Wheel alignment rip off?

mgdavid

matttye wrote: »

Always been fine for me, and cheap!

I'm an idiot with cars though. Technically minded when it comes to IT/smartphones/etc. but rubbish with cars!

I'm sorry to say that that's obvious; it doesn't take much googling to discover how bad kwikfit can be - incompetent at best and downright dishonest at worst.

matttye

mgdavid wrote: »

I'm sorry to say that that's obvious; it doesn't take much googling to discover how bad kwikfit can be - incompetent at best and downright dishonest at worst.

Doesn't change the fact they did a good job for me. Before, if I let go of the steering wheel it veered off quite violently to the left. It doesn't do that now.

People have bad experiences with every company, and are much more likely to post about negative experiences than positive ones. I'm quite sure you could google any company and find negative experiences.

Muscle750

There are known problems with citroens c4 and berlingos seems a result of them being clamped down to tight on the transporter when new

droopsnoot

A lot of VAG cars do have camber adjustment as the OP said - the ball joint at the bottom of the strut is bolted to the lower suspension arm using three bolts in slotted holes. In fact any time a ball joint is changed (or a suspension arm, or bushes, or anything that causes the ball joint to be separated from the arm) the camber has to be checked.

I've had similar trouble - took the car to a local tyre place, had two front tyres fitted and the tracking done, told that the car had been road tested, then as soon as I drove off and centred the steering, noticed that the steering wheel wasn't centred. Ended up back there three times, this time I'll have it done at a proper alignment place.

The older systems do use mirrors and lights on a set of bars that bolt to the outside of the wheel rim. It's not quite as accurate as a laser setup, but a decent operator can get it pretty much spot on.

I wouldn't fancy having a tyre fitter remove my steering wheel. I mean no disrespect to tyre fitters there, the airbag means that I wouldn't fancy doing it myself either. And if the wheel has never been off, it shouldn't need to be removed - the steering wheel off-centre means that any adjustment has been taken up on one side of the car, rather than evenly across both sides. Removing and replacing the steering wheel used to be a quick way of covering that up.