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Hi

Hope someone can help. Last week hit a pothole. Ever since had problems with the steering pulling to the left. Had the tracking done on the front and this seems to have aggravated the problem with the car wandering all over the place. After several attempts the local tyre place did a full 4 wheel alignment and found that the rears were way out. However they are unable to adjust them and couldn't offer any further advice. I'm after some help as to what the problem is on the rear axle can be corrected and how, and how expensive is it going to be? Will I need to get it looked at by a stealer? I've contacted the council along with pictures and hopefully they will be footing the bill.

Thanks,
Si

Check out my earlier thread re tracking/geometry. I had similar problem struck a piece of wood that was strewn on A77, this put flat spot on my alloy, since then tracking was off car pulling to left. Local tyre firm couldnt realign wheels seemingly due to low profile tyres, hadnt heard of this before. Took car to local garage who tell me that they have geometry spot on but my car still wants to pull to left. Im am going to take car to specialist place fo laser alignmen etc.

If you've pot holed the front, then you may find the track arm is bent anyway. This happened on a previous car of mine -but if they laser track it up (like at a VW Dealer), this should not make any difference. Another thing is the front wheel drive shaft may be bent on the front. But, this will usually make the car wobble on the front at speed. More likely the wheel may be bent - jack it up and spin it - see how true it runs.

Thanks - its booked in at Colbournes in Guildford on Wednesday for an Optiline test?? They need the car all day and anything that needs replacing will be replaced so hopefully when I pick it up it might go in a straigh line - I will let you know. Glad the councils picking the bill up for it as it sounds expensive.
Cheers,
Si

had it optilined now drives very well. they also noticed the right tyre was worn on the inner edge. have the result if anyone is interested just look like a load of numbers to me and cost £170. just need to avoid potholes etc if future.
cheers si

can you pleae tell me what optilined involved

not entirely sure what it involves - but they aline the all the wheels to the factory specs take it for a drive and make any final adjustments before giving it back to you. the guys @ colbournes said its not difficult just fiddly and time consuming as the changes are small and they need the car for the whole day. i'll try and find out a bit more.