POLO pulling to left, not alignment?

[RoknRob]

RoknRob
A good place with good equipment & a knowledgeable operator will cost you.
IIRC, the last alignment I paid for in 2005 was $145 but that included front & rear camber & toe adjustments. The guy used what most would consider to be a crappy old mechanical Relin machine that required you to swap the car around to do the rear. Personally, I love them because they don't go out of calibration unless you drive into the heads & are easy to check & adjust but I was happy to pay it because the guy is one of the best in Sydney & has been doing alignments for 50 years. He taught me when I was on the tools.

Front toe check & adjustment will be 30 minutes work (tops) - call it $75 inc machine time.

Thanks, brad, that's what I expected, but was charged about 50% more. Hard to argue when you don't know what to expect, though. Live and learn.


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[brad]

Heh, this is starting to sound TOO COMPLICATED ... I'm beginning to wonder what's a solution, but for sure it isn't correct. This is a new car $26000+ and it definitely pulls uncomfortably and unsafely across a lane within 100+ metres ... can it be?! I'll see what the dealer comes up with. Thanks everyone.

It isn't complicated - I was the worlds worst motor mechanic but I found getting a vehicle to track straight with minimal tyre wear quite logical. From my experience, dealers aren't alignment specialists & tend to follow what the book says. If your dealer was any good, they would have road tested the vehicle after the alignment & tried swapping the front tyres without even discussing the issue with you.

There are a couple of good alignment places up in BNE. Try Fulcrum.

[pologti18t]

Don't rely on your dealer to fix this. Spend your own $$ and take it to a proper alignment joint.
Personally, I think you should do this for any new car you purchase. First thing you do is get it aligned properly by an independent aligner.

[Azzamataz]

Hi guys

I have first hand experience on this issue. Had a brand new 2012 77tsi dsg, and the car pulled severely to the left.

Most of the comments so far have no relevance, as someone already posted a link to a thread about alignment. This car cannot have a wheel alignment. You can only make toe adjustments. I found this after taking it to a friend who owned a very high end wheel and alignment shop. He had equipment to align and the contracts for Porsche, Audi and merc.

Took the car back to the dealer, and they had the car for 3 days. In the end I got back a car that was better, but no where near perfect. It is quite disappointing they cannot build a car that can drive straight. I had a 2011 tsi manual and it was perfect to drive.

Their explanation was that the rear wheels were actually pointing left. As you cannot fix the alignment, they had to adjust toe, camber, and some other underbody work. I am not a mechanic and can't really explain it well.

The car over the lat 3000km feels to be progressively worse.

[ATYPIC]

Their explanation was that the rear wheels were actually pointing left

For real?? Sorry but I cannot comprehend this.

[kaanage]

Is the rear axle out of alignment?

[vw74]

So now I'm worried proper! The rear axle may be the culprit? VW, a multi-billion dollar company is producing new models, the Polo, which received general praise from the industry ... that contains such a fundamental flaw ... how can this be! Thanks for the recommendations, I'll continue and let you know.

[Umai Naa!!]

Could be something as simple as the pick-up points for the rear beam pivots not being bolted up to the floor in the right spot. Loosen, re-position, re-tighten.

Mis-alignment isn't a design flaw. The car has just been configured wrong. Mid to late-'90s Hyundais suffered from alignment issues for a long time. The specs they were set to, were just not suitable for our roads and driving conditions.

[brad]

When I was at Toyota (doing PDs, AC instals & warranty) or at the independant aligner, if we had a vehicle that was beyond all our trickery, we would send it to our panel beater & they would put the car on their chassis jig & work their magic.

I used to do a lot of Ford F100s at the time. Ford had done absolutely nothing to adapt the suspension angles from RHD to LHD - we used to send them & live axle 4WDs off to the truck aligner.

There is no vehicle that can't be aligned providing you have the rights tools/equipment, persistance & knowledge.

[vw74]

Gee, thanks for the reassurance ... new car?! I'll see what happens next.