Wheel Alignment discrepancies between two garages

user292019

Hi ALL,
in July, I got wheel alignment done for my Nissan Qashqai from a KQuikFit garage. this week(I drove ~2k miles between July and now), I noticed, my passenger tyre is getting bald from outside and felt steering wobbly. I went to another independent garage for Wheel Alignment check. Their!diagnostic!was that front wheels are way off and misaligned. I showed wheel alignment from!KQuikFit in July and showed the adjustments paper and receipt. This independent garage said!KQuikFit adjusted wheel incorrectly and the adjustment!they applied in July are valid for Nissan Qashqai!+2 model. hence you have bald tyre. I paid again and wheel alignment corrected as claimed by this independent garage. all done.
Then I straight drove to same KQuikFit done alignment in July, asked for Free Wheel Alignment check but did not tell that the wheel alignment is just done. so they done wheel alignment check again-- surprise, surprise: I was told the wheels are way out, and needs to be aligned for £60!!I shell shocked & asked, are you sure? how that could be??? and he said he is sure and showed me readings on tv screen which I have no clue what that means. then I told him I just got wheel aligned across the road!! and here is receipt and explained what other garage told me about incorrect settings done by KQuikFit.
KQuikFit kept insisting their alignment settings are correct(eventhough my left tyre is getting bald cos of these adjustments!) and blaming other garage for not doing the wheel alignment correctly just few hours ago, blaming bad roads or pathholes. blaming everyone but themselves.
KQuikFit claims their computer shows wheel alignment is wrong now and needs to adjusted by paying £60 and they saying other garage is wrong

daveyjp

If you want an alignment find a garage with a Hunter 4 wheel system. It won't be cheap, but it will be right.

user292019

yes, that's what KQikFit use i.e. Hunters 4 wheel alignment and charge £60 for that. I am sure this system will be brilliant, but if someone is going to use it incorrectly or apply incorrect settings...

AdrianC

I'd be astonished if Qashqow and Qashqow +2 settings weren't essentially the same. They're the same platform, same basic car - the +2 just has slightly different rear end panels, and a slightly longer wheelbase. They certainly won't be different enough to cause a tyre to wear bald in two thousand miles.

Unless you've still got the tracking print-out from that first session, you're on a loser in pursuing it. There's no way you can't prove that it's been knocked out by potholes or kerbs in the interim.

Oh, and go elsewhere than KF.

user292019

Thanks for your reply AdrianC. Yes I do have printout from July session which I showed to independant garage. reading this printout, this garage told me these adjustments are wrong for this model of Qashqai and now they applied correct adjustments. this is where I am confused. who is wrong and right here!

AdrianC

So they gave you their printout, too?

Can you scan (or photograph) them and upload them to some picture hosting, then post a thinly disguised link?

user292019

https imgur dot com slash 4GR5fZb
https imgur dot com slash QynMPDI

AdrianC

user292019 wrote: »

imgur.com/4GR5fZb
imgur.com/QynMPDI

Well, they both report being for the same model of Qashqow, with the exact same target settings for everything...

On the second (BnW, dated yesterday pm) one, total toe (most relevant for tyre wear) is shown as being bang-central on tolerance before. The difference between "before" and "current" on the second seems to show they've made it far, far worse however...

facade

The manual available online lists the nominal front toe-in for a J11 as 0.17 total (0.08 to 0.25 degrees total) in proper numbers it is 1.8mm, which matches the 1-3mm figure you can get from the forum.



There is some rumour around the forums of Nissan supplying an amended figure to counter some "feature" of the cars handling, but I can't find it. Maybe they put loads of toe-in on to improve the self centring, at the expense of phenomenal tyre wear?

user292019

AdrianC thanks for looking into this.
I am non-mechanic and no idea whats is mean by bang-central tolerance or mechanical technical terms.
when you say "on the second seems to show they've made it far, far worse however..."
this independant garage adjustments will cause more tyre wear? or worse more damage if I went on long drive?
who I should chase/follow from here on?

AdrianC

The toe is the only thing that's changed on either of those.

Both are the same format - upper panel is before they start, lower is after.
All the measurements are displayed in a really easy way - red is outside tolerance, green is within - and you can see the "notch" in the centre is where it should be, with the thick arrow where it is.

Front toe is the most important single one, and the most likely to get changed by potholes or kerbs.


So - to start with (upper colour), front toe was a little out. They corrected it (lower colour).
It went to the second lot (upper BnW), and they put it WAY out of line... (lower BnW).

Minor differences in various figures, especially at the rear, are down to it being sat on the machine slightly differently, perhaps simply down to different fuel levels and so weights. Remember, you're looking at degrees and minutes (1/60ths) there.

As for "what happens next?" - the last set of figures will definitely cause tyre wear, but won't break anything. Take it somewhere competent... KF don't seem to have done anything wrong here, but they're usually useless upselling expensive gits anyway, so...