Thinking ahead to putting the winter wheels back on, the car is pulling to the left at present. Is a four wheel alignment worth the extra outlay over front wheel tracking?

Also, can anyone recommend a place in or around Fife/Linlithgow/Edinburgh?

I had problems with
Sorry mate the rear wheels are not adjustable (Yes they were)
Everything is in spec mate (No it wasn’t)

Get a spec sheet from manufacture or manual for wheel position
Compare to the impressive looking garage print out.
Check what can be adjusted at the rear
Check the garage include adjustment in price (Watch out for it’s seized mate)
The results for me where I couldn’t feel the difference driving but it did improve a tyre wear issue.

This place in Larbert has been recommended to me a few times: http://www.pro-grip.org.uk/Home.html

Used to be a great place at Sighthill Ind Estate, next door to GAP plant hire. Think it was called CLM or something…….
On experience, do not go to Farmers Autocare.
Well worth getting the 4 wheel done, if the back is out and they “fix” the fronts then the whole car will be awful.

Its siezed mate is often not a lie – it often is 😉

Also 4 wheel alignment – not all cars are adjustable at the back

And another of mine is only adjustable by adding or removing shims – most garages will manipulate the torsion bar to move the wheels.

So get clued up on what adjustments can be made.
Imo unless you hae excessive vibration that front wheel alignment doesnt solve and are sure everything else is tight i wouldnt bother.

Neil, CLCM? http://www.clcm-autotyre.co.uk/

Also recommended.

Not all cars are adjustable at the back, but it should still be measured first that way you know what the thrust angle is and the front can be adjusted accordingly if the back cannot be corrected.

At the end of the day the guy doing the job is the guy who makes the biggest difference, you can give some people the best bit of kit and they can still screw it up.

If you can stretch to a trip to Kirkcaldy then i can heartily recommend Star Performance, they’ve set up the 4 wheel alignment on all of my tuned VW Mk2 Golfs and Sciroccos using shims on the rear, their rolling road set up expertise is also second to none.

Cheers all. I’d forgotten about Star, used them a few years back. It’s a 2009 Scirocco. Any one know what sort of price range I’m looking at?

Depends on the car, I think, how much difference it makes.

Was a massive change on my 320d – much more composed and less fidgety, which was worth 15mph on a straight but bumpy road. Prior to that if you hit a bump wrong it’d try and disappear off through the hedge…

Hunter seems to be the machine to use. Have a look here

When I had mine done, I was charged about £50 for the initial measurement, then a charge per adjusment needed (something like a fiver). So for me it was fairly expensive as all but one variable on one wheel were out of spec.

I’ve used Pro Grip in Larbert twice on my 1 series over the past 6 years and 100K miles. You will honestly be amazed at the difference it makes and just how far our both your front and rear wheels are.

Funnily enough (although not for me!) my car is in there at the moment because I had a spring snap on me this weekend – damn potholes. They are replacing all 4 at pro-grip for 30% of the cost of a pair of springs fitted from BMW.

Only downside with Progrip is that the guy only works weekdays.

Another recommendation for CLCM if you are close to Edinburgh.

I had my BMW done there back in March and it cost £55.

Thanks all, booked in with Star.

The boys at Star deserve their reputation for VW’s, Jim worked tirelessly to get my 1960cc 16v tuned ABT engine running sweetly in my 30yr old mk2 Golf, when it went in it was showing 171bhp/6300rpm on the dyno which i was well chuffed with but after 5hrs of work (including the 4 wheel alignment) involving fuelling issues on the top end it came out with 196bhp at 7300rpm, it turned into a bit of a screaming banshee and the journey back home to Galloway was very entertaining, pops and barks on the overun is something i never tire of.

That was near enough two years ago and it needs fettled again so i guess i’ll have to make the journey back up later on this year.

CLCM – another recommendation. Think that’s where the police get their cars done – according to one of their mechanics.

I get mine done the same place as my tyres, UK Accident Repairs at Camps- quite impressed, I knew my scabby focus had defeated the last place that tried to adjust one of the wheels due to its maginot line of rust, when I nipped in to pick up the car they had 2 guys doing battle with it, 20 minutes later it was unseized and no longer constantly turning left 🙂

Well worth doing IMO, when the alternative is a car that doesn’t really work right.