 2015, 10:21:50 am
We need the alignment readout numbers.
Title: Re: 4 wheel alignment problems
Post by: Panthera on December 17, 2015, 08:29:00 pm
We need the alignment readout numbers.


This is mine and you can see that after the specialist had 'aligned' my GTi the rear was toeing out.  It felt rather odd and scary at times.  After I had my car aligned at work, I took the results back to the VAG specialist handmade them aware of their poorly calibrated machine.   I can be sure that our machine is accurate is that a few days earlier, we had Aston Martin down, then we had Rolls Royce checking our machine/equipment and it is bob on accurate.

https://flic.kr/p/Cf7EVN
Title: Re: 4 wheel alignment problems
Post by: markos on December 17, 2015, 09:57:12 pm
here's a rather crude diagram of mine (had to do this myself as their printout wasn't working!!)

(https://www.mk5golfgti.co.uk/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fs16.postimg.org%2Fbzy3dzm9x%2Fcar_alignment.jpg&hash=e50f72099666888dfbfccbc31f1a79e38b61eef0) (http://postimage.org/)
imagur (http://postimage.org/)
Title: Re: 4 wheel alignment problems
Post by: rich83 on December 17, 2015, 10:23:31 pm
God that was a right mess panthera
Title: Re: 4 wheel alignment problems
Post by: markos on December 18, 2015, 01:58:41 pm
so, apart from adjusting the tracking and looking at the wishbone bushes is there anything else i can do to get this leveled out?
Title: Re: 4 wheel alignment problems
Post by: r5gtt on December 18, 2015, 02:17:53 pm
Top mounts?. wear and tear can cause imbalance to suspension hence cause tracking camber to be out.
Title: Re: 4 wheel alignment problems
Post by: markos on December 18, 2015, 02:19:20 pm
Top mounts?.

thanks... i'll put that on the list for my mechanic to look at!
Title: Re: 4 wheel alignment problems
Post by: r5gtt on December 18, 2015, 02:27:58 pm
Top mounts?.

thanks... i'll put that on the list for my mechanic to look at!
I had this on the tt so replaces top mounts lower front and rear console bushes with polyurethane ones. rear trailing arm bushing wih power flex bushes. lower ball joints and track control arm for peace of mind and suspension was spot in for years on. forgot to mention the rose bushes x 4 and forge tie bars  lol