Octavia Mk2 vRS tdi four wheel alignment

[boneman]

Hi Chaps, 

 

What's the latest on recommended  camber and toe settings for 2012 Octavia vRS Tdi DSG?

 

The last settings I had done were:

 

Each side

Front

Camber -0deg 35min

Toe       +0deg 05min

 

 

Rear

Camber -1deg 20min

Toe       +0deg 08min

 

Is this still okay?

 

Car used mainly motorways and would like a more "planted" feel at 80+ so can settings be changed to improve this although it may just be the car's inherent design of stiff suspension, lead weight Neptunes (54lbs would you believe) and EPS.

 

Tyres new 225/40/18 92Y XL Goodyear F1 assy2 all round.

 

Regards

 

[Tony]

Problem we have is the front camber is fixed and there's no castor adjustment...... Setting the rear camber and toe can dial in under/ over-steer but only corner in/ out and it won't have any bearing on steering weight.

[boneman]

Thanks for your reply. My concerns are with motorway driving at speed.  I see that steering assist cannot be tweaked to give lighter or heavier steering but I was wondering if the settings above could be adjusted to give a more planted feel to the car. Also I was dismayed to discover the wheel/tyre weighs in at 54lbs compared to the  16" spare which is 38lbs, and I want to know if running on these would improve things.

[Tony]

If anything the wheel/ tyre weight adds to the steering feel due to rotational mass... Normally it's desirable to keep unsprung mass to a minimum in order not to load the suspension but the VRs coil rate accommodates this.

 

Due to the non-availability of the front camber the current front/ rear camber positions are the best your going to get but there are two options i can see...

 

1: Lower the car 10 -to- 15mm to add around -30' front camber

2: Set the front toe to +30' and remove 2PSI from the front tyres ( no more )

 

Playing with the camber is a dangerous thing due to added tyre/ bearing wear. In an ideal world a castor adjustment would solve all but i don't think they make kits for the VRs.

[boneman]

Update:

 

At the time of my first post I had just come back from driving in France and previously had just had new replacement Goodyears on the front and there were nearly new Kumho KU39's on rear, which was how I bought the car.

 

In France, however, I had inadvertently driven over a high kerb and back in UK I discovered a deep cut in one of the rear Kumhos and was about to have two new Goodyears on the rear. This has now been done with Hunter realignment and the car drives a lot better and seems more composed on motorway. I kept the settings similar to previous with just a touch less rear camber @ -1deg 17min ea side.

 

There is definitely a better ride with the Goodyears on rear too and it makes me think there was an incompatibiity between the Kumhos and the Goodyears.

 

The technician commented on the "large amount of rear camber" and did I want to reduce it further. Is there a case for reducing camber when doing mainly motorway miles? I just got back from a 15 mile fast motorway run and the temperature of the inside tread band felt a little warmer than the rest of the tread but I guess this isn`t unusual.

[Tony]

Most modern cars are tyre sensitive and since that's all that touches the road then that's understandable. For steady state motorway driving more rear camber is desirable because aerodynamically the front is loaded hence the reason a rear spoiler equals the balance.