Job creation?
 

Two weeks ago I bought a new tyre for my 1997 S90. I went to the same high street tyre store that I've used for 20-odd years, and have always trusted them.

When they fitted the new (front) tyre they recommended a wheel alignment for £30. I could see the old tyre was worn on one shoulder so accepted the offer and thought no more of it.

Driving the car around afterwards I could see that the steering wheel was not quite straight, maybe a couple of degrees to the right of centre, although the car drove perfectly.

As a part of the deal the tyre depot had offered a re-check after two weeks, so I took the car back and asked for this to be done, and mentioned the slightly off-centre steering wheel. When I drove the car out of the depot it was immediately clear that something was very seriously wrong. The steering wheel was easily out to the left by 10-15 degrees, and the car had to be steered to the right to maintain anything like a straight line.

So back up on the ramp, and re-checked I was told that the "tracking was out by 3 degrees, and that this must be due to a major suspension fault." This literally ten minutes and half a mile after I'd left the depot! They re-aligned the steering, and now the car drives 100% true, and the steering wheel is properly aligned.

On leaving the tyre shop the duty manager said that there was serious wear in the wishbones, the inner tie rods are shot, and that if it was his car he'd replace the entire front end suspension and steering. They demonstrated this "serious wear" by rocking the car and pointing to the "fact" that the front road wheels moved back and forth. They also said that the the rear bushes on the wishbones "looked wrong" - whatever that means! Funny they never mentioned this terminal damage to the suspension two weeks ago when they fitted the new tyre and set up the alignment, or thirty minutes earlier when they did the free two-week check!! My belief is that they deliberately misaligned the steering knowing that I'd bring the car back, and that they'd then start making the case for major repairs.

Now I know for sure that there is slight play in the nearside inner tie rod - very slight. But just 8,000 miles ago the car had new lower arms and ball joints, and just a few weeks ago had new drop links.

Before buying the new tyre I'd asked my usual MOT station (not the tyre shop) to check the suspension over because there has been a slight knock over uneven surfaces. They checked the car on their vibrating ramp and confirmed that there is slight noise from the NS inner tie rod, but that everything else is absolutely fine. Their advice was to leave well alone for now - the play is minimal and the car would pass an MoT with an advisory about the tie rod.

All this has of course confirmed that I won't be going back to the tyre shop again. I can only believe that they were simply trying to drum up work. Just imagine the bill for say two new struts, wishbones, inner and out tie-rods (or maybe a whole new rack) etc etc etc. And why stop there? How about new disks, pads and callipers while they're at it? Would I have any change out of £1000? Probably not.

I can only guess that the tyre shop have struggled as a result of Coronavirus, and need to generate some new business. But it makes me wonder how many people are being duped into paying for unnecessary work as their cars are brought back into daily use again.

Jack

I gave up 20 years ago trying to have a straight steering wheel after having tracking done. So much so I bought a set of Dunlop tracking gauges and now do all my own tracking. Happy with straight steering wheels and tyres that wear evenly.

I'm vaguely aware of the Gunsons Trakrite product - which sells for around £55, so less than the cost of two visits to the tyre shop.

Are they as good as the marketing claims?

Jack

I've been fortunate since living in MK to have had two very reliable independents to go to for tyres, exhausts and brakes. My own experiences with some of the high street chains and the experiences of friends made me very suspicious of them, and then a chap started working at my current job (driving) who was allegedly a trained mechanic and had worked at a chain tyre shop, it quickly became apparent that he knew very little about cars and tyres (best to run a performance BMW on van tyres with the pressure reduced ???) and the stories he proudly told of ripping people off for unnecessary work just increased our contempt. The local independents are both run by guys who know there is more than enough work out there to earn a living without ripping people off and repeat customers and recommendations are the way to build the business, the chains tend to employ people as salesmen with incentives for turnover and profit.

When I looked at the Gunsons Trakrite it needs a flat level smooth surface to operate on, unfortunately I don't have that.

Straight Steering Wheel.
 

I use an independent who is happy to fit our tyres which we have bought on line. He has a tyre fitting department but I think most of his business is in repairs. I’m never very sure about which tyre depot to go to for tracking but haven’t needed to have it checked for some time now. On occasions in the past I have had to return to the tracker because of an off centre steering wheel and literally looked over their shoulder whilst they found their steering wheel locking device and locked the steering wheel. They had obviously not used it the first time.
If the steering wheel is only very slightly off centre I readjust the track rods myself, one longer, one shorter by equal amounts. Which one is which depends on which way the steering wheel is off centre and whether the steering arm/track rod joint is in front of or behind the wheel hub.
I have a rule of thumb, 1 degree error at the steering requires a 30 degrees turn of the tie rod which equates to half a flat on the hex nut. ( 6 flats for 360 degrees so 1 flat for 60 degrees so half a flat for 30 degrees. )

Straight Steering Wheel.
 

I use an independent who is happy to fit our tyres which we have bought on line. He has a tyre fitting department but I think most of his business is in repairs. I’m never very sure about which tyre depot to go to for tracking but haven’t needed to have it checked for some time now. On occasions in the past I have had to return to the tracker because of an off centre steering wheel and literally looked over their shoulder whilst they found their steering wheel locking device and locked the steering wheel. They had obviously not used it the first time.
If the steering wheel is only very slightly off centre I readjust the track rods myself, one longer, one shorter by equal amounts. Which one is which depends on which way the steering wheel is off centre and whether the steering arm/track rod joint is in front of or behind the wheel hub.
I have a rule of thumb, 1 degree error at the steering requires a 30 degrees turn of the tie rod which equates to half a flat on the hex nut. ( 6 flats for 360 degrees so 1 flat for 60 degrees so half a flat for 30 degrees. )

Sorry for the double post. Isn’t technology wonderful?

I don't have any experience with the Gunsons kit - my gauges are like the attached. https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=...r4kDegUIARCsAg

They were basically the go to kit used in most garages during the 50's/60's/70's

If there was serious wear (Which there wasn't in your case), any reputable garage & the person doing the alignment wouldn't have bothered doing the job - They'd have said to you "Look, x, y, or z part or parts are worn & therefore, we can't align the car properly". Then they should have suggested replacement of the worn parts before attempting an alignment.

Also, the person aligning the car needs to understand what they're actually doing & how to use the alignment machine properly... Clearly this shop don't.

I wouldn't go there again either. Just sounds like they've turned into a botch job establishment, whereby failing to do jobs properly means they literally get repeat custom & blame something else when the customer returns with an issue.

Here's a story for you chaps, I had my rear sub frame bushes replaced on my car & I was advised an alignment is recommended after replacement & they even praised the equipment they had with it being top notch, laser spec for all wheels etc. I thought nothing of it, as it made perfect sense to me to get the car aligned after the sub frame bushes were done. Guess what they did? They aligned the front of the car & didn't align the rear, eventhough it was the rear of the car that the work was done on! :shocked:

I found this out because I wasn't happy with the service I received in general from the garage that did the original alignment & sub frame bushes, plus the car was wandering badly & required quite a fair bit of steering input to keep it straight... I decided to go to another garage for a four wheel laser alignment instead, but explained that I'd had recent suspension work done on the rear end of the vehicle.

After the job was done, the print-out clearly shown as clear as day that the rear end was a mile out of spec, but the front was within tolerance! The chap that done the alignment for the second time (Correctly!) even said "Whoever aligned your car didn't have a clue what they were doing".

I'm lucky in having a large double garage with a nice flat floor, so I could I think use a Trakrite. I've seen them before but always (possibly naively) thought that a small DIY device couldn't possibly be as good as expensive laser kit in "professional" hands. I'm thinking now that the "professional" bit is critical, and that maybe good DIY kit and an owner with a keen interest in getting it right is actually better than professional kit in the hands of someone who has other intentions.

I think I might raid the piggy bank and buy myself a Gunsons. If I do I'll write it up on here.

The other option, as per a number of YouTube videos, would appear to involve two jack stands and either a scaffolding board or a length of string. For this to work you also seem to need a large and dirty 4X4 off-roader, a baseball cap, a scruffy yard, an old yellow dog, a shaky camera and an impenetrable deeply rural American accent....Thanks y'all!

Thanks to all for the comments.

Cheers

Jack

Sounds like they didn't use the steering wheel straightener thingymabobishnessless gadget that sits on the steering wheel..... Then tried pulling a fast one to cover their time lost trying to rectify it....