littlebrownbike

Most certainly, the question is will a Beissbarth do this?

Not sure, I bought the car like this. I've done about 1500 miles in it and the tyres have done about 2000 miles.

P.S. CHeers :-)

Just the steering wheel isn't straight. Admittedly I thought it would be either 'it is suited to the task' or 'it isn't'. The tyres are 19" and quite expensive, better play it safe and just go for the Hunter.

The garage in question is a Porsche specialist and my car is a Cayman, do you think I'll get the correct results from it or should I stick with a hunter?

Normally I use a garage with a Hunter DSP600, however I've found one closer but they use a Beissbarth 4-wheel alignment system. Is this as good or is it best to stick with a place with a Hunter machine? Cheers

Very strange one. Is it a problem as such?

Hi, Those pictures do not show the same wear as my tyre. See attached drawing.

I noticed the other day that the outside of my rear tyres are stepped, not sure how long it's been like this, but not a major problem because it is not making any audible noises. My question is, how does this occur? In theory, this is a bit of a phenomenon to myself. I can understand uneven lateral wear, but not horizontal.

Thanks. I will bear it in mind next time I get it aligned.

Yes!

I can't recall to be honest, just that the steering wheel is only straight for the first 1,000 miles after the alignment.

In the time I have owned my car, it has had 5 wheel alignments in the space of 33,000 miles. The last just over 3,000 miles ago, and now, once again, my steering wheel is offset. Why is this? I do mostly motorway driving, I do commute through a town but I avoid pot holes and any impurities in the road, and I never park on kerbs etc. The steering wheel gradually becomes offset, and now its really noticable. On a smooth motorway, I have to steer to the right about 4 degrees to keep the car in a straight line. (I had new tyres fitted when I had the alignment and it was fine then, too early to check for tyre wear) This isn't normal, surely? Can you please advise.

1. Tony, thank you and thought as much. 2. Have read that in the past yes, the coloured bands on these tyres where both on the inside of each tyre.

Yes but nothings bent. Had the same problem eariler this year when I went from worn out asymmetrics to the bridgestone, with the new tyres the steering wheel changed ever so slightly. I'd wager 99% of drivers wouldnt notice, but still I am curious.

Two questions; I think I know the answer to this one already, but...my friend travelled 50 miles to the nearest garage with a Hunter machine, once up on the ramp the operator said he cant align it with worn tyres - as when new tyres are fitted, the calibriation will be wrong. He point blank refused to align the car unless new tyres were fitted. From what I have gathered from reading previous posts, this is a load of rubbish? Secondly, I had a wheel alignment done on my car only a few hundred miles ago, great results - today however I removed the Bridgestones and fitted Goodyear Asymmetrics, now the steering wheel needs to be slightly offset to the right for the car to drive straight. I'm only taking 2-3 degrees here, its not really a problem, but I am curious to why this is. Here is the alignment print out; http://img509.imageshack.us/img509/9894/alignment.jpg Thanks

Thats why we measure in WHP... If an engine has got more HP at any given point, then its got more torque at any given point.

A more powerful engine will produce more BHP at the wheels at any given RPM than an less powerful engine. So random example would be 3 litre - 60bhp @ 800RPM 2 litre - 40bhp @ 800rpm And I would be willing to bet that some cheap rubber could be better than my potenza's, which are gripless in the rain nevermind the snow or ice. I'd rather do 20 seconds of wheelspinning to get my car 300 yards up the hill, then get out the shovels at 7am every morning before going to work. I tried reversing my car up my driveway, and it just wheelspun at idle in reverse!! Left foot braking gain me a few inches, but at the end of the day if you have no grip you have no grip. No amount of driving experience or technique will cure that.

I did today tony, see the results below. http://img509.imageshack.us/img509/9894/alignment.jpg The front offside which hit the wheel was way off, iirc the machine simply had "x" where the arrow normally is, I believe the toe -46 before he made any adjustments. It would also appear the rear has been knocked out despite only having the alignment done 3,000 miles ago, but that could be wear and tear and the calibration of the machine.

I'm guessing your astra doesnt; Have summer only tyres on it Have wide low profile tyres on it Has 220bhp is parked at the bottom of a steep hill.

If you're stuck, then no, the car will still spin both wheels at idle in 4th gear, the only way out is to rock the car then take a run up using maximum engine speed to burn away the snow and keep momentum. If however you are not stuck but on a loose surface, then low revs and a high gear can help.

I apologise if the following is obvious to anyone, but I had to use brute force to get my car out of the street this morning, which meant a lot of wheel spinning. Only later when I checked my tyres I could see they were badly damaged, it looks like someone has taken a sanding machine to the tread. I didn't expect them to escape unscathed, but I didnt expect them to look like I've just spent the day at silverstone I'll check the depth tomorrow and see if they have worn. The smoke and smell of burning rubber was a give away though

It certainly did, the alloy was still damaged despite the rim protector, so it must have deformed in such a way for the curb to come into contact with the alloy. I could tell the tyre took the brunt of the impact.

Apparently! LOL. I phoned up a few local garages asking if they did "four wheel laser alignment", they all said yes, so I digged a bit deeper... "What do you charge?" "£30". Instantly alarm bells were ringing... "How long does it take?" "On average, an hour and a half" "Does that include a before and after print out?" "No, what do you want one of them for?" "Do see what the tolerances are and how badly they were out" "Oh that laser alignment, its a con" "So how do you do it?" "We straighten the front wheels, then make sure they line up with the back". "Oh right, cheers for your time, bye" I phoned 5 garages, all had similar response. Some bloke actually suggested I was from a rival garage and trying to get information, LOLLOL.

Edit, that last bit is suppose to say "My car has not needed any maintenance in the past 7 months".