Passat 4 wheel alignment

[liffy99]

Hi

My other half's Passat (2002 2.8 4 motion) went in for a 4 wheel alignment at the weekend as the handling and steering was awful - I was continually adjusting the steering and felt a bit like driving on ice. After a 4 wheel alignment, 4 new tyres and a track rod end that car's much better, but the angles are still "out" as shown by the before and after printouts. Also the garage were unable to correct the rear offside toe in (but managed the nearside !).

The car has had larger wheels (18 rather than std 16 or 17) and lower profile tyres fitted (same total rolling radius though) and also came with a set of AP coilovers which, I believe are about 30mm off their lowest setting.

 

I've quoted the before and after figures below - can anyone tell me if there's anything to worry about and whether the rear toe-in problem is serious (we don't want to scrub a brand new tyre too quickly).

Would raising the adjustable coilovers more help ? Curiously the garage (Protyre) supplied before and after diagrams and a tabular printout (where the figures below are taken from) which have completely different BEFORE statistics (so heaven knows which one was correct to begin with). But the AFTER diagram and table tally !

 

Thanks

 

BEFORE

 

Front Camber Left -1.50 (spec -0.10 to -1.00) Right -2.07 (Both out)

Front Toe Left -0.09 (spec 0.08 to 0.12) Right 3.20 (Right was way out)

 

Rear Camber Left -1.17 (spec - 0.10 to - 1.10) Right -1.39 (Both out)

Rear Toe Left 0.07 (spec 0.03 to 0.13) Right 0.28 (Right was way out)

 

AFTER

 

Front Camber Left -1.49 (spec -0.10 to -1.00) Right -1.55 (still both out)

Front Toe Left -0.09 (spec 0.08 to 0.12) Right 0.10 (both OK)

 

Rear Camber Left -1.15 (spec - 0.10 to - 1.10) Right -1.31 (still both out)

Rear Toe Left 0.09 (spec 0.03 to 0.13) Right 0.32 (right is way out still)

 

Thrust angle is spot on (whatever that is) at 0.10

 

"spec" is the VW specification for the car, though I assume that is with std suspension and wheels - would it still apply ?

 

Can't say I understand too much about the science of all this but just want to avoid problems. Really don't understand why the garage failed to sort out the rear offside toe in - they said they tried but that "something" kept springing back . . . I may take it back (if only the garage wasn't 70 miles away)

 

Thanks

[Tony]

Hello

 

On your car the front camber is not adjustable, it has adjustable rear camber/ toe although it wouldn't be wise to adjust the rear camber with the front so deep. I think you will find the rear toe adjuster is seized in the bushing, so as the adjuster is moved it twists the rubber and springs back.

 

You need to find aftermarket front camber adjusters because as things stand the tyres will violently wear the inners.... you could raise the coils but unless to return to oem height it would be difficult to tune the chassis by using "height" alone.

[CIH]

Do the coilovers not include adjustable top mounts (for the front camber) ?

 

I've also had cars with adjusters that were "under tension". How do you go about feeing them off ?

[Tony]

Do the coilovers not include adjustable top mounts (for the front camber) ?

 

I've also had cars with adjusters that were "under tension". How do you go about feeing them off ?

 

I think these are static coils that don't orbit the steer axis, a bit like the Mazda coils.

[CIH]

Oh yeah it'll be like Audi with the peculiar split upper links (for want of a better description!)

[Tony]

Oh yeah it'll be like Audi with the peculiar split upper links (for want of a better description!)

 

That's the baby.... poxy "delta curve".