mk3 - wheel alignment done myself

**golfvr6** · 09-01-2007, 08:31 AM

after a couple of years procrastinating and eating through tyres [and getting sick of tyre shops telling me the "camber is not adjustable"], i finally got my more mechanically minded mate to help with adjusting the wheel alignment on the vr6 to correct massive right front -ve camber problem

was relatively easy, and didn't know why i didn't do it earlier.

for the camber:

spirit level at the ready, we jacked it up from the front right, took off the wheel, marked the bolts on the strut as a baseline, undid the two bolts (19mm?) where the wheel hub connects to the strut and voila pulled the top of the hub all the way out (probably excessive but i thought that needed to go that much to straighten it) - i was amazed at the amount of give available.

tightened the bolts and put wheel back on and used the spririt level - using the spirit level, it looked pretty close to the other side (which has zero tyre wear and is pretty much vertical)

for the toe:
went for adrive to settle it in... straightened the wheel and measured front and back track width of front tyres with a tape measure - about 40 mm toe out

so jacked it up, took off same wheel, undid tie rod bolt, 11mm (which we thought was enough to fix the 40mm difference). unscrewed the tie rod the 11mm and put it all back together again.. camber was slightly affected for the better also.

now got 5mm toe in. and the thing goes straight.

not perfect, and probably tune it a bit more. but heck, no tyre shop would do the thing for me. and i learnt a bit....and saved a tyre.

**KI11Z** · 09-01-2007, 10:47 PM

LOL!

could ya do mine?! I took mine to BobJane and it doesnt feel any different!

brackie · 10-01-2007, 06:17 AM

Take a look in "interesting articles"
http://www.vwwatercooled.org.au/newf...hread.php?t=98

syncro · 10-01-2007, 06:41 AM

Originally Posted by KI11Z

LOL!

could ya do mine?! I took mine to BobJane and it doesnt feel any different!

I wouldn't go to a tyre shop for an alignment. They have an interest in you wearing out tyres.

**h100vw** · 10-01-2007, 07:28 AM

40mm of toe would wear a tyre far faster than any amount of negative camber.

**Golf Loon** · 10-01-2007, 07:42 AM

Good work on the home alignment. You must be grinning

**golfvr6** · 10-01-2007, 08:59 AM

Originally Posted by KI11Z

LOL!

could ya do mine?! I took mine to BobJane and it doesnt feel any different!

they probably only did the toe rather than the camber which is what they constantly did with mine. if you still have problems, i'd recommend you get the camber adjusted. if you have a spirit level laying around then check what each wheel is.